He’s a Man for All Seasons at Pasadena Poly and Cantwell Sacred Heart : High schools: Despite a lack of free time, football coach, girls’ basketball coach and teacher Dave Estrada says he enjoys his busy schedule.

Pasadena Poly High football Coach Dave Estrada strode off the field at Poly on Saturday afternoon and accepted congratulations after his team’s 51-34 victory over South Bay Lutheran in a Southern Section Eight-Man Large Division quarterfinal playoff game.

One well-wisher asked if Estrada would relax before reviewing tapes of Brentwood, the Panthers’ semifinal opponent on Saturday.

“I can’t,” Estrada said. “I’ve got basketball practice at five o’clock.”

Estrada is also the girls’ basketball coach at Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary. He is believed to be the only Southern Section varsity coach of two teams at two schools.

Estrada is busy, but happy. He also teaches full time at Poly, and is marketing a Mexican-American history calendar for a production company.

After rising at 6 a.m., Estrada telephones East Coast bookstore chains about the calendar. Then he drives from his Monterey Park home up Garfield Avenue to Poly, where he teaches social studies from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Football practice starts at 3 and ends about 5:30.

After a dinner break, it’s back down Garfield to Cantwell, Estrada’s alma mater, for basketball practice from 7 to 9. By the time the team goes home and the gymnasium lights are turned off, Estrada is home by 9:30, just in time to prepare for the next day’s classes.

“I’m tired, this two-way deal gets tough sometimes, but I knew all season this would be coming so I prepared for it,” Estrada said. “But sometimes I get confused and tell my basketball players to explode through their tackles and my football players to set good screens.”

Estrada can be excused for his mix-ups. His last coaching break came in the spring of 1992. That summer and fall, he coached the Cantwell junior varsity football team. At the end of the football season, he was offered the girls’ basketball job at Cantwell.

After coaching the Cantwell girls, Estrada volunteered to coach the school’s junior varsity softball team. This past summer he organized and ran a girls’ basketball summer league for 24 teams, one of the largest leagues in the area, and began coaching the Poly football team.

“I think the hardship is on Cantwell,” Poly Athletic Director Chuck Ellis said. “Our football team’s practice is limited to daylight, but they have to work around his schedule.”

Cantwell Athletic Director Joe Canales said: “We’re happy to have Dave around. His work ethic sets a standard for all of our coaches to follow. We call him ‘The Hardest-Working Man in Education’ and we’re only half joking.”

Thanksgiving break will be no break for Estrada. He has basketball practice at 7 a.m. and football practice at 10 today and Friday.

“There’s plenty of time to eat turkey later,” Estrada said. “The football team has a big game Saturday and the basketball team opens at the St. Anthony tournament against (San Gabriel) Mission on Wednesday. We have to get ready.”

Dan Pride knows what Estrada is going through. He coaches the Webb football and girls’ basketball teams. In 1988, when he was at Coast Christian in Redondo Beach, Pride coached the football team to an Eight-Man Small Division championship and the girls’ basketball team.

“It’s actually relaxing to go from one sport to the other,” Pride said. “I wish I was in the situation again.”

Webb lost in the first round of this year’s Eight-Man Large playoffs.

Estrada will enjoy the ride while he can. “It’s hectic and it’s crazy, but I love it,” he said. “Who knows when this will happen again?”