Grant rejoins Mesa

Wally Grant played football at Costa Mesa, coached at the school, and he still lives near campus.

Grant said he never saw himself returning to his alma mater. The commute to the football field will be a lot smoother for the 1983 graduate next season.

Grant has decided to return to his roots after spending 11 seasons at Tustin High. The 45-year-old Grant is Coach Jeremy Osso’s new defensive coordinator.

“Now, that I’ve seen the kids and have gotten to know the kids better, I like the opportunity even better,” said Grant, adding that he has one year left at National University, where he’s pursuing a teaching credential and master’s degree. “The kids look hungry. They remind me a lot of when I got to Costa Mesa in the early 1990s. It’s going to be a lot fun.”

Fun means high expectations are in store for the Mustangs.

Costa Mesa has found success in Orange Coast League play recently. Osso led the Mustangs to back-to-back league titles in 2007-08, a first for the program.

The team hasn’t won a playoff game since 1997.

The Mustangs achieved far more during Grant’s three-year stint as an assistant coach under Myron Miller. In 1993, he helped Costa Mesa reach the CIF Southern Section Division VIII championship game, the program’s only final appearance. That same season, the Mustangs claimed the Pacific Coast League title, which was the program’s first outright league title in school history.

When Miller left Costa Mesa after a runner-up finish in league and a one-and-out playoff appearance in 1994, Grant went with him to Tustin.

From 1995 to 2005, Grant coached a handful of future NFL players and Tustin reached the section semifinals four times, including one championship.

Whether Grant can develop future prospects like he churned out at Tustin, where he said up to three dozen players earned NCAA Division I scholarships during his time, remains to be seen. The coaching addition bodes well for Costa Mesa, which finished 2009 at 6-5, the program’s first overall winning record in seven seasons.

“Getting someone with that kind of credentials is great,” Osso said of Grant, who takes over for Mike Van Der Weerd. “He’s going to run a variation of what the University of Arizona program ran with its Desert Swarm defense in the 1990s. We’re happy to have Wally.”