OC Varsity » Coaching updates

Basketball: Fairmont hires Clay McKnight

STEVE FRYER, ocvarsity.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:12:10 +0000

Clay McKnight, son of Mater Dei basketball coach Gary McKnight, has been hired as the boys basketball coach at Fairmont Prep, Fairmont athletic director Mark Alves announced Wednesday.

McKnight, an All-Orange County guard at Mater Dei in the 1990s, has been an assistant coach at UCLA, USC, Syracuse and UC Riverside.

At Fairmont, he will be a walk-on coach, which is a coach who is not a full-time faculty member. McKnight replaces Respp Relatorres, who resigned when his faculty position at Fairmont was eliminated.

McKnight was a finalist for the basketball coaching job at JSerra, which hired Joedy Gardner.

The new basketball coach at Fullerton is ...

STEVE FRYER, ocvarsity.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:39:05 +0000

Jesse Jackson.

Not that Jesse Jackson. This Jesse Jackson has been coaching at Valencia for seven years, including three as freshman head coach and last year as JV head coach.

He replaces Bill Czech, who left to take the coaching job at Hope University in Fullerton.

Football coach talks about changes at Newport Harbor

STEVE FRYER, ocvarsity.com — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:46:04 +0000

Newport Harbor football coach Jeff Brinkley is unhappy that Eric Tweit was fired as Harbor's athletic director and Evan Chalmers was fired as baseball coach at Harbor this week (and girls athletic director Fletcher Olson vacated her position, in protest to what happened to Tweit). Brinkley, Harbor's football coach for 23 years, was careful about what he said, not wanting to make a difficult situation worse. But he made it clear that the changes are not good ones ...

"I think both Evan and Eric deserve to have their jobs," said Brinkley, who is on target to get career victory No. 200 this fall. "One of the things our principal (Michael Vossen) doesn't understand about Eric is the great relationships he has with athletic directors all around the county, and his great relationship with CIF, too. There definitely has been a drop in morale in the athletic department and across the campus, too, which I've never seen before in my 23 years there." Chalmers, Olson and Tweit will remain at Newport Harbor as teachers. Brinkley said nobody on campus will fill the AD jobs, out of respect to Olson and Tweit.

Esperanza's Pendleton steps down as head coach

DAN ALBANO, ocvarsity.com — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:10:12 +0000

Esperanza football coach Bill Pendleton - one of the most respected and colorful coaches in Orange County - has resigned after six seasons but said Sunday night that he plans to remain with the Orange County powerhouse as an assistant ccoach.Pendleton said his successor has not been selected but he will coach Esperanza's offensive line and run its respected weight-lifting program, or as he put it, "the stuff I enjoy."

Pendleton said told the players of his decision at the team banquet.

"It was a great run and I've had really great people to work with," he said. "It's just a matter that it's a lot less time ... being an assistant coach. Just the stuff that I enjoy the most is not the head coach stuff anymore."

Pendleton coached the Aztecs the past six seasons. He has guided Esperanza to at least a share of the past four Sunset League titles and overall record of 53-20.

In 2005, he guided Esperanza to the Division I finals, where they fell to Loyola. Prior to being the head coach, Pendleton served as the defensive coordinator for 18 seasons.

Pendleton's move comes following the senior season of his youngest son, Jake. He said the departure of Jake also factored into his decision.

It will be interesting to see who takes over Esperanza's program and who gets the post at newcomer Yorba Linda, which is expected to open in the fall.

Esperanza catches a big break in that the energic and talented Pendleton will still be around. So do local sports writers, who can usually count on an entertaining quote from the coach.

La Quinta losing its longtime athletic director

STEVE FRYER, ocvarsity.com — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:29:06 +0000

Jim Perry has resigned as La Quinta's athletic director after 26 years in the post.

Including 14 years as the school's boys basketball coach, Perry spent more than 27 years at La Quinta.

He is leaving to become athletic director and assistant principal at Corona, in Riverside County, effective in two weeks.

Perry, 57, was La Quinta's athletic director for many of Dave Demarest's 34 years there as baseball coach.

I will have more details in my column that will be posted shortly.