Richard Dunn
In the days before the one-sport specialization era, Lance Stewart
defined the meaning of an all-around athlete while at Laguna Beach High.
Stewart, who would later coach the Corona del Mar High girls
volleyball program to back-to-back national championships in 1992-93, was
the rarest of the rare three-sport athletes, reaping All-CIF Southern
Section honors in all three (football, basketball and volleyball).
"That's what's kind of sad these days," Stewart said, alluding to the
modern-day multi-sport athlete. "It's hard to keep up, and if you're
interested in making a high school team, you've got to also play on some
sort of club team. And that doesn't allow you to play other sports."
A quarterback and All-CIF linebacker in football, a bruising
basketball forward and powerful, four-year varsity volleyball player,
Stewart was the 1981 CIF Player of the Year for Artist Coach Bill Ashen's
volleyball team, which won an unforgettable five-game CIF final over
South Coast League rival San Clemente, 6-15, 15-10, 11-15, 18-16, 16-14.
(There were no divisions within the CIF postseason structure in '81).
Stewart's top athletic highlight, however, is beating highly regarded
Capistrano Valley in football, 7-6, his senior year, as the Artists won
the South Coast League title over Capo Valley, Mission Viejo and San
Clemente.
The Cougars were so good that year, they went on to capture the CIF
Central Conference crown under Coach Dick Enright, beating Esperanza,
11-0, at Anaheim Stadium.
"They were just awesome," Stewart said. "Beating them was an
incredible feeling."
The 6-foot, 190-pound Stewart was voted South Coast League Player of
the Year and first-team All-CIF Division III (combining three
conferences) on defense.
As a coach, Stewart listed his three years at Corona del Mar as a
highlight. "The whole experience, the whole process was great," Stewart
said. "Even in my third year (1994), when we didn't do so well, the whole
experience was just great."
These days, Stewart misses the "daily dealings" with people and
interacting with athletes. In one of Stewart's businesses, he has sold
one client "a million dollars worth of stuff and I've never even met him.
We talk on the phone or exchange emails. It's a whole different dynamic."
Stewart, who earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts at UC Berkeley,
enjoyed an extensive volleyball coaching career in the early 1990s. The
former director of the Laguna Beach Volleyball Club inherited a talented
