Ditta brings winning flavor

Newport Harbor High’s new boys’ soccer coach coached the former coach.

Michael Ditta takes over after Ryan Hernandez resigned in March after five years as the head coach.

Ditta said he learned of the opening through Hernandez, a former player of his with the Mission Viejo Pateadores, a successful club soccer program. He’s now the director of the program.

“He’s one of my good friends,” said Ditta of Hernandez, who left his alma mater to take an assistant men’s coaching job at UC San Diego. “He told me some stuff about the program. What I know about the program is it was pretty good back in the day.”

The 34-year-old Ditta said he plans to take the Sailors to the next level after they struggled last year at 2-11-3 overall and 0-5-1 in the Sunset League.

Ditta, a walk-on coach, has experienced success before on the high school level.

In his last prep coaching job, which lasted one year, Ditta was part of the staff that led the West Covina South Hills boys’ team to a CIF Southern Section Division IV championship in the 1998-99 season.

In his two-year stint as an assistant with the Riverside Poly girls’ team, Ditta helped the Bears to a CIF Southern Section Division III title in 1993-94.

He also coached the boys’ team at Canyon, which claimed a Century League title in 1996-97, his lone season with the team.

Ditta understands it will take time to transform Newport Harbor into a playoff contender.

He said he will be around to see it materialize, even though his coaching stints in high school have been relatively short.

“I’ll be here for awhile,” said Ditta, a Vanguard University alumnus. “I think for the most part we’ll have a new team. There were a couple of returning players who came out to our first camp last week at Harper Elementary.

“I don’t know all the names that well yet. But there’s enough time to learn them.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].