Artist Coach Might Lose Another Job

Michael Soylular, who resigned last year as Laguna Beach High girls’ volleyball coach to prevent a conflict of interest with his girls’ club team, might resign as the school’s boys’ coach for the same reason.

The conflict stems from Soylular’s duties as coach of the private Laguna Beach Volleyball Club. As many as seven girls who play for the club have eligibility remaining at Laguna Beach High.

A Southern Section rule prohibits any member of a school’s athletic staff from organizing, sponsoring or coaching “a volleyball team outside the season of volleyball during the school year in which students with remaining eligibility at that school are participating.”

Soylular will meet Monday with Southern Section Assistant Commissioner Karen Hellyer, Laguna Beach Principal Barbara Callard and Athletic Director Greg Marshall to discuss a possible violation, Marshall said.

Hellyer said she could not comment.

Although Soylular coaches boys at Laguna Beach High and girls at the Laguna Beach Volleyball Club, there could be a violation if the administrators choose to follow the letter of the rule.

“[The rule] doesn’t talk about girls’ [coaches coaching] boys’ [teams] or boys’ to girls’,” Marshall said.

Soylular is the head coach at the club and personally coaches two teams, a girls’ age 16-and-under team and a girls’ 14-and-under team. At least five girls have appeared on rosters for those teams, combined, who have eligibility remaining at the school. There are also two other girls whose names have appeared on rosters for other Laguna Beach volleyball club teams who also have eligibility remaining at the school.

If Southern Section officials determine there is a violation, Soylular, who has coached the Laguna Beach boys’ team for the past six years, said he would resign as boys’ coach at the end of the season.

“The issue is that I am not the girls’ varsity coach [at Laguna Beach High] and the question arises, is it also OK to coach girls’ [club teams]?” Soylular said. “The way I look at it is, if it is a violation of the rule, that is absolutely absurd.”

Soylular founded the Laguna Beach Volleyball Club several years ago has been coaching the girls’ club teams in question since December. Marshall said he heard through a friend, whom he declined to name, earlier in the week that section officials were aware of Soylular’s duties with the club and that it might be a conflict. Marshall asked Soylular about the situation and brought the matter to Callard.

“I’m not going to go out to the clubs to check who my coaches are coaching,” Marshall said. “I have a big enough job. And I knew he wasn’t coaching boys’ clubs. I knew he was involved [with] the girls’ [clubs], but as far as what level, when they practice, I’m not policing that.”

Soylular led the Artist girls to the 1991 Southern Section Division I championship and to four consecutive appearances in the state tournament, 1991-1994.

His tenure as Artist girls’ coach also included his first run-in with the Southern Section. In 1992, he was suspended for the team’s final three Pacific Coast League matches and the Artists were forced to forfeit a match for violating a section rule in an alumni match. Soylular had allowed three non-alumni to play in a scrimmage with the varsity.

In 1995, the Laguna Beach boys’ team was forced to forfeit a league match after Soylular violated a section rule by allowing a player to participate in a junior varsity and varsity match in the same day.

The Laguna Beach boys’ team, looking for its 11th league title, has won five section championships, more than any other team in a major division.