Trinity League’s latest hires may signal end of spending wars for high-profile coaches

As the 2016 prep football season comes to an end, there’s an intriguing development in the Trinity League that could signal an end to the all-out pursuit of championships by spending big bucks to hire high-profile coaches.

Orange Lutheran and San Juan Capistrano JSerra hired new head coaches from within their programs. J.P. Presley, the freshman coach for the Lancers, was selected to succeed Chuck Petersen, a former college assistant coach at Air Force. Pat Harlow, a longtime line coach, was hired at JSerra to replace Jim Hartigan, who was one of the highest paid coaches in Southern California.

Officially, both hires were made because they reflect the “culture commitment” of their schools. Unofficially, some have speculated that perhaps the schools have decided that catching up to powers Bellflower St. John Bosco and Santa Ana Mater Dei might require too much sacrifice for a single sport.

Private schools have paid substantial salaries in recent years to lure top coaches away from the security of public schools. These two hires could be a sign of a changing philosophy.

Presley’s hiring was the most surprising. He’s pretty much an unknown quantity other than having deep ties to Orange Lutheran. Of course, it was in the 1980s when Canyon Country Canyon picked an unknown junior varsity coach, Harry Welch, to take over its program, and he ended up becoming one of the most successful coaches in Southern Section history.

“You have to start somewhere,” said Presley, who has been admissions director for the school besides assisting in football.

Waiting for email: Cole Fotheringham, a standout tight end on last season’s San Clemente team, can’t wait for Monday to come so he can find out how the Tritons did in Saturday’s Division 1-A championship bowl game.

That’s because he’s in the first year of a two-year LDS mission in Nicaragua, and he won’t be able to watch television or find out the results until he checks his computer on Monday.

His younger brother, Ty, is a sophomore on San Clemente. His father, Chad, visited him in Nicaragua last week.

“He wishes he could watch,” Chad said. “The first thing he asked was, ‘How are the Tritons doing?’”

Fotheringham is headed to Utah when he completes his mission.

Centennial vs. Narbonne: City Section Division I champion Harbor City Narbonne has signed a two-year contract to play Corona Centennial in nonleague games in 2017 at Centennial and 2018 at Narbonne.

It will be the first time the two schools have met since the 2012 state regional bowl won by Centennial, 41-34.

Both schools return their outstanding junior quarterbacks, Jalen Chatman for Narbonne and Tanner McKee for Centennial.