Hanson starts to work at CMHS

For the past month, Todd Hanson has been working and starting a building process at Costa Mesa High.

After he was named the Mustangs’ boys’ and girls’ volleyball coach, it was as if he hit the ground running. He has been excited to do his best to inject life into a program that has had plenty of turnover at the head coach position. There hasn’t been much winning during at least the past nine years, when there has been eight different boys’ volleyball coaches.

The girls’ program has had its fair share of struggles.

But Hanson hopes to end it, with stability and offseason work.

“I’m looking forward to working with a whole new group of girls on the varsity level,” Hanson said during a phone interview Friday.

Hanson last worked at Fountain Valley, his alma mater.

Things didn’t end well there, where he had coached for 13 years, 10 of those years as the boys’ and girls’ coach. This past year, he coached the girls’ and boys’ teams at Fountain Valley.

He had started a volleyball club, Pierside, to help develop talent in his community.

The Barons’ girls’ team went 2-8 in the Sunset League last year, the first two league wins in at least the past 10 years, he said. Fountain Valley also took a game in a match against Los Alamitos and a game off Newport Harbor in another match. That had not been done in Hanson’s time with the program, he said.

The Barons’ boys’ team earned an at-large playoff spot in the spring.

Everything seemed to be moving in the right direction, until, he said, he was told that he was taking the program in the wrong direction. And, Hanson was left looking for a new job.

“There was excitement in the program, for them to take it away from me is a hard thing to understand,” said Hanson, who played volleyball at Fountain Valley and Golden West College. “There was too much parent involvement in the decision making. I’m hoping I am now at a school that appreciates the time I put into the program.”

Fountain Valley certainly went in a different direction. The Barons hired Adam Cuttrell, who was previously at Mater Dei, where he led the boys to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship in 2011.

Costa Mesa was left looking for a coach to head the boys’ and girls’ teams after Ricardo doMonte left. He was the Mustangs’ boys’ coach and had applied to also coach the girls’ team after Jeff Weihart stepped down, Costa Mesa girls’ athletic director Sharon Uhl said.

Costa Mesa was set to pass on the duties to doMonte, but he left to become an assistant to Paul Muñoz at Estancia, Uhl said.

Uhl said there were several who applied for the job at Costa Mesa to coach the boys’ and girls’ volleyball teams.

She was impressed with Hanson.

“Todd seemed like the best fit for us,” Uhl said. “He obviously knows the sport and has plenty of experience. He’s very well connected in the community. He has his own club team. It’s exciting that he has that and it’s an opportunity for a lot of our girls to play club.”

Uhl said Costa Mesa is seeking to hire a new coach to lead the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams. Interested applicants can call, (714) 424-8708.