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Whitacre retires from coaching

Fallbrook High School girls basketball coach Len Whitacre has, at least for the time being, coached his last high school game.

Whitacre retired at the end of the 2006-07 season. He had announced his retirement prior to the start of the season and had noted that his retirement would be effective at the end of the season.

For Fallbrook, that end of the season came in the semifinals of the CIF Division I playoffs. “The players responded nicely, and we got to play a few extra games together,” Whitacre said.

Whitacre also coached the North team in the senior All-Star game March 30, closing out his career – unless he finds a position which fits into his future plans – with a win in that game.

“Coaching is an 11 month a year job. It’s a tremendous time commitment,” Whitacre said.

“I’ve got lots of other ways to use up time,” Whitacre said. “I don’t have 20 hours a week 11 months a year and 40 hours a week during the season to coach.”

Whitacre currently has 11 grandchildren with two more on the way. Two of his six children and six of his grandchildren live out of state; one daughter and her children live in Logan, Utah, while the other is in the Washington, DC, area. “During the coaching season I didn’t get back to Washington, DC,” Whitacre said. “That just didn’t work for me.”

Whitacre grew up in San Bernardino and attended Pacific High School in that city. He was a guard on the basketball team and a catcher on the school’s baseball team. “I was a much better baseball player than basketball player,” he said.

Whitacre has four daughters and two sons, and Whitacre coached baseball and softball youth teams before beginning his basketball coaching career.

His first basketball coaching job was in a summer league. “I just started doing it because I had a daughter whose coach suffered a heart attack,” Whitacre said. “After he recovered he asked me if I’d like to be his JV coach.”

Whitacre accepted that offer, beginning his high school coaching career as the junior varsity coach of Capistrano Valley High School for the 1988-89 season. “Until then I was kind of minding my own business, running a computer business, and had no intentions of becoming a high school coach,” he said.

Three of Whitacre’s daughters played high school basketball while the other daughter was not involved in high school athletics. One son played high school football while the other son played soccer in high school.

Whitacre still has his computer business, which he moved to Fallbrook after his own relocation from Carlsbad.

Whitacre would spend a total of 18 years as a coach. “It’s been a kick,” he said.

His first varsity position was at Costa Mesa High School. He also coached at Villa Park High School in Orange County for three years, winning three league championships there. After moving to Carlsbad he spent two years as the La Costa Canyon coach before moving to Fallbrook in February 2004.

Whitacre sought a Fallbrook coaching position but didn’t hear from high school athletic director Heather Schulte until April 2004. He coached a Carlsbad High School team in a summer league before taking over as Fallbrook’s head varsity coach for the 2004-05 season. “Heather asked me if I’d come coach here, and so I did,” Whitacre said.

Despite the extensive time commitment, he wouldn’t have traded his 18 years as a coach for other activities. “It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

He is willing to coach in a capacity with a more limited time requirement. “I hope that I can find a spot somewhere,” he said. “I’d be thrilled to keep my hand in it.”

That likely means a mentoring position rather than an assistant coach position. “I’ll find some way,” he said. “I don’t think I could have nothing to do with it.”

Whitacre’s early retirement announcement gave the school the ability to find a successor in time for the summer league. Whitacre expects the school to select a replacement coach later this month.

“I think the thing that I will miss 100 percent the most is the almost every day year-round connection with the student-athletes,” Whitacre said. “That’s the part I find very difficult to give up.”

 

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