How does a cowboy retire?

Richard Dunn

While retirement is official for longtime former Costa Mesa High

teacher and coach John Carney, the amiable football and track man is

merely entering another phase in life.

“I’m working for my wife (Sue) and working for free,” Carney said

from a jewelry show in Tucson, Ariz., where the family business has

been stationed for two weeks.

Carney, whose last day at Costa Mesa was Jan. 31, will be the

center of attention Sunday at a retirement party hosted by school

vice principal Kirk Bauermeister, the former Costa Mesa athletic

director and baseball coach.

“When I left, I felt like I was walking away from some great

kids,” Carney said. “Our new administration has really shored things

up with Kirk and the new principals, but, you know, it’s time. It’s

hard walking away from those kids. They’ve got a lot of positive

energy and I’ve made some great friends the last 35 years.”

Carney, a Mesa coach for 34 years, said he’s been “a lucky person”

and “lived a special life” while living “a dream ... most people

don’t get to do what they dream of doing and have fun while you’re

doing it.”

Carney, 58, and his wife design and manufacture jewelry. They have

also operated a gift shop outside of Mariposa -- the heart of

California’s gold country -- for several years and two months ago

purchased an old wooden 3,000-square foot facility in downtown

Mariposa. “It was an old bar built in 1876,” Carney said. “It has

wooden walls and wooden ceiling and mirrors and cases behind the bar.

We just can’t get it open yet ... if (a large gift shop) doesn’t

work, I’m turning it into a bar. Heck, beer licenses are cheap in

those little towns.”

Carney and his wife plan to split time between Mariposa and

Huntington Beach, where they have lived for several years.

Carney, who said he was “8 or 9 years old” when he first decided

that he wanted to be a teacher and coach, was the Mustangs’ longtime

varsity boys and girls track and field coach, while serving as a

fixture in the football program since he began at Costa Mesa

following the summer of love in 1969.

Carney shared varsity head football coaching duties with Jim Hagey

from 1981 through ‘83, before returning to the assistant ranks. He

took over the freshman football program in 1996 and immediately

turned the Mustangs into winners as the first group captured the

Pacific Coast League championship, one of the highlights of his

coaching career.

There were at least two other freshman-level football titles under

Carney, including last autumn, his final gridiron season. A driver’s

education, health and physical education teacher, Carney has been

known as a teacher and coach with humor, compassion and patience,

while building lifelong friendships with his colleagues. He also

taught history and coached cross country and basketball.

The former Folsom High football and track standout, who later

played football at Sacramento State, coached at Serra College for one

year before arriving at Costa Mesa.

After his first year at Mesa, however, Carney, who had enlisted in

the U.S. National Guard during the Vietnam War, was shipped to Ft.

Polk, La., for medic training, then was stationed at a burn center in

San Antonio for four months, where he saw the gruesome results of

war.

“War is ugly,” Carney said. “When you see guys with no arms or no

legs, it makes you want to kiss yourself.”

These days for Carney give even more reason to celebrate.

Sunday’s retirement party at Bauermeister’s residence is from 4

p.m. to 8 p.m. at 3109 Jefferson Ave. in Costa Mesa.