Meiss Quits Foothill to Join Chapman Staff

Tom Meiss said Monday he has resigned as football coach at Foothill High to become the quarterback coach at Chapman. Meiss was 44-26 in six seasons and his teams won or shared four Century League titles. Previously, he coached at Orange and he had 100 career victories.

“Coaching at the collegiate level is something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Meiss, who has coached high school football since 1967 when he was an assistant at Savanna. “I can stay in the area too. It just felt like a good time to make that move.”

Meiss’ new position is part-time and he will continue to teach physical education at Foothill.

Former Estancia Coach John Liebengood and former Canyon Coach Bob Hughes recently joined the Foothill staff and Meiss said he would support either as his replacement.

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Marc Ward, who guided La Crescenta Crescenta Valley to a Southern Section title game in 1997 and coached state player of the year Michelle Greco for three seasons, was named girls’ basketball coach at Capistrano Valley High.

Ward takes over for Pete Belanto, who resigned to spend more time with his family.

Ward, who will teach industrial arts, won four Pacific League titles at Crescenta Valley and reached the Southern Section semifinals in 1996 and ’97. He did not coach last season.

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Calvary Chapel didn’t know its semifinal opponent until Saturday because of rain in Central California, and didn’t know where it will play today’s game against Santa Maria St. Joseph until Monday.

Though the second-seeded Eagles haven’t lost a game in the playoffs, they lost the coin flip to third-seeded St. Joseph and will make the long bus ride to Santa Maria to play at Hagerman Park.

St. Joseph, in the postponed game, defeated Santa Monica Crossroads, 3-0.

Calvary Chapel is among the record eight county teams participating in softball semifinals.The record for county teams in the division finals is four, which happened in 1984, ‘85, ’87 and ’97.

Top-seeded Mater Dei will play at Foothill’s home site, Hillview School, which is different from what was reported Monday.

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Mater Dei sprinter Mike McNair will not participate in this weekend’s state track and field meet because of a conflicting family vacation. McNair, who holds the county’s best time in the 100 and 200 this season, qualified with a fifth-place finish in the 200 at Saturday’s Masters Meet.

Staff writers Martin Henderson and Paul McLeod and correspondents Dan Arritt and Mike Itagaki contributed to this report.