PREP NOTES : McNamee Named Costa Mesa Coach

Lisa McNamee, who built a highly successful girls’ basketball program at Estancia High, Monday was named coach of the girls’ team at Costa Mesa.

McNamee, 30, replaces Jim Weeks, who resigned Sept. 21 after coaching the Mustangs for six seasons.

“I’m looking forward to the season,” McNamee said. “There’s some awesome talent there. I think we can have a very good team. How could I pass up this opportunity?”

McNamee was an assistant coach on the NCAA champion Stanford women’s team last season. She was 95-51 in her six seasons at Estancia and guided the Eagles to the Pacific Coast League title in 1991, her last season with the team, and the Sea View League championship in 1988. McNamee was The Times’ Orange County girls’ basketball coach of the year in 1991.

Kim Beckhart, former Valencia coach and an assistant with the UC Riverside women’s team the past two seasons, and Shontel Sherwood, the Estancia junior varsity coach last season and previously an assistant to McNamee at the school, will be McNamee’s assistants at Costa Mesa.

McNamee, who works for an Irvine real estate firm, said she will try to incorporate some of the components of the Stanford program at Costa Mesa.

“I had a first-hand look at a great program,” McNamee said. “I’m going to try to apply those things at Costa Mesa. I’m going to implement the Stanford conditioning program and things like looking at videotape.”

McNamee said she decided to leave Stanford and bypass other college coaching opportunities available to her because the time commitment required from coaches at that level is too demanding.

“I worked 12 hours a day, 6 1/2 days a week, all year,” McNamee said. “I’m very excited we have people in the world committed to that, but I made a decision that there are other things I enjoy doing. I looked at some things that were very important in my life, and I just didn’t want to devote that kind of time to coaching.”