Jennifer Noonan, Millennium Hall of Fame

Even with a plate full of sports, it is unlikely Jennifer Noonan

will ever have enough.

Volleyball and soccer were Noonan’s strengths. She also swam, competed

in track and field and played softball. Now, she’s “into triathlons” and

coaches the Orange Coast United Rush, a high-profile 13-and-under girls

club soccer program.

“Sports have been a big part of my life, throughout my whole life, and

they will continue to be a part of my life for the rest of my life ... I

should quote what I just said,” the vivacious Noonan said.

Noonan, Corona del Mar High’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1986, was

also the Female Athlete of the Year as an eighth grader at Our Lady Queen

of Angels School.

Though soccer and volleyball were Noonan’s best sports in high school,

she went to Arizona State with the intention of making the Sun Devils’

women’s swim team.

“I started working out and realized I was competing against all these

Olympic (caliber) swimmers, and I just wanted to swim,” Noonan said. “So

I ended up being a lifeguard.”

For two years at ASU, Noonan patrolled the student pool, then

transferred to Golden West College and returned to volleyball, leading

Coach Al Gasparian’s Rustlers to the state championship as a setter in

the fall of 1988.

Noonan, a former All-CIF Southern Section choice in soccer as a

striker for the Sea Kings, was a junior setter on Coach Charlie Brande’s

CdM girls volleyball team that captured the CIF State Division I

championship in 1984.

Noonan and teammate Brooke Herrington were named to the all-state

tournament team, after CdM defeated Gahr in four games in the title match

at GWC, while Andrea Reddick, Christy Moiso, Linda Burton and Monica

Stewart also contributed to the school’s first of three state

championships (CdM also won state titles in 1992 and ‘93).

“We had lost to Gahr (in three games) in the CIF (5-A) finals, then we

came back and beat them in state,” said Noonan, who grew up playing club

volleyball and soccer, but felt she needed a break from those sports as

she entered college.

A three-time all-league soccer player and former member of CdM’s

CIF-qualifying 200-yard free relay team, Noonan gave up setting and

spiking for swimming, then eventually returned to volleyball.

Noonan, who once served as a lifeguard and taught swimming at the

Newport-Mesa YMCA, went from Golden West to UC Santa Barbara, where she

met Gauchos women’s volleyball coach Kathy Gregory, who “has been very

inspirational in my life, from a coaching aspect and from a friendship

aspect.”

Noonan, however, was rehabilitating a knee injury and discovered her

playing time at UCSB would be limited, so she asked Gregory to help her

instead with her beach game. Noonan still plays on the beach today. In

1995, she paired with Burton, her former high school teammate, to win the

AAA Open division at the Santa Monica State Beach Open Tournament.

But Noonan, who earned seven varsity letters at CdM and once finished

second in the annual Pier to Pier Swim, is focused these days on helping

young girls attain their athletic dreams in more ways than one.

“My quote of the day is this,” Noonan said, referring to her players

on the OCU Rush. “ ... Talk and they will listen, listen and you will

learn. We get a lot from these kids.”

Noonan, who coaches with her sister, Stephanie, also works in the real

estate industry and is starting her own business as a scout and

recruiting consultant for Orange County high school athletes.

“I’ve finally found my passion and I’m pursuing it,” said Noonan, who

scouts and recruits athletes in all sports for college programs. “It is

designed to create more opportunities for athletes who want to go on to

college.”

Noonan, 31, is single and lives on Balboa Island. She is the latest

honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating the

millennium.