Hernandez steps down as Sailors’ soccer coach

Newport Harbor High boys’ soccer coach Ryan Hernandez has left his position with the school to take an assistant coaching job at UC San Diego.

Hernandez, a Newport Harbor alum who graduated in 2000, was the head coach of the boys’ team for five years. In Hernandez’s last season, the Sailors were 2-11-3 overall and 0-5-1 in league.

Hernandez oversaw the team’s transition from Division II to Division I last season, when the Sailors finished third in the Sunset League with a 4-3-2 record. They lost to former Sea View league rival Aliso Niguel in the first round of the CIF playoffs.

“It was an experience,” Hernandez said. “It was kind of a tall order and everyone was expecting us not to do very well. The Sunset League had a reputation as a hard league. I think people might have taken us lightly and I think we took people by surprise. It was fun because no one really knew us.

The Sailors’ best year under Hernandez was 2003-04, when the team won the Sea View League and went to the quarterfinal round of the CIF Division II playoffs.

This year, Hernandez said, the team was hurt when, like many soccer programs in Southern California, it lost players to the U.S. Soccer Academy.

Hernandez also played and later coached for the Mission Viejo Pateadores, which is how he met Jon Pascale, UCSD’s new men’s head coach. Pascale, a former Stanford assistant, knew Hernandez from the club’s summer camp, and asked Hernandez to join the staff after he was hired.

Hernandez will earn his bachelor of arts degree in communication from Cal State Fullerton in May. He wants to get his masters in physical education and become a college head coach.

Hernandez broke his leg during his senior year at Harbor, then sat out a year. He tried to resume his playing career at Orange Coast College, but a nagging back injury prevented him from doing so. That’s when he became interested in coaching.

Newport Harbor Athletic Director Eric Tweit gave Hernandez his first opportunity when he started coaching the Sailors’ frosh-soph team, then he became an assistant on the boys’ varsity team before moving up to head coach.

“I was really lucky,” Hernandez said. “It kind of helped me on my path toward coaching.”

Tweit said the school would begin a search for a new coach in the coming weeks, and start interviewing candidates in early May.

The new coach will likely be a walk-on, like Hernandez was. Tweit said he didn’t anticipate any teaching openings on staff.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.