Harry Welch can’t wait to get back to his team

Not long after Harry Welch underwent a 5½-hour operation for prostate cancer Monday, the Santa Margarita football coach called to check on his team.

If his wife of 32 years, Cindee, had let him, he probably would have visited the Eagles in person, but she wasn’t having it. Rest, she urged, and all last week, he has obliged, taking visits from his assistant coaches and going over video at his house.

“If I’m a smart man, I’m going to somehow put my own wishes aside and listen to the woman I live with,” Welch said, laughing.

Welch said he will be back on the sideline when his Eagles enter Trinity League play Friday against Orange Lutheran, and his eagerness to return is understandable. His team is 4-1 and is outscoring opponents by an average of 32.8 points a game, largely behind dual-threat quarterback Adam Young, a 6-foot-2 senior who is responsible for 15 touchdowns (10 passing, five rushing).

“He also does the kicking for us. He’s kicked all our kickoffs into the end zone, even farther,” said Paul Gomes, an assistant who is the head coach while Welch has been home resting.

Welch admits that Anaheim Servite, which he said was “one of the best teams in the United States,” is the overwhelming favorite to win the league, which he called “the premier football league in America.”

An unseen aspect of the Eagles’ success is Welch’s coaching staff, which is made up of at least four former head coaches. “That doesn’t happen a lot,” he said.

Gomes, one of those coaches, coached previously with Welch in the 1990s, and called him the finest coach he’s seen in his 33 years on the job.

“He’s a person that is driven and knows exactly what he wants and knows exactly how he wants his program to be done, and he does it,” said Gomes, who is in his first year at Santa Margarita after coaching at Escondido High for nine years.

Welch is the only coach to win CIF state football bowl championships with two schools, and Saturday night he was scheduled to receive the “Crespi Man Award” from his alma mater, where he is already a member of the school’s hall of fame.

Welch said he’s not in the best of shape to drive since his surgery, so he’s thankful that it was arranged for a limousine to pick him up. On his way out of the driveway, he’ll pass by his garage, which was decorated with kind wishes and messages of inspiration after his surgery.

“I’ve really been blessed,” he said.

Gretzky to San Diego State

Trevor Gretzky, a two-sport standout at Westlake Village Oaks Christian and the son of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, has committed to San Diego State for baseball. He’s a first baseman and also plays quarterback for the football team.

Quick hits

Leuzinger won its ninth straight game in the Mayor’s Cup rivalry against Hawthorne on Friday, 50-30. … Kennedy running back Jonathan Williams rushed for 296 yards and two touchdowns to give the Golden Cougars (3-2) a 26-23 win against Granada Hills (2-3). … Panorama’s Malcolm Thomas scored five touchdowns (four rushing, one on an interception return) in the Pythons’ 48-21 win against Canoga Park.

baxter.holmes@latimes.com

Times staff writer Eric Sondheimer contributed to this report.