Esperanza High School
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In high school, Coach Rich Medellin excelled in football, cross country and track. At Buena Park High School he was a member of several undefeated teams that won Freeway League Championships. In his senior year at Buena Park Coach Medellin was a member of both the football (as the quarterback) and the cross country teams concurrently.
After high school, he attended Fullerton College where he was a member of both the Cross Country and Track teams. In 1979, Coach Medellin helped Fullerton College finish in second place at the California State Finals in Cross Country.
He then attended Cal State Bakersfield (CSUB) on a track scholarship and graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physical Education. He was a national finalist in the steeplechase at the 1980 NCAA Division II National Finals and ran on the Cross Country team at CSUB. Coach Medellin is still the school record holder in the 3000 meter steeplechase at CSUB. Coach Medellin received his teaching credential from Cal State University at Fullerton.
Head Coach Rich Medellin is currently in his 32 year of teaching at Esperanza High School. He works in the mathematics department where he has taught numerous classes at various levels. He has been a university assistant to UC Irvine and other major universities helping student teachers in their intern semester to gain experience in the classroom prior to becoming credentialed to teach on their own.
Coach Medellin earned his Masters of Arts Degree in Coaching and Athletic Administration from Concordia University in Irvine, in 2009.
Prior to becoming head coach he assisted former Head Coach Al Britt for the nine seasons between 1981 and 1989. Under Head Coach Al Britt and Assistant Coach Medellin the Lady Aztecs finished twice as CIF Runner-ups in 1984 and 1985 in Cross Country.
Coach Medellin is beginning his 38th year as a coach at Esperanza High School, under his coaching the Lady Aztecs have won 10 League Championships. They have won four Orange County titles (‘98, ‘01, ‘02, and ‘03). In CIF, the Lady Aztecs have eight CIF Runner-ups (‘92, ‘94, ‘97, ‘98, ‘99, 07, 14, 16), one 3rd place CIF finish in 2006 and have won two CIF Championships in 1996 and 2015. They have 4 times been California State Runner-ups (‘97, ‘98, 07, 16) and in 2015 the Lady Aztecs finished in 3rd place at the California State Meet. Coach Medellin has been named Orange County Register’s Cross Country Coach of the Year 3 times and has coached over 11 Track & Field Southern Section CIF champions.
The Lady Aztecs have won an amazing 208 dual meets out of 254 meets for an 82% winning percentage under Coach Medellin. The Lady Aztecs have had ten undefeated seasons in Cross Country.
Coach Medellin has been on the CIF Coaches Advisory Board and has represented the California Coaches Alliance at the CIF board meetings. He has authored several rule changes over the last 35 years, most recently allowing teams to have more than nine runners eligible to run in the CIF prelims and finals.
Coach Medellin has also written several articles for www.coacheseducation.com and Track & Field News on the steeplechase and coaching high school athletes.
Coach Medellin has been married to his wife Susan for 30 years and has a beautiful daughter Kaleigh Ann who is now 22 years old. Kaleigh was a member of the Esperanza Cross Country and Track teams. His wife Susan works for the Placentia-Yorba Linda School District as a Health Clerk at three elementary schools. The Medellin's reside in the East Lake development in Yorba Linda, California.
In Coach Hill’s first head high school coaching job, he took a struggling Esperanza program (which had not been to the play-offs the previous 7 seasons) and turned it into one of the best programs in the county. During his tenure from1988/89-1995/96, he led the Aztecs to the play-offs 7 straight seasons, won 3 league championships in his last 5 years including his last team, which finished 25-4 and ranked third in Orange County. Coach Hill is the winningest coach at Esperanza with a career 267-155 record, was selected league coach of the year six times, and was honored by being selected the head coach of the North team in the 1995-96 Orange County All-Star game.
Mark was out of coaching for a year working and receiving his Master’s Degree from Azusa Pacific University, and then joined the staff at Orange Coast College in 1997/98. He was an assistant for 2 years, helping Coast qualify for the play-offs both years. Coach Hill was then selected as head coach at OCC in 1999/2000 and served in that capacity for two seasons. Again, Mark helped lead the Pirates to the play-offs both years.
Coach Hill then became the head coach at Laguna Beach HS from 2003-2005, where he took over a poor program that had only won 2 league games in the previous 4 seasons. In Mark’s two seasons he led them twice to third place finishes in league qualifying for the play-offs where they lost both years in the second round of the CIF play-offs. In fact his second season the team finished 17-11 which was the 7th best season in the 50 year history of Laguna Beach.
Coach Hill has been a teacher at Esperanza his entire teaching career of 29 years where he currently teaches Physical Education.
