The Panel

The administrators interviewed by the Times Orange County sports staff were Bonnie Stormont, Marina High School girls’ athletic director; Monsignor Michael Harris, Santa Margarita principal; Jim Ryan, Foothill principal, and Stan Thomas, Southern Section commissioner of athletics.

Two others--Peter Hartman, superintendent of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, and Bill Brand, Trabuco Hills principal--were invited but chose not to attend. Hartman has led the fight against merging parochial and public schools into the same leagues in Orange County.

Stormont has spent eight of her 22 years at Marina as girls’ athletic director. She has taught physical education and coached the Marina girls’ tennis team for 15 years. She lives in Laguna Beach.

Harris has been the principal at Santa Margarita since the school opened four years ago. Before that, he was principal at Mater Dei for nine years. Harris lives in El Toro.

Ryan, who lives in Tustin, has been principal at Foothill for four years. He held a similar position at Indio High School from 1984 to 1987. Ryan also coached basketball, track and tennis coach at Manual Arts and Crenshaw high schools.

Thomas is in his sixth year as Southern Section commissioner of athletics. Previously, he was an administrator with the Tustin Unified School District.

Thomas, who lives in Fullerton, was Foothill High School principal from 1980 to 1984. He coached the football team at Neff High in La Mirada to nine consecutive league championships and Southern Section titles in 1966 and 1974.