Softball: Lester resigns at Estancia
Estancia High softball coach Carrie Lester has resigned after she was not offered a teaching position for next school year.
Lester, who coached the Eagles for four years and taught English at Estancia, said that she has been on a temporary teaching contract each year at Estancia. She usually was a part-time employee.
“This year, I moved up to full-time, which was great,” she said. “I took on ASB and I worked harder than I ever have before, but I was still on a temporary contract. When they redid the master schedule, there were fewer teaching classes than last year. They had to let go of whoever was a temp, and that was me.”
Lester is credentialed to teach English, science through eighth grade and history. She said after she was notified there was no teaching position open at Estancia, she decided to resign as softball coach.
“I just think I want to give all of my time and energy to whoever will give me a teaching job,” she said. “It’s not with any hard feelings. It really broke my heart to fill out that resignation letter. It makes me sad, you know. It makes me sad to leave my program that I built up over the last four years. It’s hard. Our practices are all from 2 to 4 [p.m.], and our games are at 3:15. I don’t want to go into a new job like, ‘OK, I have to get off early so I can coach this softball team.’ I just want to be focused on my next new adventure.”
Estancia went 53-42 in Lester’s four years at the helm, finishing alone or tied for third place in the Orange Coast League every year and qualifying for the CIF playoffs. The Eagles won CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoff wild-card games in 2014 and ’15 before bowing out in the first round.
This year the team went 10-13, 6-4 in league. The Eagles started off strong by winning their first four league games but faded down the stretch, losing to Moreno Valley, 10-0, in the wild-card round of CIF.
Estancia Athletic Director Mike Bargas said Wednesday that the next softball coach will likely be a walk-on coach.
“Unfortunately, it’s so competitive with teaching, and we didn’t have a spot for her for next year,” Bargas said. “She did a great job for us. As a coworker, she was awesome. She’s a good friend, and we’re going to miss her.
“Honestly, I don’t blame her [for resigning]. It’s hard to get a job in Fullerton or some place like that, have to run over here and try to run practice.”
Applicants should send a letter of intent, resume and three letters of recommendation to Bargas at mbargas@nmusd.us.
