PREP REVIEW : Ailing Esperanza Isn’t Limping on Soccer Field

Three years ago, when John Coppage left the Esperanza High School boys’ soccer team to coach the girls, he took over a young, lackadaisical program and quickly turned it into a winner.

In his first year, Coppage, a walk-on coach, led the Aztecs to the Southern Section 3-A final and a 22-2-2 overall record.

Last year, Esperanza finished with a 24-0-2 record, but was eliminated by Simi Valley, on penalty kicks, in the 4-A semifinals.

This year, Esperanza (18-2-1 overall, 4-0-1 in the Empire League) continues to win, despite being plagued by illness and injury through most of the early season. Along with a team-shared flu, the Aztecs have been struck with everything from back injuries (Chrissy Coppage and goalkeeper Tymerie Busser) to a heart murmur (Jenise Webb).

“All the luck I’ve had as far as not having injuries in years past (is gone),” Coppage said. “It’s incredible, you don’t even want to say it. It’s like, well, what’s gonna happen Monday?”

But few coaches are feeling sorry for Coppage, who was 109-6-10 in four years as the Aztecs’ boys’ coach, leading Esperanza to four Empire League titles and the 3-A title in 1986.

Although the team’s two losses--to Mater Dei and Mission Viejo--are two more than it had last year, and it has allowed more goals (10) than it did all of last year (seven), Esperanza is looking good elsewhere.

Balanced scoring has helped Esperanza score 71 goals this season--nine more than at this point last year. All but one of the team’s 18 players, excluding the goalkeeper, have scored.

Esperanza’s talent is based on its core of 13 seniors--the same players Coppage referred to as a bunch of squirrels three years ago--but the team’s underclassmen have provided a boost as well.

“Because of the injuries we had, actually we’re stronger than we were last year,” Coppage said. “We have more depth than last year because with so many injuries we were forced to play freshmen.”

The freshmen are Megan Murray, younger sister of junior Lynn Murray, and Kathy Haerle.

“Kathy is 5 feet tall and weighs probably about 105,” Coppage said. “I call her a Smurf but she’s really more like a bulldog. She’s scored two goals this year, that’s unheard of for a freshman. . . .

“I’m telling you, it’s a riot. The one thing that really turned this team around were these two freshman because all these other hot shots (seniors) saw them and said, ‘Gee, they’re out there hustling and making their way onto the varsity. We’d better do something.’ ”

Esperanza, which plays at Loara Thursday, began the season as the third-ranked team in the preseason Southern Section 4-A poll. A week later, it moved to second where it stayed until today. After last week’s 1-1 tie with league rival Los Alamitos, ranked 10th in the poll, Esperanza dropped to fourth.

Simi Valley is ranked No. 1, Upland is second and Arcadia is third.

Coppage, who is not shy with his opinions, was not pleased.

“We already beat Arcadia (in the Ocean View tournament). . . . Now two top 10 teams play and tie and what does that mean?” Coppage said. “What a joke. I think the whole top 10 thing is a farce. It’s not a top 10 soccer poll; it’s a top 10 popularity poll.”

Jan Lipinski, the 4-A coordinator who puts out the weekly rankings, said one representative from each of the 4-A’s nine leagues vote on the rankings.

Despite all that, Coppage, who has a career record of 145-12-14 through seven years of coaching high school soccer, is assured of his team’s capabilities.

“Without a doubt, we have the best team, the best talent in (the 4-A),” he said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re gonna win. But the only team that can beat us is ourselves.”

Rounding out the 4-A poll are No. 5 Dana Hills, No. 6 El Toro, No. 7 South Torrance, No. 8 Corona del Mar, No. 9 Mission Viejo and No. 10 Edison.

The Five Counties Invitational wrestling tournament at Fountain Valley High School received plenty of praise by many area coaches.

Last weekend’s tournament packed the gymnasium with about 2,000 fans who got to see the most highly contested meet in Orange County.

“It was a real great preview for the state meet (March 2-3 at Stockton),” El Modena Coach Alan Clinton said. “You had almost all the sections (of the California Interscholastic Federation) there.”

Clovis, the top-ranked team in the state, won with 151 points. Canyon, the third-ranked team in the state and the tournament’s defending champion, was sixth with 108.5.

Clinton, president of the Orange County Wrestling Coaches Assn., released this week’s county poll: No. 1 Canyon, No. 2 El Modena, No. 3 Valencia, No. 4 Laguna Hills, No. 5 Irvine, No. 6 San Clemente, No. 7 El Dorado, No. 8 Mater Dei, No. 9 Savanna and No. 10 Buena Park.

Out go the lights: The Marina-Fountain Valley girls’ basketball game had to be postponed Tuesday after the lights in the Marina gymnasium went out minutes into the game.

The cause? Marina junior Colleen Hatch was chasing a loose ball down the baseline when she hit a padded fuse box on the wall.

“It was a total freak thing,” Marina Coach Pete Bonny said. “We could do it 100 times and it wouldn’t happen again. She hit it, there were a couple sparks and all of a sudden we were all in the dark.”

After much debate, the game was postponed. It will continue--with Fountain Valley leading, 4-0, tonight at 5 at Marina.

Marina is 13-7 overall, 2-2 in the Sunset League. Fountain Valley is 14-5, 3-1.

Big 8 Recruit: Tim Manning, Trabuco Hills’ all-everything football player, took a recruiting trip to Iowa State last weekend. There, Manning was hosted, in part, by Blaise Bryant, one of the nation’s leaders in all-purpose offense last fall, and a former Golden West College player.

Lights, camera . . . Rainer Wulf, Trabuco Hills boys’ basketball coach, has been seen on television recently. Wulf twice has hosted the halftime and postgame shows for KDOC (Channel 56) during Nevada Las Vegas home basketball games.

“I did the UCI game (last Thursday),” Wulf said. “We watch the game in the studio (in Anaheim), then we pick out highlights from both halves, talk about the game, show the highlights, and then we have trivia questions and take phone calls.

“I have a lot of (Trabuco Hills) players threaten to call in and ask me a tough question. It’s a live show. If you screw up, you screw up.”

Wulf had worked with the program’s director, Paul Higgins, on past projects.

Wulf, who played at UC Irvine from 1980-82, got his start in television with a beer commercial five years ago. He played a player being chewed out by UCLA Coach Jim Harrick, then at Pepperdine.

“It was fun,” Wulf said. “They paid us $80 an hour.”

Justin Zayas, a 5-foot-6 junior fullback for Orange, returned from Indiana this season and has boosted the Panthers’ defense significantly.

Orange, 12-0-2 overall and the second-ranked 2-A team in the Southern Section, leads the Pacific Coast League with a 9-0 record.

Zayas was an all-league selection as a freshman before the family moved to Indiana. Zayas wasn’t doing well in school, said Orange Coach Ed Carrillo, so the Zayas family moved back to Orange.

Last season without Zayas, the Panthers were 9-11-3.

Said Carrillo: “He’s so quick, they (the forwards) can push harder and not worry so much because he’s back there. In fact, I think we depend on him too much.”