Aldrich Leaves Her Old Game for a New One : Volleyball: Mira Costa High volleyball coach steps down to become an education adviser at the school.

Longtime Mira Costa High girls’ volleyball Coach DaeLea Aldrich resigned last week, saying “it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Aldrich, the Mustangs’ coach since 1982, quit after accepting a position as an education adviser with the school’s counseling and guidance program. She said her new duties make it impossible to continue coaching full time.

“I’m responsible for a class of 314 kids,” said Aldrich, who has a master’s degree in administration. “I’ll have to attend a lot of after-school extracurricular things with the kids and there will be a lot of parent involvement.”

Besides coaching, Aldrich taught physical education and in 1984 became the school’s athletic director. She guided Mira Costa to nine league championships, eight Southern Section titles, three state championships and two mythical national titles. She has a career record of 236-15.

Aldrich was named California Coaches Assn. high school volleyball coach of the year in 1990.

“It’s real hard because most people leave jobs because they’re tired of what they’re doing and need a change or they leave for more money,” Aldrich said. “That is not the scenario. There’s not a whole lot more money and I was very happy with what I was doing.

“It was so hard. I don’t know when I could not coach volleyball. I love it so much. I could coach it till my retirement days. I don’t mind not teaching and I don’t mind not being athletic director, but I’ll really miss volleyball.”

Aldrich learned of her new duties in mid-June. She was planning her team’s summer workouts when Principal Darlene Gorey called to notify her that she had been picked from 15 applicants.

“She said, ‘DaeLea, I need to know what you’re going to do,’ ” Aldrich said. “I said, ‘Oh no! I don’t know. What now?’ I had to do this because the opportunity was there.”

Breaking the news to the team was difficult, according to Aldrich.

“I announced it and the kids all started crying,” she said. “Even when I went through the interview, it went really well and one of the interviewees asked about volleyball. I was hoping to slide out of the interview without them asking what I would do without volleyball. Well, I started crying while talking about volleyball.”

Aldrich’s four-year assistant, Carrie Rey, will take over as coach, but Aldrich will help out on a part-time basis next season.

“I’m sort of going to keep my hand in the pot a little bit with Carrie,” she said. “She’s asked me to work out with the kids a bit and help her out. I’ll finish out with the seniors. It’s really important to me to see that they have a good year.”

Mira Costa won the Ocean League title last year but lost to top-ranked St. Joseph of Lakewood in the second round of the Southern Section 5-A Division playoffs. The top returning players are All-Southern Section middle blocker Anne Windes, middle blocker Tate Medley and outside hitters Nikki Lawson and Shawnee Hayes.

“Everyone started crying and stuff, but me and another girl really didn’t hear her clear and we were wondering why they were crying,” Lawson said. “But when I got home I was really bummed.

“She’s a great friend. We always went to her whenever we had problems. She’s also very serious and demanding and very dedicated.”

A setter at El Camino College and Cal State Long Beach, Aldrich coached volleyball at Aviation High for seven years before moving to Mira Costa after Aviation was closed in 1981. For years she has been involved with the women’s pro beach volleyball tour.

Aldrich helps train several of the tour’s top players and travels to all of Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tournaments. Eventually she plans to conduct youth clinics for the WPVA, which she believes will help fill the void of not coaching the Mustangs.

“She’s awesome,” said pro beach player Elaine Roque, who has trained with Aldrich for three years. “She’s really great. My game has gone a long way since she started working with me. She has the ability to polish your game.”

Aldrich says volleyball will always be a part of her life. “There’s no way it couldn’t be,” she said. “No way.”