Churchill’s ‘graduation’ day nears
Mike Churchill has been referring to the big day as his “graduation.”
Regardless of the term he uses, he is moving on from his time at Laguna Beach High School.
Churchill is stepping down from his role as the school’s athletic director, and into his new role as a retiree. The 70-year-old’s final duties as AD end with the 2014-15 school year next Thursday.
What prompted Churchill, who has been involved with high school athletics for 35 years, to retire?
“I just figured that there can’t be many more (years) after 70, and I want to do other things,” the always quick-witted Churchill mused.
Churchill came onto the Laguna Beach High campus as the school’s AD in 2007. Four years later, he added the title of head coach of the school’s football program which he guided for two seasons.
He said he didn’t have any immediate “big plan” in retirement, only that he wanted to “learn how to sleep past 5 a.m.” Down the road, he did say a trip to the Emerald Isle is planned for October.
As athletic director, Laguna Beach teams won 109 Orange Coast League and 10 CIF championships during his tenure.
“These years have been very enjoyable,” he said. “To see the kids grow and be successful is a treat. The success that the school athletic program has grown to is very rewarding. I feel that I will miss the day-to-day interaction with the coaches and athletes.”
As for key accomplishments within the athletic department?
“I feel that we now have an organized, people-friendly department (AD Secretary Tracy Paddock) that will not tolerate breaking the rules,” he said.
Last year, the Laguna athletic program earned recognition as the top public school in the CIF Southern Section’s Commissioner’s Cup (three private schools ranked ahead of the Laguna program in the cup standings).
Bill Rolfing has had two coaching stints at Laguna Beach High, first serving as head coach of the school’s varsity boys’ soccer team (1979-84; 1980 team was a CIF-SS Division 2 semifinals). He helped establish the school’s girls’ soccer program in 1982, retired in 1984, but returned to take over the girls’ program in 2004 which he still leads.
“Mike Churchill has been very supportive during my years at Laguna Beach High School,” he said. “He and I share Iowa roots, and I think he has applied those good, Midwestern values to his athletic leadership.
“‘Church’ always provided equality of sports when supporting the Laguna Beach soccer programs even though he, a gridiron guy, admittedly does not understand the game — not your ‘typical’ Iowa sport back in the day,” Rolfing said with a laugh. “(He was) Always friendly and ready to help. However, I joked with Mike often that my job as a coach had two objectives. First, to win OCL championships and second, make sure my players’ parents not call him and complain. Ha-ha.”
Bret Fleming, head coach of the Laguna Beach boys’ basketball team, first started coaching at the school in 1986-87.
“I think I’ve been through about nine-10 ADs,” he said. “No disrespect to any of the others but, Mike has been the absolute best. Our athletics across the board have thrived under his leadership. I think we got along because we’re both dinosaurs.”
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Two year of coaching football
Churchill’s return to coaching high school football wasn’t planned. He succeeded former Laguna Beach High student-athlete Jonathan Todd who resigned at the end of the 2010 season.
“I was surprised that (former Laguna Beach High principal) Don Austin had me do it,” Churchill said. “I think that it turned out to be one of my fondest memories of those kids and those two years. To go to the CIF semifinal game both years was a big thing for the team and the community.
“The food trucks (at home games) were a big part of it. To have so many people coming to see Laguna Beach football was great. To be able to say that, yes, you can win in football at Laguna Beach High School, was even better.”
Laguna enjoyed tremendous gridiron success under Churchill, whose teachings extend beyond the Xs and Os of the game. In his two seasons (2011, 2012), the Breakers went a combined 21-4-1 (10-3, 11-1-1), won the 2012 Orange Coast League championship, and reached the CIF-SS Southern Division semifinals in two record-setting seasons.
Among the individual and team records set by the Breakers in those two years, the 2012 team won the most games (11) in a single season in school history, and was undefeated (11-0-1) heading into the playoff semifinals.
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Handing over the reins
Corey Brown, who previously served as frosh/soph head coach and coached quarterbacks and special teams at Laguna, was given the reins to the program when Churchill left as head coach.
“Coach Churchill is a football coach in every sense of the word,” said Brown who stepped down as head coach after the 2014 season to return to school to pursue a profession in the health care field.
“I’ve learned so many things about football from ‘Church,’ but learned more about life through football while coaching and working with him,” he said. “I will always be grateful for the wisdom and knowledge that he passed along during our five years of working together.
“Churchill is a decision-maker and a results driven leader and mentor. ‘Church’ is a winner and his record on the field proves it. He is a winner because of all the lives he has touched and the people who love him. Laguna Beach Unified School District will miss his quick wit, great sense of humor, decision-making and most of all, his great personality. It has been an absolute pleasure and I could never have asked for a better athletic director, mentor and most importantly, friend.”
Churchill coached football at either the high school, junior college or university level, since 1967. He has been the head football coach at eight different high schools (Laguna Beach, Riverside Poly twice, Damien, Phoenix Cortez, Redlands, Clovis West, Carter, La Sierra) and one junior college (Riverside City College).
As head coach at Riverside Poly High, his teams produced memorable seasons. The 1983 Bears went 14-0 en route to winning the CIF-SS Eastern Conference championship. His 1984 squad followed with a 13-1 record, and won the CIF-SS Big Five Conference title. Both teams were voted state champions.
Between the 1983 and 1985 seasons, his teams won 38 of 39 games.
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Huntington Beach High coaching tree
Two of his former players at Poly, are now head coaches at Huntington Beach High: Eric Lo leads the Oilers’ football program, Benji Medure, the baseball program.
Lo played offensive line and defensive end under Churchill at Poly (1991-1992). He also played for Churchill in 1993 and 1995 at Riverside City College, then joined him at RCC on the coaching staff as defensive line coach/special teams assistant (1998-2001).
Lo will begin his ninth year as football head coach at Huntington this coming fall. In 2013, he guided the Oilers to the CIF-SS Southwest Division championship, the first major division championship in football in school history.
Churchill was present that rainy December day at Angel Stadium to see his former player win the title.
“Churchill has been a very important part of my professional life as well as my personal life,” Lo said. “He took me under his wing when I was in high school and believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. He pushed us every day and would only except our best.
“He gave me my first coaching job and mentored me along the way. I speak with him at least three times a week. Whenever I have a critical situation or a problem that needs to be solved, he is the first person I speak with. I will forever be indebted to him. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know the path I would have taken.”
Last Saturday, Medure’s Huntington Beach baseball team won the CIF-SS Division 1 title. Like the title won by Lo’s football team, it is the first CIF baseball championship in school history.
Medure played his senior year of football at Poly under Churchill.
“Coach Churchill was the master of organization and progression,” Medure said. “Every drill that was done had a purpose that led up to the live script we would follow in team offense or defense. I learned how to write a practice plan from him. Every detail was thought out and was purposeful to our game plan that week.
“He also was a master motivator. He could make you feel like you could beat any team on any night, and he would do it without raising his voice or doing a rah-rah routine. He talked about being a man and having responsibilities and that would trigger something in us to play for each other like our hair was on fire. He is one of the finest coaches I have ever been around and I am privileged to have played for him.”
For Churchill, he knew he wanted to be an integral part of athletics from an early age. He took that road through to retirement.
“I was real lucky to find my passion early,” he said. “When I left high school, I knew that I wanted to coach football, and did it. My wonderful daughters (Robbie, Alise) and a good life…I have had it all.”
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Twitter: @MikeSciacca