Ex-Pierce, Reseda Basketball Coach Accepts Loara Post

Bill Hughes, who compiled an 8-22 record as Pierce College basketball coach last season, has been named basketball coach at Loara High in Anaheim.

Hughes, 32, was basketball coach at Reseda High from 1980 to 1984. He guided the Regents to City championships in 1983 and 1984, compiling a 45-6 record.

He became head coach at Pierce last year while maintaining his teaching position at Reseda. He resigned from Pierce after going 1-13 in the Metro Conference this season.

Hughes replaced Brian Daly, who resigned last month after leading the Saxons (9-13) to fifth place in the Empire League. Daly will be an assistant coach at the University of Iowa next season.

After resigning from Pierce, Hughes said he was looking for a job closer to home. And he got it.

A Cerritos resident, Hughes was logging more than 100 miles a day in his commute to the San Fernando Valley.

Loara is about nine miles from Hughes’ home. “I don’t even have to get on the freeway,” he said.

“Distance is the main reason for the move,” Hughes said. “I needed to find something closer to home for my family’s sake. It just drains you to be on the freeway for two to three hours a day.”

At Loara, Hughes will inherit a program that “has been down for a number of years,” he said. “I’m going there to try to build it into a competitive program, but that might take some time.”

Hughes said his 8-22 season at Pierce had not soured him on college basketball and said he hasn’t lost interest in coaching at the college level.

“It’s just a difficult move,” he said. “It’s not always what you know but who you know. Maybe someday down the road something unexpected will come up.”

At Pierce, Hughes’ season was marred when four of the 10 freshmen he recruited quit the team within a three-week span in December. The defections were apparently caused by transportation problems.

But Hughes said he had other problems at Pierce.

“Pierce is a great school and it has a great basketball program, but junior colleges in general have a lot of problems,” he said. “It’s not that the kids are bad, but it seems that they want you to do everything for them. You have to be their mom and dad, their counselor, their psychologist and their coach. You’re everything, and that’s disenchanting.”

Bob O’Connor, athletic director at Pierce, was among those who recommended Hughes for the Loara position. Despite the losing record at Pierce, O’Connor regards Hughes as a good basketball coach.

“He’s a good coach, and is a really good conditioner,” O’Connor said. “I think Bill will be happier at the high school level where he doesn’t have to recruit.

“He had some designs to coach at the major college level, but that’s mainly recruiting again. If you’re an educator and you like to work with kids, high school is the level to be at.”

Larry Lessett, 26, will make his debut as a college head coach as Hughes’ replacement at Pierce. Lessett split four seasons as an assistant coach at Cal State Northridge and Loyola Marymount.

Originally, Lessett was to join Pierce as a co-coach with Hughes. Dismissed when Ed Goorjian was fired at Loyola, Lessett was said to be well-liked by the players but considered too young for a head coaching job at the Westchester university, O’Connor said.

“I hope we can keep him here for at least two years,” O’Connor said of Lessett. “He’s a real go-getter, and he’s going to eat up community college basketball.”