Lance Neal has been hired as the football coach at Loara.

Neal has been athletic director at Laguna Beach since 2016. He previously was the football head coach at San Marcos High and Murrieta Valley and served as an assistant coach for several years, including at Irvine  and Clovis West when Jim Hartigan was the head coach at the school.

Neal said Loara offered an excellent opportunity for him to resume coaching.

“I figure I’ve got about seven or eight years left in education,” said Neal, 55, of his decision to return to coaching. “I felt that it’s time to get better connected to the student-athletes.”

Neal is the fifth head coach in Loara football history that includes long tenures by Herb Hill and John deFries. The school opened in 1962. He will be a physical education teacher at Loara.

Football coaching changes in O.C. since the end of the ’21 spring season

This post first appeared on ocregister.com

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