Al Dies

Bryce Alderton

Al Dies is ready.

Ready to return to coaching the defensive and offensive lines at

Costa Mesa High, where he has coached off and on since 1963 when Dan

Kimball coached the Mustangs.

Dies has been at home for nearly a month after spending two of his

three weeks in area hospitals in a drug-induced coma after he falling

from a ladder while putting up posters in the Costa Mesa High team

room with his wife Barbara, August 16.

Dies suffered a punctured lung, broke three ribs, lost one kidney

and had another fail to restart and cracked his pelvis in the fall

from the ladder.

He spent four days at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana before

being transferred to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport

Beach.

“I was up on a ladder and leaned too far,” Dies said from his

Costa Mesa home last week. “(Barbara) said I was leaning too far

forward and I fell on the newly-polished cement floor. I didn’t

listen to her. My wife said the (doctors at Hoag) saved my life.

Aside from the pelvis I’m doing real well and I’m just about ready to

get away from the walker. It was a fairly tough thing, I lost 30

pounds but am feeling good now. I feel lucky.”

He still uses a walker to get around, but he hopes he will be able

to walk on his own and go back out to the field in about two weeks.

“I’ve missed the kids,” Dies said. “That to me is the best part of

coaching. They’ve put up a plaque on the wall and signed it. They’re

a wonderful group of kids.”

And what does Dies think of this year’s Mustangs, who are now 1-2

after losing to Laguna Beach, 14-7, Thursday.

“I think they will do well in the Golden West League,” he said.

“Now the kids are pretty diligent about getting into the weight room

and they are easier to coach and communicate with. They have a

visible desire to play the game more so than in the 1970s and 80s.”

Dies moved to Costa Mesa with his wife of 44 years, Barbara, in

1959 when he worked for Hughes Aircraft and coached the ’63 Mesa team

before moving to coach at Mater Dei for 10 years and finally

returning to the Mustangs in 1974, when he coached with Tom French.

Dies coached the ’76 team that went 8-2-1 to win South Coast

League title and also coached alongside John Carney in the early ‘80s

and with Myron Miller from 1992-94.

In 1993 Mesa went 9-3-2 to win the Pacific Coast League and were

CIF finalists.

“Costa Mesa didn’t have a winning team until 1976,” Dies said. “We

had excellent backs that year, but then they had a couple of

difficult years in the ‘80s before Miller came. Miller did a lot to

invigorate and revive the program to start thinking more about

football.”

For Dies, thinking about football comes naturally, as it must for

a man who played on Pomona College’s only undefeated team in the

school’s 110-year history in 1955, the year he graduated.

He is also in the school’s Hall of Fame.

Dies attended Inglewood High School, and after graduating from

Pomona College he spent 18 months in Korea at the tail-end of the

Korean War before returning to work for Hughes at their Los Angeles

plant upon moving to Costa Mesa in 1959.

In addition to his involvement with Costa Mesa High, Dies also

helped found Pop Warner football in Costa Mesa.

He coached the Caballos, a team that won six Orange County

championships in nine years from 1963-72 while compiling more than

100 wins.

“I have a lot of friends born and raised here in Costa Mesa and

Newport Beach,” Dies said. “My buddies go way back.”

Al and Barbara travel in their motor home as often as they can and

Al said he plays golf “poorly,” but he considers football his

“primary activity.”

“I spend more time with that during the season, but there’s no

off-season anymore, it’s a continuous thing,” Dies said. “More than

anything else my wife and I have had a lot of fun together. We enjoy

our life together.”

That life together has produced four children, David, Steven,

Linda and Jennifer, who all graduated from Costa Mesa High.

“I enjoy my association with Costa Mesa High,” Dies said. “There’s

a lot of rewarding times over the years. I believe the (players)

listen to me. I’m the old man on the staff that’s been around long

enough and I’ve seen a lot of things about high school football.

“If we can get the message across and see the end result on Friday

night, that’s the most satisfying thing about coaching. Over the

years I’ve had an excellent relationship with the boys I’ve coached.”

And in very short order, the run continues.