Sweeney Resigns as Fullerton College Coach

Tim Sweeney, who took over as basketball coach at Fullerton College last spring, has resigned because of health reasons and assistant Dieter Horton has been named interim coach, the school announced Tuesday.

An athletic department spokesman said Sweeney learned recently he has a heart condition and decided to give up coaching because of the stress.

Sweeney, an assistant at Fullerton for three years under Roger See, previously coached at Chapman, Mt. San Antonio College, Long Beach Poly High and Lakewood High. He coached 13 years at Lakewood and his team won the Southern Section 4-A championship in 1982.

Sweeney missed Fullerton’s last two games because of illness, and Horton has been in charge of the team.

Horton, a 1995 graduate of Cal State Fullerton, was an administrative assistant for Coach Bob Hawking at Cal State Fullerton last season after serving as a student manager the two previous years. Horton was an assistant two seasons at Fullerton High, where he played basketball before graduating in 1989.

The Hornets are 7-13, 0-4 in the Orange Empire Conference, with 10 games remaining. Fullerton has been troubled by injuries this season. Leading scorer Scott Davis is out the rest of the season because of a stress fracture.