Catching Up With: Tim Mang

Richard Dunn

Always a student favorite, Tim Mang will retire this spring

semester after 30 years of teaching at Edison High.

But the longtime Newport Beach resident, among the winningest tennis

coaches in CIF Southern Section history, plans to remain as Corona del

Mar High boys tennis coach and continue organizing the boys and girls

National High School All-American Invitationals in Newport Beach.

Mang, who grew up on Lido Isle and attended Newport Grammar School,

Ensign Junior High and Newport Harbor High (Class of 1959), teaches world

history and has coached tennis for over three decades.

Entering his 10th year as CdM’s coach, Mang is also preparing for the

third annual Boys National High School All-American Invitational March

22-23, played at private tennis clubs in Newport Beach.

Mang, who experienced heart problems two days after the girls national

tournament in early October, has always kept a busy schedule, but is

ready to slow down a little.

“I’ve had too much going on,” said Mang, who hustles each day going

from Edison to Corona del Mar for practice or a match, while organizing

both national tournaments through his National High School Tennis

All-American Foundation, which he founded in 1998.

A former longtime member of the CIF team and individual tennis seeding

committees, Mang was a vice chairman of the U.S. National High School

Tennis Association and vice president of the Cal Coaches Association.

As a high school boys coach, Mang’s record speaks volumes for itself

with a 290-90 mark in 18 years at Edison and 176-30 record at Corona del

Mar.

It amounts to 466 victories on the prep level.

At CdM, three of his 11 All-CIF players included All-Americans Brian

Walden and Trenton Rhodes in doubles in 1993 and Taylor Dent in singles

in 1996.

Dent, who won the CIF singles title as a freshman and turned

professional two years later, reached the third round of the Australian

Open this year and recorded the fastest serve (144 mph) in the history of

Wimbledon last year.

Mang’s Sea Kings won CIF championships in 1999 and 2001, while

finishing among the top-five nationally ranked teams, according to USA

Today, in three of the past four years.

At Edison, Mang’s Chargers captured nine Sunset League titles from

1979 through 1988. In 1982, he was voted California Tennis Coach of the

Year, Western States Coach of the Year and National High School Coach of

the Year Runner-up.

Mang coached the Orange Coast College men for one season in 1990 as

the Pirates finished 17-3 with a No. 5 state ranking.

He was also CdM’s girls coach for four years, including guiding the

celebrated 1997 squad to a national championship, a team led by Nadia

Vaughan (Notre Dame).

Mang, a former lifeguard at the Lido Isle clubhouse, taught the

youngsters of many Hollywood celebrities how to sail in the 1950s when

Newport Beach was still considered a small, quiet beach and harbor town

for summer residents.

But it was tennis that captured Mang’s heart, and his playing career

included successful stops at Newport Harbor under Glenn Bassett, the

legendary former UCLA men’s tennis coach, and Orange Coast College under

Maurice Gerard.

“If you work hard you can beat others,” Mang once said.

These days, Mang enjoys taking visitors out on his boat for friendly

harbor tours.