Shanahan turns around Laguna
A week before Laguna Beach High kicked off the football season on Aug. 26, the Breakers traveled to Duarte for a scrimmage. During the 60-mile trip, Coach John Shanahan had a chance to look over the new CIF Southern Section playoff groupings.
The last division, Division 13, interested Shanahan the most. Division 13 was Laguna Beach’s new playoff division.
Out of the 85 schools on the Division 13 list, it finally hit Shanahan that he and the Breakers were about to meet one that afternoon on Aug. 19.
“Aww, crap! These guys are in our division,” Shanahan said he remembers saying when he saw Duarte was 29 spots below Laguna Beach in the Division 13 power rankings.
“I knew they had a chance [to make the playoffs] because they’re skilled. They’ve got a good coach [in James Heggins] who does a great job up there with those guys.”
Laguna Beach is going to get reacquainted with Duarte on Friday. Unlike the meeting three months ago, this one counts.
The Breakers (6-4) open the Division 13 playoffs at Duarte (7-3) at 7:30 p.m. Both programs feature head coaches who have turned things around at their respective schools in their first year.
Shanahan led Laguna Beach to four more overall wins than a year ago, and the program went 4-1 in the Orange Coast League, good enough for second place. The Breakers, who went winless in league last season, made the postseason for the first time in four years.
At Duarte, Heggins took over a Duarte program going 1-9 overall last year and finishing dead last in the Montview League. Heggins was familiar with Duarte, having been in charge at Baldwin Park last year, when the Braves won the Montview League crown.
Heggins brought Duarte its first Montview League title in 10 years.
“They’ve got a lot of good going on,” Shanahan said of the Falcons. “They’re not a lot different [from the time we faced them in the scrimmage]. We’re very different because we’ve had to make so many changes because of the tremendous amount of injuries we’ve accrued.”
Despite losing half a dozen key starters, Shanahan never allowed the Breakers to make excuses. He came from JSerra, where the expectations are always high.
It wasn’t easy for Shanahan to leave JSerra. He was in charge of the freshman team for five years, accumulating a 42-8 record.
During the interview process with the Breakers, there was one player, Zach Fields, who touched Shanahan.
“I asked him what he wanted out of the program, and he was very simple, saying ‘I just want to stop losing,’” Shanahan said. “Having been down at JSerra and gone through that rebuilding process, I enjoy that. I got a ton knowledge from that staff down there on how to rebuild a program. When that kid got me emotionally, I was interested in meeting the rest of the kids. They’re just fantastic kids.
“I went home and had a really good conversation with my [future] wife. We had already planned our wedding in Ireland for April, and we went through the pros and cons [of the Laguna Beach job]. I said, ‘It’s going to be an extremely difficult process to turn this around. There are not a lot of resources, not a lot of structure in place with youth football. It could be a brutal, brutal deal, but I think it would be a great challenge to take on.’”
Another positive of becoming the Breakers’ third coach in as many years was Shanahan’s commute got a lot shorter. He lives in Laguna Beach with his wife, Robin.
SEA KING YOUNG GUNS READY FOR CIF
During the playoffs, many football teams bring up young players from the lower-level programs. Many do it to make their teams look bigger than they really are.
At Corona del Mar, there are two freshmen — Mark Redman and John Humphreys — who are big and who are the real deal.
Redman, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound tight end and linebacker, and Humphreys, a 6-3, 185-pound wide receiver and defensive back, are good enough to play right now and contribute in the playoffs.
The Sea Kings called the two up from the freshman team during Pacific Coast League play. Redman and Humphreys were standouts on the freshman team, which went 10-0.
The CdM freshman team has enjoyed a lot of success in the last seven years, going 68-2. The winning has continued on varsity, as CdM has averaged 11 wins per season since 2010.
