Zeitler Leaves Mater Dei Job for Santa Margarita

Dave Zeitler, coach of Mater Dei High School’s cross-country and track and field teams for the past six years, said he has accepted a similar position at Santa Margarita High School.

Zeitler, who for the past two years has lived less than a quarter-mile from the Santa Margarita campus, said he sought the position to be closer to home.

Zeitler, whose Mater Dei distance program has been a perennial power in the Angelus League, will coach the boys’ cross-country program beginning next fall.

“It’s kind of sad for me right now, because of all the connections I have (at Mater Dei),” Zeitler said. “But in my case, you have to see the logic in the (change), with the traffic the way it is on the freeway these days.”