Many Orange County high school teams are homegrown teams that are made up solely of neighborhood kids.

Laguna Hills is pretty close to having a homegrown coaching staff.

Five Laguna Hills teams won league championships during this winter season. The coaches of those teams are Laguna Hills alums.

One of the five is Kevin Macare, Laguna Hills Class of 1988. Macare coached the girls soccer team to the Golden West League championship. It is the school’s first girls soccer league championship since 2015.

“We know why we’re here,” said Macare, who is also a Laguna Hills athletic director. “We understand what it is to be a Hawk and what this place means to us. This is a smaller school with truly a family environment.”

Blake Corbin, Laguna Hills Class of 1993, coached the Hawks girls water polo team to the Orange Coast League championship. It is only the second league championship for the team since girls water polo became a CIF Southern Section-sanctioned sport in 1998.

Christian Castro, Laguna Hills Class of 2018, coached the Hawks boys soccer team to the Golden West League championship.

Bobby Morales, Laguna Hills Class of 2010, coached the boys wrestling team to the Empire League championship.

Sean Sargeant, Laguna Hills Class 2007, coached the boys basketball team to the Golden West League title, the school’s first in the sport since Sargeant was a senior at the school.

Corbin, Macare and Morales, like Sargeant, were on league championship teams as student-athletes at Laguna Hills.

“This is a smaller school with truly a family environment,” Macare said.

Yes, it sure looks that way.

NOTES

• The CIF Southern Section Individual Wrestling Championships are Friday and Saturday. There are six divisions and two of them will hold the championships are in Orange County. The Central Division meet is at Westminster High and the Coastal Division is at Fountain Valley High. County teams are scattered across the divisions, with some like Esperanza’s star-studded boys team traveling to Moorpark to compete in the Northern Division meet. …

• Servite’s hiring of Rick Garretson as its football coach, which was announced Thursday, will excite many who know that Garretson coached Chandler High in Arizona to two state championships. Garretson is a Servite alum who was a longtime Servite assistant previously. He will be deeply committed, as was his predecessor Chris Reinert. Garretson’s first challenge will be to retain the football players who might be considering transferring to another school. …

• Garretson is 71 years old. So some might wonder how effective he can be. Harry Welch coached Santa Margarita to a state championship when he was 66. …

• Fred Gambrell has moved back to a South Orange County school, He has been hired as Aliso Niguel’s football coach. He was an assistant coach at San Clemente before becoming the head coach at Sunny Hills before the 2024 season …

• Orange Lutheran is closing in on hiring its football coach. People inside the Trinity League said Orange Lutheran wants someone with at least four years of head coaching experience, but the next coach could be someone so good that requirement might be waived. …

• James Stewart resigned as football head coach at La Quinta and has been replaced by offensive coordinator Lucas Alexander. Stewart annually got the most out of the La Quinta roster these past eight years, his second stint as the school’s coach. …

• Here is a great matchup Friday in the CIF-SS boys soccer playoffs: El Toro at Sunny Hills, 3 p.m., in the Division 1 second round. El Toro is 19-2-5 and No. 5 in the final Orange County boys soccer Top 10. No. 10 Sunny Hills is 19-2-2. …

• Gabe Johner, a senior on the Estancia boys soccer team, scored three goals in a 4-2 win over Loara on Feb. 3. That night he also had five rebounds for Estancia’s boys basketball team in a 53-49 win over Rancho Alamitos. The win gave the Eagles a share of the Grove League championship. …

• Three Pacific Coast League boys basketball teams won their first-round playoff games Wednesday. Woodbridge beat La Canada, 65-50, in double overtime in Division 3; Northwood beat Valley Torah, 56-51, in Division 5; and Irvine beat Calvary Baptist 84-68 in Division 5. …

• Corona del Mar’s boys basketball team gets a chance Friday to show it belongs in the 12-team Open Division playoffs. The Sea Kings play their first Open Division game at home against Crespi. The Crespi coach is former Lakers star Derek Fisher. …

• It seems odd that a boys basketball program of Mater Dei’s pedigree is in Division 2 for the playoffs. That’s not unprecedented. It was a long time ago, sure, but Mater Dei was the CIF Southern Section Division 2AA champion in 2002 and ‘06 and 2A champion in 2003 and ‘05. …

• Because of California’s Racial Mascots Act, a couple of Orange County schools will have to change mascot nicknames for next school year. The Canyon Comanches will be the Canyon Cobras. The Fullerton Indians will be the Fullerton Red Hawks. …

• Spring has arrived. In high school sports, anyways. Saturday is the first day that official games can be played in boys volleyball and boys and girls lacrosse. Girls beach volleyball started this past Monday, Feb. 9. Baseball and softball can play first games Monday, but as a holiday many season-opening tournaments start Tuesday.