HIGH SCHOOLS:Disneyland in Monarch’s future?

Ousted as Sage Hill School’s first football coach on Monday, Tom Monarch said he’s reinventing himself.

“I might take up basket weaving. Maybe practice some Zen,” Monarch said. “Before all of that, the first place I’m going to is Disneyland.”

Forget the amusement park to enjoy a ride. Monarch’s been on a roller coaster since being let go after five years on the job.

Disneyland considers itself “The Happiest Place on Earth.”

At Sage Hill, with the football program in transition, that’s not the case for some of Monarch’s former players and their families.

Like Monarch, they are not satisfied with Sage Hill boys’ athletic director Nate Miller’s reasoning for replacing Monarch at this time, with spring practice just around the corner.

Tom Multari, a two-way starter last year, said a parents’ meeting with school officials to talk about why Monarch was released is planned for today. Multari and Preston Oklejas both said there have been rumors of players not returning next year if Monarch doesn’t get reinstated as coach, or if some of his assistants aren’t allowed to return.

Miller told the Daily Pilot Monday the move to replace Monarch with Pete Anderson, one of Monarch’s former assistants, was due to a “major philosophical change at the school” to get away from walk-on coaches, in favor of teacher/coaches who are already work on campus.

Multari, a junior who’s playing baseball, said he has a hard time buying that idea, especially for a coach who has led the Lightning to the CIF Southern Section playoffs the last three years, including the school’s first playoff win in 2005, when it finished 9-2.

“We have quite a few walk-on coaches. My baseball coach is a walk-on,” said Multari, referring to first-year coach Mark Talmo.

Other walk-on head varsity coaches at Sage Hill are boys’ and girls’ swimming coaches Cari Knowlton and Abby Zern, boys’ and girls’ tennis coach A.G. Longoria, girls’ basketball coach Lou Silverman, boys’ and girls’ water polo coach Tom Norton, softball coach Julia Cappelli, boys’ and girls’ golf coach Mike Hogan, and boys’ and girls’ track and field coach Elias Moreno.

Miller did not return phone calls Wednesday and Thursday.

Knowlton, a first-year coach, said she’s not worried if she and Zern are not asked back next year.

“We would want to come back,” said Knowlton, 23, an operations manager at UC Irvine, which she graduated from in 2005. “[But] I can understand their desire to have a coach on staff because it gives the coaches an idea of the commitments the students have.”

Oklejas said Monarch understood the players on and off the field.

“He was not only a great coach,” said Oklejas, a junior wide receiver and safety.

“A lot of people want to know, ‘why?’ The school has been a little vague,” Multari said. “I don’t agree with the decision being made this close to the season. [Anderson’s] going to have big shoes to fill.”

Monarch said his dismissal has created a lot of confusion, but like “in any industry, there are changes, and that’s life.”

Monarch said when he met with the school’s assistant dean, Peter Saliba, he didn’t respond after being told by Saliba that he was no longer coming back.

“I told him that I don’t have a response at this time. A meeting like that, with all the perplexities involved, doesn’t warrant a response,” said Monarch, who posted a 26-26 record. “On the big scale, high school coaching is not that high on the food chain. The country is at war, there are hunger issues, and a lot more serious stuff happening right now.

“I would come back to Sage [Hill]. It’s a good football team coming back. Sage [Hill] has a shot at winning league [for the first time]. But I feel like it’s almost like watching somebody else parent your kids, kind of an empty feeling.”

Monarch reinventing himself might not be such a bad idea.

Maybe even win a league championship.

The hitting and pitching is there this time around for the Eagles, who are atop the Orange Coast League standings.

The Eagles (12-7, 3-0 in league) have won six of their last seven games, a stretch where they’ve outscored the opposition, 77-17. They are dangerous up and down the lineup.

Six hitters are batting above .400, with Taylor West leading the group with a .558 average to go with 35 RBIs, eight home runs and six triples.

The rest of Estancia’s hitting machine includes Lina You (.458, five doubles, two triples), Nicole Amaya (.444, 22 RBIs, one home run), Amy Hartwell (.431, 20 RBIs, four doubles), Taylor Brown (.405, 18 runs, three doubles) and Kiele Brown (.400, 25 RBIs, 26 runs, three home runs, three triples).

The ace is Josie Flores, who is 11-5 with a 2.30 earned-run average. The senior has been dominant of late, scattering two one-hitters and one no-hitter in her last six outings. She’s recorded 68 strikeouts in 76 innings, and has only walked 13.

There are six league games remaining. Time will only tell if Caouette can achieve a couple of firsts in his third year as Estancia’s head man.

Tommy, a sophomore attacker, scored four goals and added three assists, while Ryan, a senior midfielder, had two goals for the Sailors (9-4, 7-1 in league).

The Sailors, with no CIF Southern Section sanctioned playoffs, will enter an eight-team postseason tournament Saturday.

With no CIF Southern Section playoffs in high school girls’ lacrosse, Corona del Mar will end the season competing in the Orange County Tournament.

The Sea Kings, who went into Thursday with an 8-6 record, will be one of 10 teams in the single-elimination tournament, which starts with round-robin play Saturday at Foothill High.

Nicholson, who won the University High Tournament last week, was the fourth golfer the Sailors (6-10, 3-5 in league for fourth place) have lost this year to injuries.

The other three were senior Jack Francis and sophomore Jeff Jones, slated to be the team’s No. 2 and No. 4 players, but Starkweather said they broke their arms snowboarding during the preseason.

The other was senior Patrick Suozzi, slated to be the No. 6 golfer, who Starkweather said tore his anterior cruciate ligament a month and a half into the season.

“Losing four of them is radical,” said Starkweather, whose team came up short of last year’ accomplishments, records of 12-4 overall and 8-3 in league, and placing 12th in the CIF Southern Section South Coast Team Divisional last year.

“It has been really rough on us.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA covers high school sports for the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at (714) 966-4612 or via e-mail at david.carrillo@latimes.com.