El Camino Real Coaches Maio and Stam Resign : High school football: They brought respectability to the program in their six seasons.

Co-coaches Mike Maio and Ralph Stam stepped down Wednesday after six seasons at the helm of the El Camino Real High football team, citing what has become a common theme among area City Section coaches: The demands of the position became too great and it’s time for an infusion of new blood.

The pair will be replaced by Terry Fisher and Bob Ganssle, who coached the school’s frosh-soph team. Both are longtime teachers and coaches at the school.

Stam, 62, is retiring from teaching at the end of the school year. Maio, chairman of the school’s physical education department as well as coach of the baseball team, said he was spreading himself too thin. Maio, 54, will remain as baseball coach.

“I just think it’s time for someone else,” said Maio, who has been coaching in the high school ranks since 1961. “It’s too much.”

Maio’s resignation marked the second time in as many weeks that a high-profile City coach of two major sports called it quits in football. Granada Hills football co-Coach Darryl Stroh--who also coaches baseball--announced he will step down in football after the 1994 season. Tom Harp, co-coach with Stroh, also is uncertain whether he will return in 1995.

Fisher coaches the school’s wrestling team and Ganssle coached junior varsity baseball.

The Conquistadores were 7-3-1 last fall under Maio and Stam, who compiled a six-year mark of 30-34-1. While the record might seem unimpressive, it should be noted that El Camino Real was one of the state’s most downtrodden teams when the pair took over. Stam was a varsity assistant and Maio moved up from the B team.

Entering the 1988 season, the pair’s first as varsity co-coaches, El Camino Real hadn’t won in 23 consecutive games.

“Obviously, anybody would like to have a great record and we would have liked to have won a few more games,” Maio said. “The team was competitive and we can feel good about that.”

The football team’s high-water mark came in 1989, when the Conquistadores shocked second-seeded Granada Hills in the 4-A Division playoffs and reached the semifinals before losing to Dorsey.

Maio and Stam were only the second and third coaches in the school’s 25-year history. The pair took over for Skip Giancanelli, who coached the Conquistadores for the previous 19 seasons--from the day the school opened its doors.

Maio led the Conquistadores to the City 4-A baseball title last season, the first championship in school history. The team was ranked third in the state and has become one of the region’s most consistent winners. Maio was selected The Times’ Valley baseball coach of the year in 1993.