Girls volleyball: Christiansen assumes girls helm at Corona del Mar

Barry Faulkner

CORONA DEL MAR - Bill Christiansen, who spent the last five seasons

as an assistant volleyball coach at Corona del Mar High, will replace

Steve Conti as the school’s girls coach, Sea Kings Athletic Director

Jerry Jelnick said Monday.

Christiansen, a walk-on with previous varsity head coaching experience

at Laguna Beach High and McKinleyville High in Humboldt County, wasted

little time predicting the program would maintain the high standards

achieved during Conti’s tenure, which included a CIF Southern Section

Division III-AA championship in 1997.

“I think we’ll make the CIF (Southern Section) final in our division

and then get to the state final,” said Christiansen, a Laguna Beach

resident who turns 47 Sept. 3.

“After last season, it looked like we had only three seniors coming

back and four returners total. I think all the coaches around the league

thought we’d be weak this season. But we’ve had a couple players transfer

in and we’ll have the best freshmen class I’ve ever seen.”

Christiansen said Claire Allen, a senior who played previously at

Newport Harbor, as well as Morgan Smith, a transfer from Mater Dei, will

bolster a roster that includes returning All-CIF setter Jacqueline

Becker.

Christiansen is used to success, having guided junior varsity and

varsity teams to dozens of league championships over the years. Last

year, he guided the CdM boys and girls junior varsity squads to unbeaten

Pacific Coast League records. His girls junior varsity teams also won

league titles in 1997 and ’98.

In addition to coaching the boys and girls junior varsity, he assisted

Conti with the boys and girls varsity units. He will no longer coach the

boys, however, so he can balance the added responsibility of running the

girls program with spending quality time with his family, which includes

wife Maria and young sons Liam and Jayden.

Christiansen said his love for coaching, as well as his desire to

carry on the resurgence Conti generated in his four years at the helm,

helped him make the decision to return to the varsity head coaching

ranks. Conti, who resigned as girls coach in June, remains the CdM boys

coach.

“I didn’t want to leave the juniors and seniors high and dry,”

Christiansen said. “I’ve seen programs go into disarray before during

coaching transitions and I didn’t want that to happen here. I wanted to

maintain some continuity. I’d like to stay for six or seven years.”

Christiansen, whose tenure at CdM began under former Sea Kings girls

coach Brian Chartier, said his coaching philosophy will differ little

from Conti’s.

“Every new coach is going to change things a little bit, but Steve and

I always agreed on the big things. The main thing is, we both believe the

team is always first. Steve also emphasized hard work and that will

continue with me. His practices were grueling and I won’t back off,

because it has been so successful. We usually don’t have a lot of height,

so we have to outwork teams.”

Christiansen’s last varsity coaching assignment was the 1995 girls

team at Laguna Beach, which lost in the CIF Southern Section Division I

final and advanced to the CIF State quarterfinals.

“This will be my 22nd year of coaching and my 40th season, including

boys and girls teams,” he said. “I love coaching, I love volleyball and I

love being involved with kids this age. I enjoy the high level of

competition you find on the varsity, but I also enjoy the developmental

aspect of the lower levels.”

Christiansen reached a high level as a player. He was the first

All-American in the storied tradition of Laguna Beach High boys

volleyball and went on to play on two national championship teams at UCLA

(1975-76).

His coaching resume also includes a two-year stint as assistant

women’s coach at Humboldt State.

Christiansen said he is still looking for a junior varsity head coach

and varsity assistant.