Warren to Replace Mihaljevich as Peninsula Basketball Coach

Two years after coaching his last game at Rolling Hills High, Cliff Warren will return to the same campus as coach of the Peninsula boys’ basketball team.

Warren, 54, has been hired to replace John Mihaljevich, 58, who resigned after coaching Peninsula in its first two seasons.

“I’m going to try another round,” said Warren, who has had four coaching jobs in the past three years but did not coach this season. “I’m much more enthusiastic than I’ve ever been.”

One of the South Bay’s winningest coaches, Warren guided Rolling Hills to a 123-46 record, three Bay League titles and six Southern Section playoff berths in six seasons from 1985-91. Included in that run was an appearance in the 3-A Division championship game in 1987 and one semifinal appearance.

Warren’s tenure at Rolling Hills ended when Mihaljevich, the longtime coach at Palos Verdes, was named coach at Peninsula after the district consolidated high school operations at the former Rolling Hills site.

Warren, a resident of Palos Verdes Estates, said he is looking forward to coaching again in the community where he has enjoyed great success.

“This is the only place I would coach, on any level,” he said. “I was hoping that John would give it up and I was still around and wanted. Mainly around.”

It has been 30 years since Warren guided El Segundo High to the Southern Section 2-A Division title in 1963, the first of his five seasons as Eagle coach. Warren did not hold another head coaching job until 1985, when he took over at Rolling Hills.

After leaving Rolling Hills, Warren was named basketball coach at Harbor College in the spring of 1991 but resigned a month later to care for his mother, who had suffered a stroke. After the situation with his mother improved, Warren resurfaced at Redondo, coaching the team to a 13-14 record during the 1991-92 season. He resigned after the season amid rumors that he had trouble adjusting to a new school.

“It’s not that I didn’t like Redondo, but I wasn’t as comfortable as I am here,” he said. “I have a good feeling about coaching (at Peninsula). I live here, my kids go to school here. It’s where I wanted to go.”

Warren was hired over two other applicants--Mike Boyd, an assistant under Mihaljevich, and Todd Mirsky, the Peninsula sophomore coach and former varsity coach at Miraleste.

The fact that the coaching job did not come with a teaching position may have discouraged educators from applying, said Chris Bowles, Peninsula’s associate principal in charge of athletics. The part-time position was not a problem for Warren, a successful businessman who owns a real estate investment company in Hermosa Beach.

“We’re very excited to have Cliff return to basketball on the hill,” Bowles said.

Bowles’ son, Brian, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, is one of two players who will return for Peninsula, which was 20-8 and reached the quarterfinals of the Division I-AA playoffs this season. The other returner is junior guard Brian Hogentogler, who played for Warren as a freshman at Rolling Hills in 1990-91.

“It’s different (school) colors, but everything is the same,” Warren said. “This will definitely be my last coaching job. I’ll step down whenever new blood is needed.”