Sailors’ seeking new AD

These days, Mike Zimmerman can take off from Newport Harbor High at a decent hour and be home in time for dinner. Friday marked one of those rare times he could leave campus at 2:30 p.m. because the spring sports season ended last week.

Getting home is the hard part for Zimmerman. The commute can last up to two hours. Zimmerman works in Newport Beach, but lives in San Dimas.

For the last seven years, Zimmerman has taken three freeways to come to work as Newport Harbor’s athletic director. All the mileage and driving in traffic has been worth it to Zimmerman because of the relationships he’s built with the students, coaches, teachers, administrators, alumni, parents and community members.

Zimmerman has been through one Toyota Tacoma truck already, racking up 114,000 miles in his first five years on the job. Car No. 2 is a Lexus and it offers better gas mileage than the truck. There’s nothing wrong with the car, he’s had it for two years and he has put 56,000 miles on it, but in a couple of weeks Zimmerman is putting on the brakes for good.

Zimmerman said he’s stepping down as athletic director from Newport Harbor, his last day is June 24, the day after graduation. In many ways, Zimmerman said he would also be graduating from high school, after 35 years of public service. He served as a physical education teacher, a baseball coach, a football coach and as an athletic director.

Zimmerman, who turned 61 two weeks ago, said it’s time to retire and spend more time with his wife, Barbara. He’s not only saying goodbye to Newport Harbor, but also California, his home state the last 31 years.

“We’re actually leaving and moving to [Bradenton, Fla.] on July 1,” said Zimmerman, adding that they found a house on the water. “My wife’s family is in Florida. I have family and friends there. We actually met in Florida [in 1982]. I went to school at the University of Florida, and I was working [at Forest High] in Ocala. She was a waitress and we kind of connected.”

Barbara has been at Zimmerman’s side since she made the move from Florida to California in 1986. Thirty-years ago, the two got married at home plate at Candlestick Park, which used to be home to the San Francisco Giants, his favorite baseball team.

“They actually put the batting cage out as a canopy,” Zimmerman said. “The rabbi actually put on an umpire’s mask while he was officiating [the wedding]. It was pretty fun.

“I just remember the rabbi saying, ‘You are now entering the major leagues,’ and we did. We’ll be married 30 years come December.”

Baseball has always been Zimmerman’s favorite sport.

He said he has been fortunate enough to attend memorable World Series games, watching the “Miracle Mets” win it in 1969. He was there at Dodger Stadium when an injured Kirk Gibson came up to pinch-hit in the bottom of the ninth inning and hit a game-winning two-run home run to beat the Oakland Athletics in Game 1 in 1988.

“That’s the only time I’ve stood up and cheered for the Dodgers and it was because Kirk Gibson hit a home run on one leg and with one arm,” said Zimmerman, adding that he has never cheered for the Dodgers again.

“The past six years [as a fan of the Giants has] been good.”

Even though his beloved Giants have won three World Series titles in the last six years, the sporting events Zimmerman said he finds most memorable have come at the two high schools he’s worked at in California, Baldwin Park and Newport Harbor.

“Going to see a high school event to me is one of the most exciting things you can do,” Zimmerman said. “We love the professional [sports], we love to watch the college [sports], but high school to me is so much more pure, and the kids play because they love [the game] and have passion for the game.”

Before he came to Newport Harbor on Oct. 4, 2009, he was working at Baldwin Park for 23 years. For 17 of those years, he was the school’s athletic director. He also led the baseball team for 10 years and served as an assistant football coach for seven years.

There have been talented players Zimmerman has seen compete, none probably like Lawrence Phillips, who went on to become a star running back at the University of Nebraska, winning two national championships and later going No. 6 overall in the NFL Draft to the Rams.

Zimmerman saw the former standout lead Baldwin Park to a CIF Southern Section Division IV football title in 1991, and then Phillips got into a lot of trouble. What Phillips went through is still hard for Zimmerman to talk about to this day.

“It’s a tragic, tragic story,” Zimmerman said of Phillips, who died in prison earlier this year while serving a prison sentence of more than 31 years.

Zimmerman said he would rather remember the happier times. He said his most exciting time with the Sailors took place on the road in the CIF State Southern California Regional Division I girls’ volleyball finals, the round in which Newport Harbor upset top-seeded Goleta Dos Pueblos in five sets on Dec. 1, 2009.

“First year I was here I never saw the girls’ volleyball team lose,” said Zimmerman, who watched the Sailors go on and win the CIF State championship that year.

“[I came to Newport Harbor] to watch some of the best high school athletes in the country perform. First time I saw a girls’ volleyball game I thought I was watching ESPN. In the San Gabriel Valley, they don’t play volleyball like they do down here.”

The move from Baldwin Park to Newport Harbor wasn’t an easy transition for Zimmerman.

Zimmerman was taking over a position held for 20 years by Eric Tweit. How Tweit went out, the school firing him, angered most of the coaches at the school, including football coach Jeff Brinkley and volleyball coach Dan Glenn, who both came to Newport Harbor in 1986. Both Brinkley and Glenn called the firing, made by then-principal Michael Vossen, a mistake.

“There was some us against them mentality with the administration and the coaches, and I was asked to come in and try to build a bridge, which took a little time,” said Zimmerman, who thanks Vossen for the opportunity to come to Newport Harbor. “It takes some time to build and earn the respect of these coaches. When you have an All-Star coaching staff, when you get to work with a Dan Glenn, a Jeff Brinkley, a Eric Tweit, whom I can’t say enough about as being a mentor, it’s an easy job. It was just a matter of getting through some difficult times, which we did because we stayed together as a staff. Eventually you build relationships where there’s trust and there’s respect, and hopefully it goes both ways.”

Three months into his new job with the Sailors, Zimmerman also had to deal with his health. He said he underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.

“They didn’t know if it was because I started here or if it was because I left Baldwin Park,” Zimmerman said with a grin. “No one could really say what it was.”

What Brinkley and Evan Chalmers, the coach of the Newport Harbor baseball program, do say about Zimmerman is that he was professional and supported all of the athletic programs at Newport Harbor.

“He was well-schooled on the CIF rules and regulations,” Brinkley said. “I enjoyed my time working with him.”

With Zimmerman being a former baseball coach, Chalmers appreciated Zimmerman’s experience.

“I have been able to personally share my vision of our program with Mike and get inputs and ideas,” Chalmers said. “Heck, he was married at [a baseball] stadium.”

For a long time, Zimmerman was married to his job as athletic director. Every Monday through Friday morning during the school year, he said he rose out of bed at 4:30, left home at 5, and was at Newport Harbor by 5:45.

“I realized it was time to go because, you know, as you get up in age, your body just doesn’t hold up and it’s time to move on,” said Zimmerman, who began to eat healthier and became more active since his health scare. “Fifteen- and 16-hour days for athletic directors is not unusual, not just me, but any of them. You talk to Don Grable at [Corona del Mar], and any of the athletic directors who put the time in it, it’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of time away from the family, it’s a sacrifice.

“[Retirement is] a new life. It’s a new opportunity. It’s good that my wife is going to be two hours by car away from her family, instead of six hours by plane. She has two sisters and a brother there [in Florida] and her mom is still alive. She’s been sacrificing herself for 30 years, and, you know, now, it’s time for me to do that. She probably enjoyed the time that she didn’t have to deal with me [when I was working], but now we’ll be able to spend some time together.”