Catching up with: Ed Blanton

Barry Faulkner

Ed Blanton has the mind-set of a drill instructor, but the

personality of a camp counselor. Consider him old school with a smile.

So, perhaps it is not surprising that the majority of his two decades

coaching football have been spent in the role of assistant.

“The best part about coaching is going out every day and being with

the kids,” said Blanton, a former Estancia High head coach (1978-85)

entering his fourth season as an assistant at Corona del Mar. “They think

young, so it keeps me young. I’m 56, but I feel like I’m about 27.

“And it’s much easier as an assistant to befriend the kids and get

along with them. As a head coach, you have to be tougher on them and

demand more. When I was a head coach, I always told my assistants to

never let a kid walk off the field not thinking they cared about him.

There were kids who didn’t like me (as head coach), but I always thought

they should like my assistants.”

With a quick wit, an infectious smile and a passion for the game he

starred in at Huntington Park High, Blanton is, those who know him

confess, tough not to like.

CdM Head Coach Dick Freeman, who worked alongside Blanton on then-CdM

Coach Dave Holland’s staff before Blanton became head coach at Estancia,

appreciates Blanton’s approach to the game. And vice versa.

“Dick’s a really good guy, a good football coach, and a good friend to

me,” Blanton said. “He asked me to come over and help him and it has been

a really good change for me.”

Blanton, who earned a scholarship to play outside linebacker at UCLA,

shifted toward coaching when a shoulder injury ended his collegiate

career after only one season.

He began coaching at Cerritos College, then moved to Long Beach State,

where he worked with the secondary and the special teams. From there, he

joined Holland’s staff as defensive coordinator, trying all the while to

obtain a head-coaching job.

“I applied for every head-coaching job I could and Estancia finally

gave me my chance,” Blanton said.

His first Estancia team went 2-7, but the next two were 9-3 and 7-5,

respectively. The 9-3 squad won the 1979 Sea View League title and

advanced to the second round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs, before

being eliminated by Esperanza.

The next year, the Eagles also made it to the second round and that

first-round playoff victory remains the school’s most recent postseason

football triumph.

After an 8-2-1 record in 1981, Estancia went 16-22-2 the next four

seasons as numbers dwindled, demographics changed, and the sensibilities

of athletes evolved, some say for the worse. The result led Blanton to

make a difficult choice.

“My last couple years, we only had about 19 to 23 kids,” Blanton

recalled. “I refused to lower my standards of what I expected from my

football players. I wanted my kids to be the best they could be, which

meant sacrificing time and commitment. Some kids didn’t want to do that

anymore and I refused to compromise. I like the fact that I didn’t

compromise what I thought it took to be a competitor and a champion.”

After stepping aside as football coach, Blanton became athletic

director at the school, a job he relished for eight years.

“Being AD really kept me involved in athletics and it kept my mind

active,” Blanton said. “It was a challenge and it let me be involved with

kids.”

Things changed, however, in the mid 1990s and Blanton elected to focus

on his role as a math teacher.

Freeman, however, talked him out of his football exile and Blanton

came to CdM as a teacher and coach before the 1998 season.

“I was in a little rut at Estancia and I was starting to become

negative,” Blanton said. “I’ve always thought change stimulates you.”

Blanton teaches math and physical education and tutors the Sea Kings’

secondary and tight ends.

“I like to keep it loose,” he said. “There’s a time to be loose and a

time to bear down, concentrate and go to work. It takes a special type of

kid to come out for football and run into somebody full speed. A lot of

people don’t like that and we ask them to do it for 48 minutes. But it’s

not life or death.”

With Blanton on board, CdM has made the playoffs all three seasons.

“We’ve done all right,” he said. “We won the (Pacific Coast League)

once (sharing the crown with Costa Mesa in ‘99) and we played for a

league championship last year.”

Blanton, a Laguna Niguel resident, said retirement is approaching, but

he is in no hurry to walk away from the game.

“Once you’ve played it and coached it, it gets in your blood,” he

said. “I really enjoy the chess match.

“My wife, Lynn, is retiring next year and I’ll probably retire from

teaching in a couple years. We’ll probably move to wherever our two

(grown daughters Jennifer and Tiffany) are living and maybe I’ll coach at

a school near wherever we live.”