SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Herring Is Forced Out After 9 Seasons at Irvine

Al Herring, basketball coach at Irvine High School the past nine seasons, has been forced to resign by Principal Gary Norton.

“The bottom line is I was fired,” Herring said Friday. “Nobody wants to hear that word, but I was fired. I guess I just didn’t win enough.”

Norton said Herring had resigned but would not elaborate because the decision is a personnel matter. The position, which includes a teaching job, is open to interested candidates, Norton said. “We’re very appreciative of the job that Al Herring did as basketball coach at Irvine High for the past nine years,” Norton said.

There is speculation that Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight will be among the candidates to replace Herring. McKnight said he saw Herring Thursday at the Brigham Young-San Diego State basketball game, at which Herring told him that he had been fired.

Mater Dei is competing in the 5-A division playoffs. The Monarchs have advanced to the title game in four straight seasons under McKnight, winning three large-school championships.

“I haven’t talked to anyone at Irvine High,” McKnight said Friday. “I don’t want to take anything away from this season. I’ll wait until the season is over and take it from there.”

Norton’s son, Matt, played two seasons on lower-level teams at Mater Dei before transferring to Irvine.

Herring was only the second coach at Irvine since the school opened 11 years ago. He succeeded Pat Stewart after Irvine’s second year, but the Vaqueros never qualified for the Southern Section playoffs, missing the postseason tournament by one game the last two seasons.

“I imagine if we would have made the playoffs the last two years, things might have been easier,” Herring said. “No one really talked to me about winning and losing, and I hadn’t even thought about retirement.”

Irvine has gone 28-26 in the past two seasons but missed qualifying for the playoffs each season when it lost its final South Coast League game.

Herring said Irvine’s program should be strong. Irvine’s junior varsity team tied with Capistrano Valley for the South Coast League title and two starters--Jerry Petersen and Dave Ballantyne--return for the varsity team.

Herring will remain at Irvine as a driver education and health instructor.