New period of soccer begins at Mater Dei beneath coach Frank McManus

Michael Brennan, the tall, silver-haired president of Santa Ana Mater Dei Excessive, likes to hug individuals he likes. The varsity’s new soccer coach, Frank McManus, will get plenty of hugs.

It looks like everybody holds McManus in excessive esteem. When Brennan launched McManus as a substitute for the retiring Bruce Rollinson final month, gamers gave him a standing ovation.

Brennan jokes that McManus’ pink hair and Irish blood made a giant impression on his resolution. In actuality, Brennan concluded that regardless of no head teaching expertise, 47-year-old McManus was the proper individual to succeed Rollinson.

“I imagine Mater Dei will go from good to nice,” Brennan stated.

McManus has coached Mater Dei’s defensive backs for the previous seven years. Previous to that, he was a freshman and junior varsity coach at Mater Dei for 9 years. In his twenties, he labored as a financial institution administrator. He labored within the aerospace business for 15 years. Solely lately did he resolve to alter his career, to give attention to instructing and incomes his instructing certificates. Now he’s poised to take over a program that’s the solely highschool to have produced three Heisman Trophy winners.

“It’s a brand new period in soccer,” McManus stated throughout an interview in Brennan’s workplace on Thursday.

He has been working intently with Mater Dei defensive coordinator Eric Johnson and is evaluating the teaching employees to see who desires to return. Rollinson will stay on campus till June 30, the place he’ll act as a mentor and supply “institutional information.” His future with this system is but to be decided.

“Bruce Rollinson will all the time be welcome on this campus,” Brennan stated. “He’ll know when to trip off into the sundown. We’ll assist him on his journey.”

Rollinson is on his method to Corridor of Fame standing after 34 years in cost. Nevertheless, the previous two seasons have put a pressure on him and this system on account of a lawsuit filed in November 2021 by the household of a former participant alleging a tradition of hazing in this system. It was abolished final month.

As for not releasing a security overview of the athletics program that concluded final month, Brennan, who was employed in January 2022, stated: “It’s easy. Mater Dei is a secure faculty. It has all the time been a secure faculty and can proceed to be.”

Now the Monarchs are searching for a recent begin beneath McManus, which actually suits the profile of the coach-teacher-mentor Brennan was searching for.

“He’s able to go,” Brennan stated.

McManus managed to undergo two units of interviews in what Brennan referred to as a “rigorous course of” to seek out somebody who not solely coaches soccer however can also be the one who represents Mater Dei’s values.

“I began within the youth leagues with my older sons and fell in love with teaching,” stated McManus.

Brennan was principal at Anaheim Servite for 15 years and made it clear that he likes to win video games, however producing good college students and good individuals is the varsity’s prime precedence.

“Frank loves the children, and since they know that, he can self-discipline them and management them and say issues to them in a means that makes them the individuals they need to be,” Brennan stated.

McManus will inherit a talent-laden staff anticipated to be No. 1 within the Southland within the fall, led by four-year starter Elijah Brown at quarterback.