Costa Mesa Turns Away Teams From Calvary Chapel

Costa Mesa Athletic Director Jerry Howell has told his counterpart at Calvary Chapel, Joe Walters, that his school can no longer use the track at Costa Mesa High for practices or meets after the transfer of a promising Mustang baseball player to Calvary Chapel. As a result of the ban, Walters said Calvary Chapel is considering canceling a nonleague football game between the schools this fall.

Costa Mesa coaches long have contended that letting Calvary Chapel, which does not have athletic fields or track, use Costa Mesa’s facilities has caused several athletes to transfer to the private school, Howell said. Howell would not specify which coaches he was talking about, but baseball Coach Doug Deats is believed to be incensed over the transfer of sophomore John Moreland, whose father is a custodian at Calvary Chapel.

“There’s a general perception out there that we lose kids to Calvary Chapel that aren’t strictly for academic reasons,” Howell said. “Those certain [coaches] don’t want [another] Mater Dei or those kind of situations to happen, and they feel like they’re losing kids they wouldn’t normally lose if these schools weren’t there.”

Walters, who is also Calvary Chapel’s baseball coach, said Moreland had been on a waiting list at Calvary Chapel for more than a year and that he will probably be assigned to the junior varsity team. Calvary Chapel, the defending Southern Section Division V champion, returns seven starters.

Howell said Walters wanted Calvary Chapel’s track and field team to practice the same time as Costa Mesa’s each afternoon, and that he told Walters it wasn’t going to work out. Walters had a different view.

“Jerry Howell told me that we won’t be able to use their track anymore and I asked him what the problem was,” Walters said. “He said, ‘You guys are becoming this power and recruiting our kids and we don’t want you near our facilities.’ ”

Walters indicated he may cancel the football game because he doesn’t see a good reason to play a team that “has questioned our integrity.”

Calvary Chapel was recently informed by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District that it no longer will be allowed to play football games at the district stadium at Newport Harbor High. Newport-Mesa spokesman Eric Jetta said coaches at the district’s four high schools, including Howell, who is the football coach at Costa Mesa, complained that the Newport Harbor field, scheduled to undergo $300,000 in renovations this spring, was being overused.

Calvary Chapel, which has six home dates this fall, played three games at Newport Harbor in 1995. Walters said he hopes to secure as many dates as possible at Orange Coast College.

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Deliberations: The San Clemente boys’ basketball team’s deliberate style certainly impressed one spectator Friday night. Present at the Tritons’ Division II-AA quarterfinal game was Dana Hills Athletic Director and former Triton coach Rich Skelton, who looked on with admiration.

“I love to see how teams react to this sort of tempo,” Skelton said.

Skelton, it will be remembered, was the San Clemente coach in 1979 when the Tritons lost a playoff game, 6-4, to Whittier Sierra.

Friday, things didn’t work out any better for the Tritons, who pushed top-seeded Moreno Valley before losing, 55-52.

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That hurts: Westminster’s Kristin Schult will be in a brace for the next six to seven weeks after tearing ligaments in her ankle during the Lions’ 87-75 Division I-A quarterfinal loss to Mater Dei. Schult was injured while trying to rebound Lori Hurlbut’s missed shot with 3 minutes 3 seconds left to play and Westminster trailing by 17.

Staff writers Chris Foster and Martin Henderson contributed to this story.