Juarez to lead Mesa girls
The Costa Mesa High boys’ and girls’ basketball programs filled their head coaching positions in a one-week span.
Last week, it was interim coach Phil Weber being hired to guide the Mesa boys in a permanent role.
On Thursday, the Mesa girls met the new face of their program.
Carlos Juarez will lead the Mustangs girls’ basketball program, Costa Mesa Athlete Director Sharon Uhl said.
Juarez stood out among the 10 applicants, six of whom were interviewed, Uhl said.
“I think he’s a good fit,” Uhl said of Juarez, 41, who will be a walk-on coach. “We had two parents, two athletes and two [administrators] on the [hiring] panel, and the parents and athletes were very excited and impressed with his knowledge of his game. Not just that, but what he can bring to the table. He’s really excited about running tournaments at our place, having camps for the little kids and doing a lot of fund-raising. We think he’s going to get kids excited about being in the program again.”
Juarez was the head frosh-soph coach at Tustin girls’ basketball this past winter, and has been helping out Tustin Coach Claire Gocke with all levels for the Tillers since then. He formerly held the same frosh-soph position at Mater Dei High and was a varsity assistant coach at Aliso Niguel about six years ago, he said, though that was more of a formality than anything.
“I coached the varsity team, but I was technically the assistant coach,” Juarez said. “But I was the guy who stood up during the games, ran the practices, ran the varsity team. [Former Aliso Coach] Kurt [Westling] took a step back ... It was a unique situation.”
Juarez has been more of a consistent presence in club basketball, where he has been coaching for nearly two decades at both the youth and high school levels. He formerly had his own club, Irvine-based SoCal Swoosh, for about 10 years.
He said he wants to build a successful program at Costa Mesa High. The Mustangs were 5-21, 1-9 in the Orange Coast League this season and did not qualify for the CIF playoffs for the second straight year. First-year coach Lauren Coleman was then removed as coach in late March, due to what Uhl called a personnel issue that went “beyond the X’s and O’s of the game.”
The Mustangs have also lost the Battle for the Bell series against rival Estancia for seven of the past eight seasons.
However, numbers in the program have been up. In former coach Nichole Maddox’s final two years at the helm, there were just two teams, a varsity and junior varsity.
Uhl said there are now 23 girls in the program, not counting incoming freshmen, which should allow for three teams in 2016-17 for the second straight year.
Juarez talked to the returning players on Thursday afternoon.
“It seems like it’s a good group,” he said. “They want to learn and get better, and that’s really what the goal is, to compete and develop and improve. With that will come a certain level of success.
“I’m extremely excited. I would not have taken on this opportunity in the program unless it was an ideal fit, because I’m not just looking to coach a high school varsity team. I’m looking to build a program. To do that, it’s gotta be the right fit. The staff here at Costa Mesa, they’ve all been on the same page and want the same things. Really, I think it’s pretty special, because you can only build a program if everyone is on the same page. It was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”
