Peñaloza: Molina making the right moves for Costa Mesa
At 24, Mike Molina is the youngest high school boys’ basketball coach in the area. His team is struggling in his second season in charge of Costa Mesa, but Molina is making the right decisions.
Molina is teaching the Mustangs what’s right from wrong. Case in point, in a big Orange Coast League matchup at home against Godinez on Wednesday, he sat his entire starting backcourt for disciplinary reasons. The Mustangs wound up losing at home to Godinez, 57-32, keeping them winless through three games in league play.
The contest probably would’ve been closer had Molina played the two guards — Calvin Ko and Chris Calderon — he benched. Last season, Costa Mesa edged Godinez twice by two points, allowing the Mustangs to finish second in league, one game ahead of the Grizzlies.
Sitting Ko and Calderon against league favorite Godinez wasn’t an easy decision for Molina, but he said he felt he had to make it after the juniors broke team rules.
“That’s something you got to think about as a coach. You got to sit back and say, ‘Hey, do we let them slide?’ or do we say, ‘Hey, this isn’t what is expected from you,’” Molina said. “At the end of the day, character is always going to build a program up. It’s never going to be talent or what the big game is. At the end of day, we need to make sure these kids are getting ready for life and getting ready for society. There’s going to be rules everywhere you go. You’re going to have a boss one day, you’re going to have someone [you’re going to have to answer to]. We got to make sure we set that standard here while they’re young.
“No one guy is above the team. No one guy is above the program. Especially when you’re a young coach, you got to make sure to set the standard on what you want, and you got to make sure kids understand that.”
Molina played for Costa Mesa and he deeply cares about the school. His team earned its first win in league on Friday by beating Saddleback. The result ended a five-game skid and marked the first win by the Mustangs (8-12, 1-3 in league) in the New Year.
—
•The Corona del Mar boys’ lacrosse season is in the spring, yet many of its members have teamed up in the offseason and the players are enjoying success on the club level.
The Kings Gold team, comprised of CdM players, won the Sand Storm Lacrosse Festival for the second straight year. The team defeated another program from Orange County, Rip City, 5-4, in the final of the top high school division in Indio last Sunday.
The senior Crance twins, Hugh, a defender, and Hoyt, a goalie, who are bound for Notre Dame and Yale, respectively, for lacrosse, and Brown-junior commit Jason Simaan helped the Kings go 6-0 during the two-day tournament. Other key contributors included senior attackers Max Kline, Noah Howe and Nino Chavez, as well as senior midfielder Ben Palitz and senior defender Brian Leguay.
—
•Sage Hill School has dropped its last 10 boys’ basketball games to rival St. Margaret’s. Sage Hill can end its losing ways to the Tartans on Tuesday, when it plays host to St. Margaret’s at 7:30 p.m.
Sage Hill is in second place in the Academy League, a game behind St. Margaret’s and Crean Lutheran. Sage Hill lost at St. Margaret’s, 59-49, on Jan. 6, and it pulled off a 59-55 upset at Crean Lutheran, ranked No. 8 in the CIF Southern Section Division 4A poll, last Tuesday.
Getting past St. Margaret’s (14-5, 5-1 in league) would be a major hurdle for the Lightning (13-5, 4-2). Only once has Sage Hill been able to defeat the Tartans, coming five seasons ago.
—
•For the fourth time in nine seasons under Coach Ryan Schachter, the CdM boys’ basketball team went perfect through the first round of Pacific Coast League action.
The Sea Kings improved to 5-0 in league after winning at Northwood, 58-42, on Friday. The other three times CdM went undefeated in the first go around in league was in 2010-11, 2009-10 and 2007-08, and each time it went on to win or share the league title.
Schachter has the talent and depth to guide CdM to its third undefeated league crown during his watch.