Carnes Is Leaving Leuzinger : Preps: After 17 years in Centinela Valley district, he accepts job as athletic director at Mission Viejo.

Former Leuzinger football coach Steve Carnes, whose long association with the Centinela Valley Union High School District was characterized by success as well as turmoil, has been named athletic director at Mission Viejo High.

Carnes, 42, was employed for more than 17 years by the Centinela Valley district as a teacher, coach and administrator. He served as football coach and assistant principal at Leuzinger during the 1992-93 school year.

In eight seasons as Leuzinger’s coach, from 1984-90 and 1992, he guided the Olympians to a 62-27-6 record, five league titles and the school’s only Southern Section title in 1985 as a member of the Desert-Mountain Conference. He was also Leuzinger’s athletic director for most of those years.

Prior to that, Carnes was an assistant at Hawthorne and served as the coach and an assistant at Lawndale. He graduated from Lawndale in 1968 and played on the Cardinals’ 2-A Division championship team in 1966.

Despite his strong ties to the area, though, Carnes said he grew weary of financial and racial problems that have plagued the district in recent years. He said the disharmony contributed to his decision to leave.

“At the end of the school year, I saw the writing on the wall,” Carnes said. “I needed to make the move.”

He blamed self-described watchdog groups for meddling in school business and creating more problems for the district. On more than one occasion, Carnes was accused of allowing ineligible athletes to participate while he was athletic director, but those allegations proved false.

“When you hear some clown making false accusations, it can get to you a little bit,” Carnes said. “I’m bitter about some of that stuff, but those people are not the reason I left. I just reached a point in my life where I had to make a change.”

Carnes said he is looking forward to his new job at Mission Viejo. Besides from serving as athletic director, he will teach four science classes. A Fountain Valley resident, Carnes is also happy about a shorter drive to work.

He said Mission Viejo offered him the same job a year ago, but he turned it down to pursue an administrative position at Leuzinger. When the Orange County school made another offer in July, he couldn’t refuse.

Carnes said his new district credited him with all 17 years of his experience and hired him at the top of its teachers’ pay scale.

Although Carnes said he has no immediate plans to return to coaching, he didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the sidelines.

Carnes’ return to the South Bay will come much sooner. Mission Viejo plays at West Torrance in its football opener Sept. 10.

“It will be fun to go back down,” he said. “Who knows, I might even show up at the Hawthorne-Leuzinger game this season.”

Fred Boehm, a longtime assistant under Carnes and former coach at Hawthorne and Lawndale, was named Leuzinger’s coach last month.