Swearingen’s Retirement From Saddleback Is Straight, Simple

Ken Swearingen’s no-frills football coaching style remained constant right up to Saturday, when he announced his retirement from Saddleback College.

Swearingen, the winningest football coach in the history of community colleges, didn’t make a big deal out of stepping down. Instead, he kept his farewell simple and straight-forward, just the way he ran his program.

Swearingen, who will retire from teaching in May, didn’t use his leaving as a way to rally his players before his final game, a 52-21 loss to Rancho Santiago at Santa Ana Stadium. Instead, he gathered the team in the locker room afterward and made the announcement.

Swearingen leaves with a record of 247-80-8 in 33 seasons. His 1985 and 1992 Saddleback teams won national championships and his 1971 El Camino team won a State title.

Swearingen had a mark of 98-31-5 in 14 seasons at El Camino and was 149-49-3 in 19 seasons at Saddleback. His teams won 14 conference titles.

“He should be remembered for all the joy he brought to Saddleback athletics,” said Keith Calkins, dean of physical education and athletics. “His teams always seemed to get the athletic year off to a good start and gave the other (teams) something to build on.”

Swearingen was a standout running back in the 1950s at El Camino and at the University of the Pacific. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He also earned a Ph.D. in education at USC.

Swearingen is the second Orange County football coach to retire this season. Golden West’s Ray Shackleford was forced to resign after 29 seasons.

Rancho Santiago’s Dave Ogas (13 seasons) is now the dean of Orange County coaches.

“I have a lot of respect for both of them,” Ogas said. “All the coaches have always had a lot of camaraderie with each other. I guess I learned that first from Coach (Hal) Sherbeck.”

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Bowl games: Rancho Santiago, the top-ranked team in Southern California, plays No. 5 Los Angeles Valley in the Simple Green Orange County Bowl at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 3 at Orange Coast College.

On the same day, Fullerton (6-3-1) plays Hancock (7-3) at 1 p.m. in Santa Maria in the K-Swiss Bowl.

In other Dec. 3 games: Long Beach (9-1), the second-ranked team in Southern California is at No. 3 Bakersfield (9-1) in the Shrine Potato Bowl, No. 4 El Camino (9-1) is at No. 7 College of the Desert (8-2) in the Southern California Bowl and No. 6 Moorpark (8-2) is at No. 10 Cerritos (7-3) in the Strawberry Bowl.

Palomar (7-3), ranked eighth, and No. 9 Grossmont (8-2) are the only top-10 teams that haven’t received an invitation to a bowl game.

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Women’s volleyball: Golden West (19-2), Orange Coast (12-8) and Saddleback (12-5) earned berths in the Southern California playoffs, which start tonight.

Golden West, the second-seeded team, plays host to Citrus (12-4). Orange Coast, the No. 6 team, will host Bakersfield (11-7) and No. 8 Saddleback will host No. 9 Cuesta (14-4). All matches are at 7 p.m.

The eight first-round winners advance to the second round Nov. 29. The four winners move on to the State tournament, Dec. 2-4 at DeAnza College in Cupertino.

Cerritos (19-0) is the top-seeded in Southern California and the Falcons play host to Chaffey (9-8). Cerritos is the only team to defeat Golden West, which has won three of the last four State titles.

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Men’s soccer: Rancho Santiago, the Orange Empire Conference champion, and second-place Orange Coast open in the playoffs today.

The Dons (15-2-3) play host to No. 7 San Diego Mesa (11-3-8) and Orange Coast (10-5-4) is at top-seeded East Los Angeles (17-2-1).

The winner of the Rancho Santiago-San Diego Mesa game takes on the Glendale-San Bernardino Valley winner. The OCC-East L.A. winner plays the Santa Barbara-San Diego City winner. The second round is Saturday.

The surviving two teams from Southern California meet the two teams from Northern California in the State tournament, Dec. 3-4 at Consumnes River College in Sacramento.

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Women’s soccer: Cypress (16-0-2), the top-seeded team in Southern California, plays host to No. 4 Moorpark (9-3-4) in a first-round playoff game at 1 p.m. Saturday. Palomar is at Bakersfield in the other game.

The winners move on to the State tournament, Dec. 3-4 at Consumnes River.

Cypress, which has outscored opponents, 73-3, this season, is trying to get to the title game for the second consecutive season. The Chargers lost to DeAnza on penalty kicks in last season’s championship game.