Esparza new Sailors coach

Roger Carlson

NEWPORT BEACH - Newport Harbor High has hired Kevin Esparza, a

product of Orange High, Santa Ana College and Chapman University to coach

boys soccer.

Esparza has coached at the high school and college level, as well as

youth levels up to and including the Olympic Development Program.

He replaces Matty West, who resigned in August.

“I plan on winning,” said Esparza, who admits, two months before the

regular season begins, his knowledge of personnel at Newport is limited

to the fact he’ll have about 10 players back from last year’s varsity.

Esparza’s accomplishments are notable. While at Orange, where he spent

three years as head coach and one as an assistant, the Panthers won the

CIF Southern Section Division II championship in 1996.

In March, his Southern California entry won the Olympic Development

Program’s national tournament for boys under-16, defeating Michigan in a

semifinal and North Carolina in the final.

His background includes a three-year tour as an assistant for

Chapman’s men’s and women’s programs. He is the current head coach of the

boys under-15s in the Olympic Development Program.

A walk-on, he said his personal goal is to coach at the highest level,

but in terms of Newport Harbor and his current position, it’s a matter of

“establishing and developing a program.”

“We’ll start training next week,” said Esparza, a resident of Orange.