High Schools:

If I had a quarter for every time Eric Tweit helped me during my two dozen years covering Newport-Mesa high school athletics, I could buy us both a lobster dinner.

If I had a quarter for every time I saw Eric Tweit in the stands at an event I covered, selflessly supporting his coaches, athletes and his school, I could treat the seating capacity of those stands to a hot dog and a soda.

If I had a quarter for every time I saw Eric Tweit help a student-athlete, I could feed a small African village for at least a full summer.

So, when I heard Monday that Principal Michael Vossen had fired Tweit as Newport Harbor High’s boys’ athletic director, in order to go in a different direction, I figured the direction Vossen had in mind was, well, south.

They have virtually rebuilt the campus at Newport Harbor the last two years, but the millions of dollars spent on construction can’t rival the foundation Tweit helped establish and maintain beneath one of the top athletic programs in not only Orange County, but the CIF Southern Section and, arguably, the nation.

Football Coach Jeff Brinkley, boys’ basketball coach Larry Hirst, boys’ water polo coach Jason Lynch and myriad others who have also achieved at a high level and helped shape successful adults, were hired during Tweit’s watch.

Boys’ and girls’ volleyball coach Dan Glenn benefited from Tweit’s entire tenure as A.D., as did legendary water polo head man Bill Barnett, who has guided both boys’ and girls’ programs over 30-plus seasons.

It was Tweit who repeatedly beat me to the Sailors’ coach after virtually every Newport Harbor athletic contest I covered, offering either congratulations or consolation, sometimes a bit of both.

His support, as well as his coaching, was usually low key. And his consistently authoritative aura helped constantly dissuade any lack of comportment, the smallest compromise of which he abhorred.

It was more than his age that rendered him old school, and his colleagues seemed to love him for it. I admired him for this, as well.

His unyielding standards sometimes made others bristle, though most of that came from parents and administrators who, frankly, never got it and never will.

Even more egregious than the decision to relieve Tweit of the athletic director’s duties, is the timing of the move, one year shy of his planned exit from the athletic scene. So, rather than experience a year of reflection and appreciation, while also helping fortify his replacement with a lifetime of accumulated wisdom, Tweit is instead fielding sympathetic phone calls from those who have heard of his inconceivable fate.

One of those calls will come from me, with an invitation to that lobster dinner. That dinner, as it has been working with this everyday hero, definitely my treat.