Dan O’Shea’s decision to become St. Margaret’s football coach ‘all about family’

Coach Dan O’Shea with his wife Elizabeth and the couple’s sons Jack (right) and Peter after the CdM won the CIF Division 1-A state title in 2019. (Photo: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).

Dan O’Shea’s decision to pursue a new challenge as head football coach at St. Margaret’s High School was all about family.

The well respected former coach of Corona del Mar said he wants to spend more time with his wife Elizabeth, and the couple’s young sons, Jack, age 7, a first grader and Peter, 5, who is in kindergarten at St. Margaret’s.

The move to St. Margaret’s, where his wife teaches and is math department chair and the his children attend, allows that to happen. The family lives in San Juan Capistrano, not far from the St. Margaret’s campus.

“We got married in the summer of 2014, she’s been with me for eight years as football coach up at Corona del Mar and it was her who in 2015 encouraged me so much to take the head coaching job at CdM,” O’Shea said.

O’Shea said his wife has been “willing to put up with the hours of being a Corona del Mar football coach, but we’re lucky enough to have a 5 and 7-year-old now.”

But getting home at 7 p.m. and only seeing his boys an hour before they go to bed has “been difficult, because she ends school at 3:15 and they got basketball practice at 3:30 and soccer practice at 4:30 and camp at 5:30,” O’Shea said in an interview with OC Sports Zone.

“I’ve been involved with that community for all this time as a parent. I’m good friends with Kory Minor (the former coach), I spoke to him at length today. We’ve had a wonderful relationship and I just assumed he would be there forever. So when the opportunity came up a few weeks ago, I thought, ‘maybe now is the time,’ because I knew all the people in the administration, from the assistant principal to the principal to the head of school, to the AD.

“I go by school every day and say hello to all these people so I knew that was the only place I would ever go to, I just didn’t know it would come together in light of Kory stepping away, so it probably fast forwarded, because at Corona del Mar, I thought and the coaching staff always thought that was the single best football coaching job in the country and it was an honor to be there.

“But I want to spend time around my little guys, just like our legendary freshman coach John Griffin at CdM, who has been there since 2008 and recruited me, and Scott Meyer and Kevin Hettig to Corona del Mar. That program, before us, couldn’t win a game in the Irvine league. He really wanted to build something for his kids to be proud of and part of.

“At age 53 at this point of my life, I want to do the same for my kids. I’ll have my kids after school and run over to the practice field and (they can) hang out with dadda and (I’ll) be able to watch all their stuff. And in due time, they will be playing all the youth sports at St. Margaret’s: flag football and youth basketball, lacrosse and all that.

“It’s all about family at this time and hopefully continue on with what Kory Minor has built and a host of guys who I have to believe looking at the past 20 years….. have been one of the winningest football programs in the state and I want to be able to continue to build a special thing that has a similar goal of kids being outstanding students and are focused on building the right culture and growing men.

“I take so much joy in coaching, but I don’t feel like we coach football, we build men and hopefully be able to play really, really good football.”

O’Shea will be coaching in the Orange Coast League, which has been dominated by Orange and Santa Ana.

“It’s very, very competitive especially at the top end with Orange High School, CIF championship game, extremely talented and they’re young and they bring back a lot of guys,” O’Shea said. “I was at the Santa Ana game this year and know how good they were.

“And I’m friends with Coach (Michael) Vargas at Estancia and know the coaches at Costa Mesa, it’s a wicked non-league as well, Western High School, Ontario Christian, it will be a great challenge and I’m just looking forward to having these boys who are Tartans right now on campus get excited about football.

O’Shea said he anticipates a similar approach to leading the St. Margaret’s program, a private school. The high school has an enrollment of 475.

“I don’t think it’s much different from what we did at Corona del Mar when we arrived in 2011,” he said. “Football was not a prominent sport on campus, there were 45 kids in the sophomore-junior-senior class and we platooned, nobody played both ways. And they have about 45 kids on the team as well right now, it’s a similar demographic, similar athletic department in that the kids play multiple sports, just like CdM and I believe in having a multi-sport athlete.

“Just like CdM, we’re just interested in getting kids excited who are on campus about playing St. Margaret’s football and it’s very similar to what we did at Corona del Mar, and that little 45 turned into 100 kids every year. I’m not interested in building something that is against the philosophy and the character and integrity where St. Margaret’s has always been. It’s a fabulous and challenging academic school that has been extremely successful in a multitude of sports.”

St. Margaret’s, which was 5-7 overall and 4-2 in the Orange Coast League last season, will have some excellent returning players, including quarterback Max Ruff (who will be a senior) running back/linebacker Battle Gideons (who will also be a senior) and “two wideouts who are really good,” O’Shea said.

“What’s neat and similar to CdM is that a lot of the lacrosse kids play both sports.”

O’Shea, who was a banker for 10 years before coaching and teaching for 20 years, insists his approach will be similar to what he took at CdM, a public school.

“We take great value in the local kids, and we will take great value in the kids who are currently on campus, in the grade schools, the lower schools and the middle schools and build that program the right way that represents the school’s value system and mission statement and we’re going to have a whole heck of a lot of fun doing it,” he said.

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Dan O’Shea leaves CdM to become St. Margaret’s football coach

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com