Boys soccer: Mustangs

with Day

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA - Eugene Day, who coached the Costa Mesa High boys

frosh-soph soccer team the last five seasons, will replace departed

varsity coach Mike Dunn, Mesa Boys Athletic Director Kirk Bauermeister

has announced.

Day, 44, is a walk-on with years of soccer coaching experience, though

this will be his first varsity job.

“I guess Mike decided he’d done as much with the program as he could,”

said Day, whose son Louis will be a senior on next year’s squad and whose

daughter, Sharon, was a freshman standout on the Mesa girls team last

season. “When he stepped down, I wasn’t about to let the program go

downhill.”

Day, a native if Haiti, who came to the United States when he was 10,

finished second in the NCAA Division III long jump while at City College

of New York, where he is a member of the athletic Hall of Fame.

Day also played soccer in school and remains active in adult soccer

leagues and masters track and field.

“Having the background I have, the kids know I know what I’m talking

about,” said Day, an 11-year Costa Mesa resident. “I think I can push

them to a higher level.”

Day believes the program, which hasn’t made the playoffs in at least

eight seasons, may be ready for a resurgence.

“When I started coaching AYSO, we had 500 kids,” Day said. “Now, we have

around 2,000. This millennium, Costa Mesa may surprise a lot of people.

With any program, you need the athletes and you can’t just bake them in

the oven. Our kids are finally staying and playing at Mesa, not going to

other schools. The kids who will be juniors next year, won the Pacific

Coast League) and a lot of them were on the junior varsity team which

finished second in league last year. Our program has been slowly building

up. Things have been bubbling and the pot is going to be very hot.”

Day said he plans to emphasize individual skills and conditioning.

“Then, once you have kids with skills, you need to build the camaraderie

on the field.”

Day said Matt Dunn, who played for his father and began coaching last

year, will coach at some level in the program.

The Mustangs will lose their only first-team all-league performer, Jose

Perez, to graduation. But Louis Day, who also competes in football and

track and field, was a second-team selection as a junior.