CdM’s Decker, Smith resign
Corona del Mar High girls’ basketball coach Mark Decker had known the members of this year’s senior class for several years.
It almost seemed like just yesterday that Natalia Bruening, Krista Anderson and Kelly Tam came into the program as freshmen.
“It’s like, wow, that time flies by,” Decker said Tuesday. “I want to be able to appreciate that a little bit more with my own kids.”
Decker has resigned after 10 seasons. He’s not the only varsity head-coaching position that the Sea Kings need to fill this summer.
CdM softball coach Carly Smith has also resigned after four seasons, she confirmed Tuesday.
Decker and the aforementioned graduating seniors helped CdM accomplish big things the last three years, making three straight trips to the CIF semifinals and winning the program’s first two CIF State playoff games. In 2014-15, the Sea Kings also shared the Pacific Coast League title for just the second time in program history.
Decker now hopes to be as involved in the lives of his daughters. Sophie will be a freshman at Edison High next year, while Tatum will be entering middle school.
“I figure if they’re like most teenagers, they’re not going to want to be around us for too much longer,” Decker said. “So I want to take advantage of the time when they still enjoy being at home and being with us.”
With the 6-foot-4 Bruening, a three-time Newport-Mesa Player of the Year bound for UC Santa Barbara, the Sea Kings went 24-8 this past season. They nearly made their first CIF Southern Section title game in Decker’s tenure but lost at La Cañada, 55-52, in the Division 3A semifinals on a controversial three-pointer at the buzzer.
CdM then beat La Costa Canyon in the opening round of the CIF State Southern California Regional Division IV playoffs before again losing at La Cañada, 57-39, in the quarterfinals.
The Sea Kings went 146-139 in Decker’s 10-year run. He will remain a social studies teacher at CdM. Decker, who prior to CdM was an assistant at Orange Coast College and the boys’ head coach at Irvine High, said he is pretty sure he will coach again.
“As I told [CdM athletic director Don] Grable, I don’t know if it will be one year, or five years, or what,” Decker said. “I love coaching. I really struggled with this decision. Even though we have a totally new and really young group that’s in there right now, I was having a lot of fun with them. I’m sure I’ll be coaching again somehow, someway, but I feel this is a good time to step back, take a break and recharge the family.”
Smith resigned after four years at the softball helm. A walk-on coach, she was unable to continue after accepting a teaching position at TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa.
The Sea Kings went 17-76 in her four years in charge and have not won a Pacific Coast League game since 2008.
“I do regret that I wasn’t as successful as I wanted to be, but my time with the girls was awesome,” Smith said. “It was a tough decision for me to make. I will miss the girls and I will miss the program, but this is my career and I have to put my career first. At TeWinkle we get out at 3:35 [p.m.]. It’s not enough time to coach, unfortunately.”
Smith said her assistant coach, Jordann Wakabayshi, was likely interested in the job, but will have to go through the formal interview process.
Grable said he hopes to hold interviews for both openings in July. Applicants should send a letter of intent, up to three letters of recommendation and a resume to dgrable@nmusd.us by July 5.
