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    Fryer: New football coaches at Los Alamitos, Yorba Linda take on big challenges
    • April 16, 2026

    Two of Orange County’s consistently successful high school football programs filled their coaching vacancies this week.

    These new coaches have tough acts to follow.

    Los Alamitos selected Rory Schoonmaker. Schoonmaker 40, has been the head coach at El Segundo the past two seasons and was the head coach at Santa Ana for one season before that.

    Yorba Linda promoted assistant coach John Domen to head coach. Domen, 36, has worked in the Mustangs’ football program since 2013.

    John Domen has been promoted to head coach for Yorba Linda High School football. (Courtesy of John Domen)
    John Domen has been promoted to head coach for Yorba Linda High School football. (Courtesy of John Domen)

    Schoonmaker replaces Ray Fenton at Los Alamitos, which won the CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship this past fall. Fenton left to become the head coach at Orange Lutheran.

    Domen replaces Jeff Bailey at Yorba Linda. Yorba Linda won the Bravo League last season and Bailey led the Mustangs to two CIF-SS championships.

    Bailey left to become the coach at Beverly Hills High, where his annual pay will rise $90,000 above what he made at Yorba Linda.

    Yorba Linda moves up to a better league this coming fall. The Mustangs go to the Alpha League, which expands from being a four-team league to a six-team league that includes holdovers Edison, Mission Viejo, San Clemente and Los Alamitos and also welcomes San Juan Hills from the Bravo League.

    Expectations are always high for the Los Alamitos and Yorba Linda football teams. Schoomaker and Domen have mighty challenges ahead.

    NOTES

    Schoonmaker and Domen both played community college football at Santa Ana College under Dons coach Geoff Jones. …

    Orange Coast College has shut down its football program. That’s bad news for county high school football players. Community college athletics offer high school players an opportunity to keep playing, and to get better with fewer college football scholarships available because college programs use the transfer portal so much now to pursue athletes. …

    For many years, football teams that did not finish high enough in their final league standings to be automatic qualifiers the playoffs could qualify for an at-large berth if their overall record was .500 or better. That standard is now .300 or better. Sub-.500, non-automatic qualifiers did get at-large berths in the past if a division did not have enough .500-or-better teams to fill the bracket. So this might not be as radical of a change as it would seem. …

    As Dana Hills football coach Tony Henney said of new .300-or-better threshold: “I don’t think it’s going to make a big difference. We’re talking about affecting about two or three teams a year.” ..

    At the CIF Southern Section Council meeting Wednesday a proposal to create CIF State championship in baseball and softball starting with the 2026-27 school year was supported by a vote of 72 league representatives for the proposal and 10 against it. The proposal now goes to the CIF State Federated Council for approval next week. …

    The Council meeting Wednesday also offered a first look at a coming proposal that would increase the number of automatic qualifiers for the CIF-SS football playoffs, effective for the 2027 season. Currently, the top two teams in five-team leagues and the top three finishers in seven-team leagues are automatic qualifiers. The proposal would have three automatic qualifiers in five-team leagues and four automatic qualifiers in seven-team leagues. …

    The CIF-SS computer-generated baseball rankings are much better this week than last. Orange Lutheran, the No. 1 team in the Prep Baseball Report state rankings, went from being No. 51 in last week’s CIF-SS computer rankings to No. 1 this week. Orange Lutheran’s results page was updated, thus putting the Lancers where they belong in the rankings.  …

    Cal State Fullerton will be one of the sites for CIF-SS baseball championship games next month. The other site will be announced soon. …

    Fullerton is No. 2 in this week’s CIF-SS softball compiler rankings. CIF-SS computer rankings in softball also have been adversely affected by missing results. …

    Laguna Beach senior Branson Wade pitched a no-hitter Wednesday in the Breakers’ 6–0 win over Portola in a Pacific Coast League baseball game. It is the first solo no-hitter for Laguna Beach since 1966; there have been several combo no-hitters since ‘66. …

    The Orange County Track and Field Championships are Saturday at Mission Viejo High. Many of the county’s better athletes, like the Rosary and Servite record-setting relay teams, will instead compete in the Mt. SAC Relays on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. …

    Huntington Beach boys volleyball is having an excellent season. The Oilers are 21-3 overall and have clinched at least a share of the Sunset League championship with their 10-1 league record. Their losses are to Corona del Mar in a league match and to Mira Costa in two nonleague matches. …

    The All-CIF boys and girls basketball teams have been released. They are available at the CIF Southern Section website, CIFSS.org. Oddly, Orange County player of the year Acen Jimenez of La Habra was not selected All-CIF.

     

     Orange County Register 

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