Green takes Eagles’ post

Steve Virgen

COSTA MESA -- Jon Green, who helped lead the Laguna Hills High

baseball team to back-to-back Sea View League titles as an assistant

coach the past two years, is the new head coach of the Estancia

baseball program.

Green also spent one year at Newport Harbor with Jim Kiefer,

before moving on to Laguna Hills to coach with Jeff Cecil.

“I felt I was ready to take the next level,” Green said of his

interest in the Estancia job. “This is something I’ve been looking

for. My plan is to turn Estancia baseball in to a well-respected

program in Orange County. I want to be a teacher first of all,

through teaching I’ll be lucky enough to coach.”

Green, 24, also plans to maintain what he calls, “a positive

atmosphere for baseball,” at Estancia.

“There is a good solid base, with the boosters and the

administration,” Green said.

Green, who played as a shortstop at Dana Hills High, will be

walk-on coach at Estancia, and will also be a substitute teacher. He

plans to earn a degree in political science and work for a teaching

credential throughout the school year at Cal State Fullerton.

Green said he was in charge of first-base coaching, hitting and

outfielders while at Laguna Hills, which reached the CIF Division I

semifinals in 2001.

He detailed the type of players he’s looking for in the Eagles’

program.

“Overall commitment to baseball, and a love for the game,” Green

said of the players’ criteria. “They should have a desire and a

passion to succeed, and to get better not only as a baseball player

but as a person.

“What I learned at Laguna Hills,” he continued. “You have to take

the good with the bad. Building a program, it’s a day-to-day process.

Laguna Hills taught me that success comes from the whole team

concept. If we all have the common goal, we’ll reach that goal.”

Green takes over a program that carried just 19 players last

season. The Estancia varsity team has not made the playoffs the past

eight years. Last season, Doug Deats resigned early in the campaign,

citing personal reasons for his decision. C.K. Green, no relation to

Jon Green, took over as the coach. The Eagles finished 6-18, 3-12 in

the Pacific Coast League.

Deats’ shocking resignation marked the second time in five years

the Eagles lost their coach early in the season. One game into the

1998 season, Joe McKittrick resigned, and was replaced by Tim Green,

C.K.’s father. Tim Green returned as coach in 1999, and resigned

after the season. Deats replaced him. The Eagles went 9-14, 2-10 in

the PCL in Deats’ first year and he was named Newport-Mesa District

Coach of the Year. In 2001, Deats repeated that honor when the Eagles

went 6-18, 3-12 in league and won the perpetual Paul Troxel Trophy

after winning two of three games against crosstown rival Costa Mesa.