O’Boyle Is Close on Job at Air Force : Track: UC Irvine coach, front-runner for a position at the Academy, will travel to Colorado before making decision.

Vince O’Boyle, coach of the women’s track and cross-country teams at UC Irvine, is the front-runner for a coaching job at the Air Force Academy and plans to travel to the campus in Colorado Springs, Colo., this weekend before reaching a decision.

O’Boyle, who was being courted for the position of men’s and women’s cross-country coach and assistant track coach at Air Force before Irvine eliminated its men’s track and cross-country programs as well as baseball last month, was interviewed for the Air Force job during the NCAA track and field championships last week at Austin, Tex.

“I’ve been up front with the kids on the team all along because so much has been going on,” O’Boyle said. “I owe it to myself to take a look, not only professionally, but like (resigning tennis Coach Greg Patton), ‘Can I live here?’ ”

Patton announced Monday that he is leaving Irvine after 13 seasons to become coach at Boise State because he wants “quality of life” for his family.

O’Boyle, 46, has coached at Irvine for 10 years, guiding the women’s cross-country team in particular to national prominence. He holds the title of director of track and field, and until the men’s teams were dropped, was men’s track coach.

“I told (Irvine Athletic Director Tom Ford) I want to make this work,” O’Boyle said. “I’ve got emotional ties here. In 10 years, I’ve gotten kicked in the head a few times. I’m still standing up. I know the state has problems. The UC system has problems. It’s not only Irvine. I just need to look at this, like, is it going to be better there? I don’t know. I’m just going to see if I like it.”

O’Boyle said his thinking has been affected by Irvine’s decisions to drop sports. In the past, he has not worried about the possibility of his teams being eliminated.

“Now I do, more than before,” he said. “Who’s to say they won’t drop one women’s sport, whether it’s track or soccer, and add another, like golf?”

O’Boyle said he is “not leaning either way,” and will make up his mind during and after the trip. He and his wife, Kathy, will leave for Colorado Springs on Friday.

“We’ll come back here and gather our thoughts as we’re flying, for the (Irvine athletes’) sake,” he said. “I think the roller coaster has got to slow down for them. I’ve got to let them know.”