Eagles’ Crenshaw resigns

Estancia High’s Steve Crenshaw has retired from coaching soccer at the school, he said Thursday night.

Crenshaw, most recently the girls’ soccer coach, guided the boys’ team at Estancia from 1995-2004, and led the Eagles on a momentous run to the 2000 CIF Southern Section Division IV title.

Crenshaw spent the past three seasons coaching the Estancia girls after returning from a hiatus as an adjunct professor at Vanguard University.

Crenshaw said he made the decision to step away from coaching earlier in the year after becoming frustrated, he said, with female athletics and having less time during the day to dedicate to coaching duties.

Crenshaw said he had fewer girls to work with than boys, and the ones he had were stretched farther than their male counterparts.

“I think it’s a byproduct of having a small student body,” Crenshaw said. “All of our female student athletes are playing two or three sports and club sports. Sometimes it seems like, I don’t know if they go through a little bit of a burnout by the time playoffs roll around.

“About that time of the season, they’re about ready to move on and do something different. I think it’s activity for activity’s sake sometimes. That was a little frustrating.”

Crenshaw led the girls’ teams to two CIF playoff appearances in three years, and under Crenshaw’s direction, made their first playoff appearance in 10 years in 2006. Estancia lost 3-0 to Mayfair in the second round this season.

Crenshaw was also frustrated with the loss of his coaching period at school. On-campus coaches generally teach periods 1-4, then have a planning period (fifth) and a coaching period (sixth) which allows them to get ready for home games, or leave for away games, or prepare for after-school practices.

Recently, Crenshaw has been teaching for five periods and left without a coaching period.

“There’s just not enough hours in the day to get everything done,” he said.

Crenshaw is perhaps best known for his work with the boys’ teams, particularly the 2000 championship team.

“We had some phenomenal players,” Crenshaw told the Daily Pilot in 2004. “Ramon Garcia, he was the unanimous Pacific Coast League MVP for four years. He had the heart and skill to whatever he wanted to do. Fernando Lara, Miguel Huerta, Tony Serfas, Esaul Mendoza, Cesar Terrones, Irving Islas, Edson Anaya and Hilario Arriaga.”

The Eagles outscored opponents, 122-14, and went 20-1-1 as they took the championship title with a 5-2 win over top-seeded Bishop Montgomery. That season, Mendoza scored 46 goals and Terrones added 34.

But Crenshaw insisted that he wasn’t just a soccer instructor. He was deeply involved in many of his players’ lives, even if it meant taking a day off to drive players to do college tours or interviews. He helped several players, such as Mendoza, find scholarships and colleges after their very realistic Division I options were limited because of their immigration status.

“With the demographics of Estancia, that’s part of life,” Crenshaw said matter-of-factly.

According to California Department of Education numbers from last year, Estancia’s student population is 64.2% Latino, and 59.8% of its students get free or reduced-price lunches.

“I’m sure [current boys’ coach] Gannon Burks today does some of the same stuff I did for nine years,” Crenshaw said. “Coaching isn’t just about going out and kicking a ball around with some kids ... It’s maybe not as important as a kid who’s going to Mater Dei, but for a kid from west side Costa Mesa, whose family doesn’t have a background in education, who doesn’t speak the language real well, the day doesn’t end when you step off the field with these kids.

“Someone’s got to help them. If they have any college aspirations, you’re the link.”

Crenshaw left initially after the 2004 season, when several of his players got into an altercation with an official at Ocean View High, leading the Eagles to have to forfeit several games.

Crenshaw was a vocal critic of the CIF Southern Section association rule, which was recently lifted this year. The rule banned high school coaches from coaching their athletes outside of the high school soccer season, making it impossible for club coaches to coach their own players.

“I’ve never agreed with the rule, but my feeling has always been that rules are rules and whether you like them or not, you have to live by them,” Crenshaw said. “I lived by that rule for my entire tenure as coach ... I’m hoping it will open the door for some quality club coaches to get involved with high school coaching.”

Crenshaw said his main worry as an exiting coach has been the proliferation of U.S. Soccer’s development academies, an elite league of soccer clubs for the nation’s best male players whose season runs concurrent with the California high school season.

“These are kids,” Crenshaw said. “They’re not professional athletes and we’re pushing them too much. We need to give them the opportunity to be kids and do all the other things that kids do and be involved in their community.”