Sea Kings hire new coach

Richard Dunn

Scott Feichter, a local club tennis sensation in mixed doubles

with his wife in the mid-1980s, has been named as the new girls

tennis coach at Corona del Mar High.

Feichter, 52, takes over a perennial nationally ranked program

that has produced CIF Southern Section singles and doubles champions

and captured several team titles, including a mythical national

championship in 1997. Feichter replaces Andy Stewart, who resigned

last season after guiding the Sea Kings to the CIF Division I

semifinals.

“I’m excited,” said Feichter, whose top returning player in the

fall will be Brittany Holland, who played singles in 2002. “Corona

del Mar has one of the top programs around and many of the girls come

from the local clubs, where they play junior tennis at a high level

and most of them play in a lot of tournaments. That’s good for them

because they need to learn how to win and lose.”

Feichter, who will also coach the CdM boys junior varsity team

this spring, didn’t pick up tennis until late in life, but made the

men’s team at Pierce College in his first year of playing. Feichter

has been a regular on the club courts since 1982, when he joined

Lindborg Racquet Club in Huntington Beach. Feichter and his wife,

Lajla, dominated the Southern California club scene in mixed doubles

in 1984, ’85 and ’86.

Feichter coached football and track before going into business

full-time. The last two years, he has volunteered as a basketball

coach at the Huntington Valley Boys and Girls Club. His wife is a

teaching professional at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach.

Corona del Mar, which won back-to-back CIF Division IV

championships under Stewart in 2000-01, finished 18-4 last autumn,

losing to visiting Calabasas on games, 78-74, after a 9-9 tie in the

CIF Division I semifinals.