Fountain Valley football, for many years a winning program in Orange County, has had a difficult time lately.
Mitch Olson sees a way to turn around the Barons program.
Olson is going into this first season as head coach at Fountain Valley, which has its first fall practice Wednesday. He was hired in January to replace David Gutierrez, who coached the Barons for four season before resigning in December.
He has volumes of experience.
Olson was the head coach at Kennedy for 21 seasons. He and his family moved to Georgia where he was a head coach for six seasons. After that sixth season they returned to Orange County and Olson was Loara’s coach for another six seasons before leaving to become part of head coach John Shanahan’s all-star coaching unit at Laguna Beach. Former county head coaches Mike Milner, who coached at Fountain Valley and El Toro, and John Selbe, a former Cypress head coach, are on the Breakers’ staff.
Fountain Valley was 1-9 overall last season and 0-5 in the first year of the Foxtrot League. The Barons made the 2023 playoffs with their records of 3-7 overall and 0-5 in the Sunset League, and lost to Brentwood 20-0 in the Division 8 first round.
The most recent time Fountain Valley won a league game was in 2018 when the Barons were 1-4 in the Sunset. Their most recent season finishing above .500 was 2017 when they went 7-5.
Olson is 64 years old, an age when most coaches are walking away from the fray instead of stepping into what looks like a major remodel.
He said he sees winning potential in Fountain Valley football, and a group of athletes who are ready to accept Olson’s old-school approach.
“We’re going to get kids to buy into the basic things,” he said, “which are hard word, doing the things others are not doing, to worry about yourself and not worry about your teammates. That’s the culture you have to build.
“And kids must believe you care about them, that you care about everything about them and that includes their success on the field and their success off the field.”
High school athletes are different now than when Olson was a star athlete at Los Alamitos High and when he was coaching at Kennedy. That doesn’t bother Olson.
“You’re not fighting the kid as much as you’re fighting the parent,” he said. “You’ve got to get them to let go of their kid. He’s in high school now.
“I don’t want to get an email from the parent saying the kid is sick. That kid needs to contact me.”
So far, so good.
“These kids have been phenomenal,” Olson said. “Things are going as well as expected.”
Olson’s coaching staff includes Mike Maceranka, who was Segerstrom’s first football coach and also was the coach at Laguna Hills. Maceranka will be the Barons’ offensive coordinator.
The defensive coordinator is Mike Vega, who held that position in recent years at Pacifica. Veteran Fountain Valley football assistant coach Mike Kral remains on the Barons staff.
Orange County football’s new league structures moved longtime Sunset League member Fountain Valley to the Foxtrot League that includes Aliso Niguel, Dana Hills, Laguna Beach, Northwood and Orange.
Olson figures Fountain Valley can compete well in that group. That chance for success all starts with the Barons’ commitment and attitude.
“We’re going to be different,” Olson said, “and we’re going to do things the right way.”