HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Poway Brings Wealch Back for Basketball

Doug Wealch’s coaching career has come full circle. On Wednesday, he was named the Poway High School boys’ basketball coach--again.

“It’s a little strange, a little different, the second time around,” said Wealch, 41. “I feel like Gene Bartow coming in after John Wooden.”

Neville Saner, the school’s winningest coach, resigned on March 1. Saner had succeeded Wealch, who resigned 13 games into his second season with the Titans, in January 1983.

At the time, Wealch cited “irreconcilable differences between me and the administration” as the reason for his leaving.

“It’s a new opportunity and a new time, and we’re going to go forward from there,” Wealch explained. “I have nothing bad to say about what happened before. This is a completely new situation, and you can’t compare the two periods in time.”

Wealch has spent the past six years assisting just-retired Andy Gilmour at Palomar College. The Poway job was contingent upon his not pursuing the community college position.

At Poway, Wealch was 11-11 his first year and 5-8 when he resigned.

Before Poway, Wealch assisted at Mt. Carmel for two years. He spent the previous seven years at his alma mater, San Bernardino’s Pacific High School, including two as head coach. He was named league coach of the year after his first season, in which he finished 14-10 with a team that had won only three games the previous two years.

“I’ve always been a rebuilding kind of guy,” Wealch said. “Now I have an opportunity to take a little different phase of the game and see what I can do.”

The Titans will lose only two seniors from this year’s 18-7 team.