Redding leads Estancia track & field
You won’t be seeing pink this track and field season at Estancia High.
Red is in, as in Matt Redding, the new coach of the Eagles.
Redding takes over the program for Charlie Appell, who guided Estancia for 26 years. For many of those years under Appell, his boys and girls competed and trained in pink.
“They are very happy the pink is not coming back,” Redding said of the 45 boys and 20 girls involved in the program. “We’re bringing back the old school’s colors of cardinal and gold.”
Redding knows the colors well. He’s a former standout wide receiver at Estancia. He went on to play fullback at Orange Coast College and H-back at Bethany College in Kansas.
This is Redding’s first season in charge of a high school program. The 27-year-old has been an assistant under Mike Bargas with the Estancia football program the past three seasons.
Bargas’ first hire as an Estancia athletic director was Redding in September.
“I absolutely love the fact that he’s an alumni guy,” Bargas said. “He wants to make a career out of coaching and teaching, and it’s a credit to the school that he came back. He was a senior when I got hired [as the Estancia football coach in March 2007], so I missed coaching him [during his last season in 2006].
“He’s committed, loves athletics, football and track, and he loves Estancia. He’s the kind of guy you want. A coach like Matt is going to want to be here for a long time. I’m hoping 10 to 20 years. I’ll be gone by then, but he’ll continue to raise the bar around here.”
Redding, a walk-on coach, said he’s a substitute teacher in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, mostly at his alma mater. He said his goal is to become a full-time teacher, a position he expected to earn before taking the reigns of a high school program.
“I usually check every day what positions are open throughout the district, and when I saw there was an opening at Estancia, I thought it was just for a sprint position, to help with the track program because that’s my forte,” said Redding, who competed in the 100 meters, the 4x100 relay and long jump events at Estancia. “I was just trying to help, and the next thing I know, I applied [to be] the head coach.”
Redding said he’s looking forward to the Eagles’ first meet, a nonleague one at Century on Wednesday. Estancia opens Orange Coast League action at Jim Scott Stadium on March 17.
Redding has a familiar face helping him out in his debut. Tim Parsel, a retired Estancia teacher and a former athletic director, is coaching the field events. The other members of Redding’s staff include distance coach Taylor McClanahan, a 2007 Estancia graduate like Redding, sprints, jumps and hurdles coach Brianna Vanderwal, and pole vault coach Greg Pearce, an Estancia graduate.
“I knew the program was struggling the past few years and we want to rebuild the program,” Redding said. “We’re also bringing back pole vault this year for the first time in about 15 years.”
What’s not coming back to Estancia’s track and field program is the color pink.
