Newport Harbor Coach Offered Chapman Job

Jerry DeBusk, basketball coach at Newport Harbor High School, has been offered an assistant coaching job at Chapman College, a source in the Chapman athletic department said Wednesday.

DeBusk, 43, would assist Bob Boyd, who was hired as Chapman’s basketball coach Tuesday.

“It would be premature to say he was hired,” Boyd said Wednesday night. “He is a candidate and is seriously being considered for the job.”

DeBusk would not confirm or deny that he would become an assistant. But a source in the athletic department said that Boyd and DeBusk met Wednesday afternoon at the college and that DeBusk was offered the job.

Rich Prospero, Chapman’s interim coach last season, said Wednesday that he has met with Boyd about staying as an assistant.

Boyd said at a news conference on Tuesday that he would ask Prospero to remain. Under Prospero last season, Chapman was 17-12 and finished tied for third in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn.

DeBusk has coached at Newport Harbor twice, first for 10 years from 1976-85 before resigning to become an assistant at Orange Coast College.

He returned to Newport Harbor in 1987 because there were no full-time teaching positions open at Orange Coast.

Last season, Newport Harbor finished 13-12 and 2-8 in the Sea View League.