Veteran Coach Meiss Takes Over Football Program at Orange High

Tom Meiss said Sunday that he has been named the new football coach at Orange High School.

Meiss succeeds Mark McMahon, who resigned after finishing 2-8 overall and 1-4 in the Pacific Coast League last season.

Meiss, who has been coaching for 26 years, said he will keep his teaching position at Santa Ana High and will be a walk-on coach at Orange. Meiss becomes the first walk-on head varsity football coach in Orange County since Mike Giddings was at Newport Harbor from 1982 to 1985.

Meiss was last a head coach from 1978 to 1983 at Santa Ana, when he led the team to Century League championships in 1979 and 1983 and an overall record of 46-23-2.

After that, Meiss assisted at Saddleback College, then became an assistant under Santa Ana Coach Dick Hill in 1987 and 1988.