Moorpark Gives Soccer Coach the Boot

Mike Scanlon knew one of Moorpark College’s women’s athletic teams would have a new coach this year. He just didn’t expect it to be the team he coached.

Scanlon was preparing a handbook for the Raiders’ women’s soccer team Saturday when he received a telephone call from John Keever, Moorpark’s athletic director.

After two successful years as the Raiders’ coach, Scanlon was being let go.

The day before, Moorpark hired Jennifer Cowper, formerly girls’ soccer coach at Glendora High, handing her a team Scanlon recruited and maintained at a high level.

“It came as a complete shock,” Scanlon said. “I was not psychologically prepared. I’m sure it was hard for [Keever] too but I feel horrible. Soccer is my passion and I’ve put countless hours into that program.”

Scanlon, 51, compiled a 26-5-4 record at Moorpark, guiding the Raiders to the 1995 Western State Conference title and a third-place finish last year. Moorpark has won four WSC titles in the program’s eight seasons.

In the end neither Scanlon’s coaching talent nor Keever’s professed admiration for the coach mattered.

Earlier this year, Scanlon and Moorpark’s four other part-time women’s coaches were told one of them would be replaced by a full-time instructor and coach. Because he does not have a master’s degree in physical education, Scanlon wasn’t eligible for the full-time position. But he assumed one of Moorpark’s other part-time women’s coaches would be promoted into the full-time position.

“The timing is not what we’d hoped for but when you have the chance to make a full-time hire, you take it,” Keever said.

Cowper, a former Azusa Pacific player who coached Glendora for the past seven years, is trying to get organized as quickly as possible.

Asked about displacing Scanlon, Cowper was diplomatic.

“It’s definitely an unfortunate situation but I don’t feel responsible for anything,” Cowper said. “I’m anxious and excited to get going.”

Cowper met Monday with her team--six returning players and about 15 recruits--many of whom arrived expecting to be addressed by Scanlon.

Heather Zumbahlen, a returning starter and one of Moorpark’s tri-captains, expressed disbelief at the sudden switch but said Cowper made a good first impression.

“We’re all still kind of in shock,” Zumbahlen said. “It all happened at once and a million things are going though our heads.

“But we’ll work just as hard for [Cowper] as we did for Mike. There’s not much else we can do.”

Scanlon said he signed a one-year contract to coach the women’s soccer team in May. Monday, he met with Keever and said the athletic director agreed to pay him for the time he invested in the 1997 season before his dismissal.

Keever said Tuesday that Cowper would have the final say on retaining or releasing Mark Tietjen, Scanlon’s top assistant last season, and Tania Schraml, recently hired by Scanlon.

On Tuesday, Tietjen said Keever told him the previous day that he was not being rehired, but that Schraml would be retained.

Tietjen said he was offered an assistant’s position Tuesday by Ventura College Coach Steve Hoffman.

“[Keever] says it’s nothing personal, that they want to make a clean break,” Tietjen said. “But it’s hard to make a clean break when Mike laid all the groundwork and now [Cowper] gets to come in and have all the fun.

“I didn’t even get a chance to meet her, they just told me we don’t want you back.”