A late arrival

Mike Sciacca

Russell McClurg said he hadn’t given much thought to coaching high

school girls’ basketball again, not since he stepped away from the

game a few years ago.

That is, until he got a call in late October from the one school

he told himself he’d consider returning to as a head coach.

That school was Huntington Beach High, and the call came from

Oilers Athletic Director Roy Miller.

“I wasn’t really looking to return to coaching girls’ high school

basketball when Roy approached me,” McClurg said. “But, I did tell

Roy that Huntington was the only school I would come back to become a

coach.

“Huntington’s such a great school and I have ties to a lot of

people there. I started my coaching career there and maybe that’s

where I’ll finish it.”

Miller was the head coach of the Huntington boys’ varsity

basketball team when McClurg served as junior varsity head coach and

varsity assistant coach with the Oilers’ girls’ program in 1991

through 1994.

McClurg replaces Ryan Bettencourt, who resigned in early October.

Huntington’s team was already in place when McClurg joined it a

few days before the official start of practice on Nov. 15.

“I think that Russell is a great fit for us,” Miller said. “When I

was varsity boys’ coach, I had the opportunity to observe Russell

when he coached here with the girls’ program, and I liked what I saw.

He has a very good disposition as a coach and is very focused.”

McClurg was the Calvary Chapel High girls’ varsity head coach for

six years and put the Santa Ana-based school on the girls’

basketball map.

He molded the program into a solid playoff contender, and his

Eagles reached consecutive CIF Southern Section Division IV

championship games in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

His ’99 edition won a CIF and Southern California Regional

championship and played in the division’s state championship game at

Arco Arena in Sacramento, where it finished runner-up for the state

title.

He’s the third head coach for the Huntington girls’ program in

four years.

McClurg, 34, inherits a young team, which has one returning

starter and three returners overall from last year.

His brother, Marshall, 32, will serve as assistant coach.

“The experience is not there but the girls are all good kids and

working really hard,” Russell McClurg said. “Right now, everybody is

saying we’re in a ‘rebuilding’ stage, but I say, it’s a ‘project.’

“My goal is to have us improve every game, as a program, all the

way down to the frosh/soph level. We will get there, but it will take

some time.”

Russell McClurg “retired” from coaching girls’ high school

basketball to coach at the club level with the National Junior

Basketball Stars, an Orange County-based program.

By coaching the NJB Stars, Russell McClurg has gotten to know a

lot of the players in the Sunset League.

In 2000, his NJB Stars’ 13-and-under team won an Amateur Athletic

Union national championship.

“I got out of high school coaching to get into club coaching in

order to prepare the girls for high school ball,” he said. “I liked

that end of it because at the club level, the level of play is

serious.”

Marshall McClurg was an assistant coach at Calvary Chapel and

coaches in the NJB Stars program.

This past fall, Russell McClurg’s 13-and-under team went 9-1 in

league play against high school competition that included Mater Dei.

The Stars’ only loss during the 10-game season was to Huntington

Beach.

“I’ve had the opportunity to watch his club team and I was very

impressed with the precision it played with,” Miller said.

“Russell’s going to be good for this program and the fact that he had

such success at Calvary Chapel and said he’d only return to

Huntington to coach high school basketball, well, his hiring seemed a

natural.”