Eagles hire club coach

First a couple of Estancia High baseball players threw out a suggestion during the offseason to Matt Sorensen, their club coach.

The idea was for Sorensen to take over the Eagles’ vacant baseball coaching job, the one open since June.

“I didn’t take them seriously at first,” said Sorensen, a former successful Cal State Fullerton pitcher, who had never been a varsity head coach anywhere.

Why him? Then the moms and dads got involved. The suggestion kept coming at Sorensen as often as the ball during batting practice and he finally took a crack at it.

Now Sorensen, 29, is expected to be named the Eagles’ coach, said Principal Phil D’Agostino Tuesday night, making this the seventh coaching change in the baseball program’s last 11 years.

Sorensen referred to Estancia as a win-win situation. The only place the team can go is up with Sorensen replacing C.K. Green, who stepped down due to not being able to get a teaching job at his alma mater after finishing in last place in the Orange Coast League in each of his two full seasons.

Talk of turning things around at a program that last appeared in the playoffs in 1992, a year Sorensen began his high school career at Warren of Downey, a program not known for its baseball lore back then, caught Sorensen’s interest.

Sorensen played an instrumental role during his senior year in leading Warren to its first league title in 25 years. Why can’t he do the same at Estancia, which was 9-18, 3-9 in league last season?

Evan Chalmers, Newport Harbor’s coach, has seen the fire in Sorensen well before he convinced Sorensen to be the Sailors’ pitching coach the last two years. Chalmers was an assistant at Warren while Sorensen threw lights out as a right-hander in 1996.

“There’s still a big banner with Matt’s name and my name hung up at that school, and I’m positive he sees this as a challenge to make a difference again,” said Chalmers of Sorensen, who was drafted twice by the Toronto Blue Jays. “It’s definitely a situation he has to build up, but he brings a wealth of knowledge. He can do it. He just has to learn how to walk the line when it comes to players, parents.

“Matt’s been around guys who are legends in this game locally.”

One coach Sorensen said he’ll continue to seek advice from is former UC Irvine Coach Dave Serrano, now at Cal State Fullerton.

Serrano taught Sorensen, coming from Cerritos College, how to throw while the pitching coach with the Titans, before taking over at UCI and leading the school last season to its first College World Series. Sorensen credits Serrano for his success, a 17-0 record at Cal State Fullerton from 1999 to 2000. At Cerritos, Sorensen was not only throwing the baseball, but also the football to a future NFL star in TJ Houshmandzadeh of the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I was responsible for his success,” said Sorensen, laughing, but in reality Estancia junior Gavin Montague said he’s hoping his club coach, now high school coach, continues to develop his pitching repertoire.

Montague, Estancia’s ace last year, and Ryan Redding played for the Blue Wave, a local 18-and-under club team coached by Sorensen.

“He knows what he’s doing,” said Montague, referring to Sorensen’s teaching him how to mentally adjust on the mound in different situations. “We only had [Green] for two years. He was the only coach I knew since freshman year.

“It wasn’t that bad [of a coaching loss], because it feels like a step up.”

D’Agostino said he’s glad Estancia will have a baseball coach after interviewing seven candidates since the summer search began. The last interview was Sorensen and D’Agostino said he’s counting on Sorensen to be Estancia’s man for hopefully five years.

That’s how long Sorensen said it could take to turn Estancia into a winner. In the next five years, Sorensen, who said he should have his teaching credential from National University in Costa Mesa by next school year, plans to pursue his master’s.

“Right now I’m a substitute teacher for the [Newport-Mesa Unified School] district and I’ve talked to the school about the possibly of teaching at Estancia if a spot opens up,” said Sorensen, who was unaware that the reason Green resigned had to do with his three failed attempts to join Estancia’s staff as a math teacher, a subject Sorensen plans to teach.

“This is a great opportunity. With the [CIF] rules, I know I won’t be able to coach any Estancia players on the club team. We just have to generate some interest in Estancia baseball. The parents tell me that some players in Costa Mesa go to Orange Lutheran and Mater Dei instead of playing baseball here. We need those players.”

Estancia is in dire need of a lot. If you have any helpful ideas, Sorensen said he’s open to them.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.