Willows Faxes in Resignation as Chaminade Soccer Coach

The Chaminade High boys’ soccer team, a program that had seen four coaches depart in 2 1/2 years, lost its fifth Monday when Desmond Willows unexpectedly resigned by fax.

Willows stepped down as Chatsworth coach in June after four seasons with the Chancellors, citing a lack of administrative support. He was hired at Chaminade in October but didn’t appear Monday for his team’s first practice or the Mission League coaches’ meeting.

Chaminade Athletic Director Ed Croson said Willows faxed him a letter of resignation late Monday, stating that he was resigning because he would be out of the country for the second half of the season.

Thursday, Cal State Northridge sophomore and former Chatsworth standout Mike Preis and Jeremy Osborne, formerly a coach at the Chaminade middle school, were hired as co-coaches to replace Willows.

Melissa Danio has been hired as girls’ soccer coach at Calabasas High. Danio, 26, is a former soccer, basketball and softball standout at Emerson College in Massachusetts. She was a three-time most valuable player for each team.

CROSS-COUNTRY

Mason’s goodbye: Tuck Mason, the cross-country coach at Ventura College for 21 of the past 22 years, will coach the Pirates’ men’s and women’s teams for the final time today in the state junior college championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park.

Mason, also Ventura’s track coach for 20 of the previous 21 years, has guided the Pirates’ men’s and women’s cross-country and track teams to 15 Western State Conference titles.

“I’m getting to the age when I have to slow down a little bit,” said Mason, 58. “I’m not burned out on the kids, but I’m burned out on some of the other things, like all the paperwork, that goes along with coaching. As far as being around the kids, I’m going to miss that a lot.”