Avengers to name O’Hara coach

Former USC quarterback Pat O’Hara will be named head coach of the Avengers today.

O’Hara, who spent the last three Arena Football League seasons as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator, will succeed Ed Hodgkiss, who was fired after the Avengers failed to make the playoffs with a 5-11 record.

“Any time that you go through a process, you learn about your organization and your team,” Avengers owner and Chief Executive Casey Wasserman said. “And everything we went through helped us make the right choice for this team.

“Pat O’Hara has a proven track record as a player and coach. . . . We need leadership, and for a football team, leadership starts with the head coach.”

O’Hara, 39, who is in New Orleans for Sunday’s ArenaBowl XXII between San Jose and Philadelphia, will become the fourth head coach for the Avengers, who have been in the AFL since 2000.

O’Hara reportedly will sign a three-year deal with an option for a fourth.

“I really couldn’t be in a better situation,” said O’Hara about getting his first head coaching opportunity. “There’s a lot of talent that just needs to be tweaked a little.”

O’Hara, who won three ArenaBowl championships and passed for 13,383 yards in his 11-season AFL career, is a former standout quarterback at Santa Monica High who played at USC from 1986-90.

Wasserman, who graduated from UCLA, said O’Hara’s roots helped but weren’t the reason he was hired.

“Our goal was to hire the best coach possible,” Wasserman said about the Avengers, who have won only one playoff game in franchise history. “It’s just a great bonus that [O’Hara] grew up in the neighborhood, knows the community and has ties with USC.”

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lonnie.white@latimes.com