Red flags went up following a spike...

Red flags went up following a spike in coaching vacancies at Costa

Mesa High, including all of its high-profile sports.

After a three-week investigation by the Daily Pilot, today we

begin the first in a three-part series to find out why this is

happening in our community, and, if you were the parent of a

potential student-athlete at Mesa, wouldn’t you want to know?

From April 3 to July 23, Costa Mesa endured the firing of its

football coach, Dave Perkins, along with the resignations of the

basketball, baseball and track and field coaches, as well as the end

of Perkins’ post as the boys athletic director.

The Daily Pilot conducted interviews with Costa Mesa coaches,

administration, as well as district and city officials shortly after

the school announced the resignation of its boys athletic director,

Dave Perkins, on July 1. Since then, Costa Mesa fired Perkins as its

football coach, the Daily Pilot learned Friday night, forcing us to

make 11th-hour wholesale changes.

This series entails why there has been chaos at Costa Mesa during

the past four months. Bob Serven, who is now an assistant with the

Mater Dei boys basketball team, said he resigned, in part, because of

the lack of summer pay for coaches and his frustrations with the

joint-use agreement for fields.

In January, Perkins was told to resign as athletic director

because he was so adamantly against the joint-use agreement and

because he took exception to the payment process to coaches, he said.

The following three-part series will analyze the joint-use

agreement and the summer pay for coaches, along with today’s

introductory story.