Pat Wilson, Millennium Hall of Fame

To comprehend Pat Wilson’s theory of coaching, you must first take

notice of his background.

“I understand the benchwarmer, because I was a benchwarmer,” said

Wilson, a former University of Arizona swim scholarship winner, who swam

and played football at Redlands High, before attending Orange Coast

College for one year as a swimmer.

Wilson, retired as a teacher and coach from the Newport-Mesa School

District but still a part-timer at Corona del Mar, is one of the most

successful and popular tennis coaches in district history, guiding

Newport Harbor’s boys to seven straight CIF Southern Section championship

match appearances, including back-to-back major division titles in 1970

and ‘71, when players like Bobby Ogle (singles), and Glenn Cripp and

Robbie Cunningham (doubles), captured individual CIF championships.

“I was fortunate,” Wilson said. “I had the material. I just didn’t

screw it up.

“(Ogle) was a phenom. He was one of the greatest athletes ever. He

used to run home from Newport Harbor to Mesa Verde (in Costa Mesa) at

night after every practice. He could’ve run a mile in four minutes flat.”

Wilson, who won 11 consecutive Sunset League titles in as many

seasons, coached at San Marino for three years before arriving at Newport

Harbor, which featured a JV program in Wilson’s tenure that did not lose

a match in 11 years.

At San Marino, Wilson coached the Titans to three straight CIF

small-division titles from 1963 to ‘65, after accepting his first

coaching job in 1962, handling both football and tennis. Wilson’s B

football squads at San Marino claimed the league championship three years

in a row.

After San Marino, Wilson was hired at Estancia, where he would help

open the new high school in the fall of ’65 and make his first of three

Newport-Mesa District stops. By 1968, Wilson was at Newport Harbor, which

had already been a CIF powerhouse under Wayne Horowitz, who led the

Sailors to the CIF large-division title in ’67.

Wilson, who also coached football at Newport Harbor from 1969 through

‘71, sent 42 kids to college on tennis scholarships from San Marino and

Newport Harbor in a 14-year span.

“The kids have done more for me in the long run than I ever did for

them,” Wilson said.

“I was very fortunate. We were like a family, every one of those

teams. There are so many great kids. The worse (player) on JV I loved as

much as the best on the varsity.”

Wilson arrived at Corona del Mar, following stints at Rea and Lincoln

middle schools, and coached the Sea Kings for nine years in tennis and

badminton. The school’s JV badminton program won nine straight league

titles, while the CdM varsity earned CIF playoff berths five times.

Former CdM standout Jerome Poyyak, perhaps the best badminton player

Wilson ever coached, captured a CIF boys singles championship in 1995.

The past president of the California Coaches’ Association and the

National Federation of Interscholastic Coaches, Wilson said he loved

coaching because the kids wanted to be out there, “unless their parents

forced them to come out,” a different situation than inside the

classroom.

Wilson said the Newport Harbor-Corona del Mar football game, billed

the Battle of the Bay, “is the greatest show in town and it’s just

super.”

A former breaststroker at Arizona, where he swam from 1955 to ‘57,

Wilson earned his masters degree from Arizona in guidance and counseling,

“which I never used. I should’ve used it. I’ve always been a P.E.

teacher.”

Wilson’s first name is Walter, but his mother dubbed him Patrick after

he was born on St. Patrick’s Day.

Wilson, a member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating

the millennium, lives in Santa Ana and has four grown children. He loves

watching high school football more than any other sport.