Tesoro's Barnes picked as top football coach

Tesoro finished with a 1-9 record in 2006. In 2007, with a new coach, Tesoro went 7-4 and made the playoffs.

Tesoro, and that new coach, Brian Barnes, set out in 2008 to prove that '07 was no fluke.

Barnes and the Titans did so, and them some. Like in '07, Tesoro went 5-0 in the South Coast League, but this time the Titans went undefeated in the regular season, too. And instead of a first-round exit like in the '07 playoffs, Tesoro went all to the way to the CIF-Southern Section Pac-5 Division championship game.

It was a season Tesoro and Barnes will always remember, a season in which Barnes is the Orange County Register's coach of the year in football.

Barnes had a feeling that the Titans could be very good this year. But, like any coach, he went into the Titans' first game with questions.

He got some emphatic answers, as Tesoro beat La Mirada, in the season opener, 57-21.

"It was pretty exciting," Barnes said, "when we were ahead, 50-0, at halftime. But then I thought, 'How good is La Mirada?'"

La Mirada would be a Southern Division playoff team, but of course Barnes could not know that back on Sept. 5. Ensuing Tesoro victories against Fountain Valley, El Modena, Cabrillo of Long Beach and El Dorado kept the positive feelings going as the Titans concluded the nonleague portion of the schedule with a 5-0 record.

The big test came next: Mission Viejo, in the South Coast League opener. Mission Viejo was the top-ranked team in Orange County at the time, and was the league favorite in a preseason poll of South Coast coaches.

Mission Viejo also was out for revenge. When the Titans beat Mission Viejo in '07, it was the Diablos' first league loss this century.

"We knew Mission Viejo would be a great challenge," Barnes said.

Challenge met. Tesoro won, and by the decisive score of 31-14.

"Beating them the way we did," Barnes said, "was the turning point for us."

Victories kept turning up.

The Titans' next game was against another county top 10 team, San Clemente, and they prevailed, 28-23. Consecutive shutouts of Capistrano Valley, 42-0, and Aliso Niguel, 48-0, followed. Tesoro concluded the regular season with a 56-26 triumph over Dana Hills to take a 10-0 record into the playoffs in the Pac-5 Division, often acknowledged as the most challenging playoff division in California.

Tesoro lost in the first round of the 2007 playoffs to Mater Dei, 31-17. This time, the Titans, seeded third, won their first-round game with a 23-7 victory over Los Alamitos - and it wasn't just any playoff game.

That was father vs. son, as Barnes' dad John Barnes is the coach at Los Alamitos, where Brian played his high school football. The night was made even more special when Anita Barnes, mother of one of the coaches and wife of the other, did the pregame coin flip.

Next up for Tesoro was Mater Dei, the team that eliminated Tesoro in the playoffs the year before. The Titans won a close one, 38-35.

Another Trinity League team was next - Orange Lutheran, in the semifinals. The Titans delivered perhaps their best performance of the year with a resounding 42-14 victory over Lutheran. That also marked the third time Tesoro beat a team that had been ranked No. 1 in the county at some point. Lutheran, Mater Dei and Mission Viejo all had occupied the top stop during the season, which ended with Tesoro as No. 1 in the final county rankings.

Tesoro played Long Beach Poly in the Pac-5 championship game, at Angel Stadium. The Titans had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, but Poly continued its penchant for comeback or close victories in these playoffs and beat Tesoro, 20-17. Tesoro finished 13-1.

It was a great run for Tesoro, with great players like county defensive player of the year Preston King, and offensive player of the year Robbie Picazo. Barnes said the Titans' success also was the result of the contributions of Tesoro's assistant coaches: Ted Alexander; Bob Bozanko; David Daniels; Garrett Gray; John Hall; David Mamelli; Bob Picazo; Matt Poston; and David Seale.

"Those guys were tremendous," Barnes said.

So was the head coach.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com