Softball coach Hunter leaves Newport for Estancia

For the past three summers, Mike Hunter has run the Newport Harbor High softball summer camp. Last Thursday marked the final day of the camp, as well as Hunter’s last day as Newport Harbor’s softball coach.

Hunter did not have time to say goodbye to his players.

The camp ended at noon, and shortly afterward Hunter said Estancia offered him its softball job. Hunter said he accepted the position, and he stepped down the next day from Newport Harbor.

Hunter spent two years with the Sailors, going a combined 12-35-1 overall and 0-20 in the Sunset League.

“I’m proud of what we did at Newport Harbor,” said Hunter, referring to turning around a program that went 2-23 in his first season and leading it to a 10-12-1 record this past season. “We took over a program that was almost ready to fold and we made it competitive.”

Hunter, who is a walk-on coach, said a big reason why he left Newport Harbor was due to his commute to work from campus to Cerritos was too long. Hunter works a swing shift schedule at the Los Coyotes Water Reclamation Plant.

Hunter, 53, is replacing Carrie Lester, who stepped down in June because Estancia was unable to offer her a teaching position this upcoming school year. During Lester’s four years in charge of Estancia, the Eagles went 53-42 overall and finished in third place and made the CIF Southern Section playoffs every season.

When Lester left, Hunter said he was interested in taking over the Eagles. This was not the first time Hunter applied to coach softball at Estancia.

“He was eyeballing the school, kind of like I did [when I was at Newport Harbor],” said Mike Bargas, one of Estancia’s athletic directors. “He said he was second in the running for the Estancia job [five years ago, when the school hired Marcus Franco instead].

“He’s got experience. He’s also a local guy [who lives in Huntington Beach]. He knows softball. I feel bad for Newport for losing him, but we’re gaining him.”

Estancia is getting a coach who has been at the helm of five high schools since 2009.

The past five seasons Hunter has coached at schools that are in higher divisions than Estancia, which is in Division 5. Hunter coached two years in Division 1 at Newport Harbor, two years in Division 2 at Long Beach Wilson, where he went a combined 30-29-1 overall and 17-8 in the Moore League, placing third each time, and one year in Division 1 at Cypress, where he went 16-9 and 8-4 in the Empire League, good for a share of third place.

Hunter led Long Beach Wilson and Cypress to the playoffs each year, except during his time at Newport Harbor.

“The Sunset League is an extremely hard league,” Hunter said of the league the Sailors have lost 38 straight games in. “We had Los Alamitos, which was [one of the top ranked teams] in the nation. We got to play [the Griffins] twice [and we were outscored, 20-3].”

Hunter moves over to the Orange Coast League, which isn’t as tough as the Sunset League. Hunter is familiar with the Orange Coast League, having coached in it during his two-year stint at Laguna Beach.

His first year with the Breakers was in 2010, when he helped bring back softball to Laguna Beach after a two-year hiatus. The school played a junior varsity schedule that season, and the following year as a varsity team, Laguna Beach finished fourth in the Orange Coast League and qualified for the postseason as an at-large entry. The playoff appearance was only the second in the program’s history.

The Eagles are no strangers to the playoffs. They have won wild-card games two out of the past three seasons. Hunter said he’s excited to have nine players returning off last season’s team that went 10-13 and 6-4 in league. He’s knows three of those players, incoming juniors Emily Kubisty and Kalena Shepherd and incoming sophomore Micaiah Watanabe-Patterson.

“They play for the Southern California Sharks travel ball association I run,” Hunter said. “I also got to see [Estancia] play a few times this past season. We played [the Eagles] once and got the better of them [in a 7-3 win at Estancia].”

The next time Estancia faces Newport Harbor, Hunter will be leading the Eagles, as will two former Newport Harbor coaches. Hunter said his varsity assistant at Newport Harbor, Jeanine Bass, and his JV coach at Newport Harbor, Stephanie Coyne, are coming with him to Estancia.

Another coach joining Hunter’s staff is Carly Smith, who coached at Corona del Mar for four seasons. Smith stepped down in June because she accepted a teaching position at TeWinkle Middle School.

“When I found out I got the job at Estancia, I talked to her immediately,” Hunter said of Smith, whom he has gotten to know really well since the two have worked together the past three summers during the Newport Harbor camp. “With her being at TeWinkle and five minutes away [from Estancia], it was a natural thing to bring her on board.”