By Ed Piper
Maggie Quita-Mulkins was reflecting on what might be called the "Golden Age" of La Jolla High academics with athletics from roughly 1970 to 1990 or so.
She referred to a "personal touch" that Viking coaches like Gene Edwards (football), Bob Allen (baseball), Vicki Eveleth (girls volleyball) and Rick Eveleth (boys basketball), even she herself had with members of the student body who were also athletes on their teams.
"You lose some of that" once coaches are no longer teachers on campus during the school day, she suggested.
What the ongoing interaction between student-athlete and coach enabled was a check on behavior, but also support from an adult staff member who knew the teenager personally and had her best interests at heart.
"The kids came to the coaches" when there were issues, she said. The relationship among them was healthy.
Quita-Mulkins became a sort of John Wooden of girls tennis during her 38 years coaching the Vikings from 1974 until her retirement in 2012. She took the Vikes--"they actually coached themselves," she said modestly--to 22 Western League titles and 17 CIF championships in those years. (One wonders where she would put all the personal mementos from all those titles!)
The La Jolla High grad, Class of 1968, served on a stellar faculty that also included Dick Huddleston and Dave Ponsford (both football coaches). "I came after Russ Lanthorne," Quita-Mulkins said (though he coached the boys tennis team). In other words, a program that already was drawing attention continued that way, was her (modest) point.
"I taught P.E. I coached track and field, badminton... I had the cheerleaders, and of course, tennis," Maggie said. As far as personal preference, she said, "I really like badminton."
Title IX, a federal statute in 1972, brought girls' and womens' sports in high schools and colleges into being. It mandated that federally-funded programs provide equal opportunities between the genders. Quita-Mulkins saw change--"we didn't have (CIF) sports" when she was a student--but there were struggles. "It's still a struggle," the retired coach said.
Imagine starting with a blank slate, and having to erect an entire structure of teams with coaches and players for each sport. That's what was required. It didn't happen overnight. And it's not finished yet.
Maggie, the child of a mother born in Ireland and a dad "from the other end of the world", the Philippines, lived in Bird Rock in La Jolla. "That was an unusual marriage," she said of that time. She said there were challenges growing up with mixed parentage.
"I used to call it 'Baja La Jolla', 'Lower Bird Rock'," she said with humor.
"There were only four minorities in the school. They hadn't finished (constructing) the middle school, then they changed from grades 9 to 12. Seventh-graders were with seniors. They lumped us all together."
"I was there when Bob Allen was a senior," she recalled. "I came in February. He graduated in June."
Continued Quita-Mulkins, "I think it was called La Jolla Junior-Senior High. (Grades) 7-8-9 (ended up) at Muirlands (Middle School). It was just built. I was the first eighth-grade class."
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