By Ed Piper
With the hiring of Coach Kelly Drobeck, who had won 13 CIF titles and 17 league titles in volleyball at Cathedral Catholic, at La Jolla High five years ago, LJHS Athletic Director Paula Conway did not shy away from hiring what might have been termed a controversial coach.
Brian McManus is Conway's latest crafty hire. McManus will pilot the Viking girls soccer team into the abbreviated 2021 season. The Scotsman, as will be remembered, was forced to resign at UCSD in 2018 over "Pizzagate" after 31 years coaching there.
On multiple occasions, athletes on the Triton women's team were given money after games to buy pizza. NCAA regulations, as archaic as they may be, prohibit providing food or board or other gifts to team members on on scholarship.
In any case, McManus's presence promises to keep the LJHS girls program at the high level it maintained under long-time Coach Kristin "Jonesy" Jones, who, oddly enough, was McManus's senior assistant coach and is now head coach at UCSD with his departure.
For years, Jonesy, as she is known, coached in both programs. The Vikings won the CIF title in 2017.
Drobeck has gone on to maintain the high level of performance of the LJHS girls volleyball program.
Neither Drobeck nor McManus hung under a cloud of suspicion for their performances at their previous schools. Drobeck was forced out of Cathedral Catholic, the successor school to USDHS (USDHS was her alma mater), by a vocal group of parents who complained that Drobeck's workouts were too demanding.
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