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Associate mug of Kenny Connolly, Anaheim reporter.

Date shot: 12/31/2012 . Photo by KATE LUCAS /  ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The last time Craig DeBusk was on the sideline for a high school basketball game was in 2008.

An associate head coach at Santa Margarita alongside his father, Jerry, at the time, Craig helped the boys squad earn a trip to Sacramento, where it eventually won the Division 3 state championship.

As sweet and rewarding as the victory was for the younger DeBusk, he knew it would be the last game he’d help coach for a number of years.

“I had decided in the back of my mind that I wanted to start my family with my wife,“ he said. “I’ve been a coach’s son, and I know that lifestyle. I just wanted to devote everything I had to my family.”

Six years later, the urge to return to the sideline had hit DeBusk.

Fortunately for him, it coincided with an ideal coaching vacancy.

At the beginning of June, DeBusk was hired to take over Santa Margarita’s girls program just weeks after Matt Houser, the Eagles former coach, accepted an assistant coaching position at Concordia University.

After serving as an assistant coach for 10 years with the boys team (1998-2008), DeBusk will make his head coaching debut this winter with the girls.

“The first couple weeks, it was definitely cliché because it was just a roller coaster,” DeBusk said. “The first day was just unbelievable. Then the second day your head starts swimming with summer camps and stuff like that.”

The Eagles’ new head coach inherits a talented club that returns eight of nine players from a squad that went 22-14 and claimed the CIF-SS Division 3A championship.

Sophomore to-be Tori Anderson, who led the team in scoring a season ago, headlines the core group of returners. The All-CIF selection likely will be joined in the starting lineup by fellow sophomore Morgan McMullen and junior Taylor Donahue – both starters last season.

Senior captain Sheldon Cornwell is slated to start for Santa Margarita at the power forward position, but a broken kneecap has the Eagles veteran out for the entire summer, when she’ll work on getting back to full strength by the start of the season.

“That hurts because we were counting on her leadership,” DeBusk added. “We’re hoping to have her back by the time we’re getting ready to go for the regular season, but she is definitely done for the summer.”

With Santa Margarita ending its school year in late May, the Eagles have been practicing since June 2 and they’ll begin playing in the Tustin High summer league this week.

Making the transition from Houser to DeBusk has been relatively seamless since DeBusk began teaching at Santa Margarita 12 years ago and has had every player on his roster in class before.

“It really hasn’t skipped a beat with me trying to adjust to the girls that are out there,” he said. “I teach freshman health, and I’ve taught every single one of those girls out on that court. So instead of referring to me as ‘Mr.’ they just call me coach now.”

Regardless of who is on the sideline for the Eagles, the goals will remain the same – improve their record in the Trinity League, defend their CIF-SS crown and make another run at trying to win a state championship.

“My goal is to put this program into the top five in the county every year,” DeBusk said. “How long will that take? I don’t know. But I want to make this program the top-flight program it should be, year in and year out.”

Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com