Costa’s Security Guards double their job by being coaches for the Football team

By Talia Gerard
Staff Writer

Two Mira Costa football coaches, Ray Lee and Sean Finnetery not only spend their time at Waller Stadium, but they also serve as campus security guards.

Lee has been coaching football and working as a security guard at Costa since 1993. Finnetery started coaching for Costa six years ago and shortly after joined Lee as a security guard.

“I was a coach at Redondo Union starting in 1989. Then in 1993, I was employed by Mira Costa to become a coach, and the security guard position opened a little while later,”Coach Ray Lee said.

According to many players, having their coaches on campus is a positive for the team, it allows the players and coaches to form a close bond that helps on the field.

“I think it’s great that my football coaches are also security guards at this school. It’s great to have guys like Coach Lee out there in the halls doing such a service for our school as well as being easily accessible as a coach throughout the day offering tips and advice on ways to get better as a player and ultimately as a team,” varsity football player Kevin Brothers said.

The coaches think that it is a great opportunity to both watch and monitor their players. Also, they believe that it will he lp them get to know their players better.

“It gives me a better chance to see the kids as individuals not just as my players,” Coach Finnetery said. “It is easier for me to coach them just because I know their personalities what they respond to better so I get a better in touch with them being on campus all day.”

As stated by both coaches being a security guard and coaching a team do have their similarities. They believe in both jobs that you are teaching and interacting with the students. However, it is easier for the coaches to become closer with their players rather than any other student.

“As a security guard I’m trying to teach the kids to do the right thing in the most comfortable way, but when it comes to security I don’t like to involve myself too personally just because that is the way I do my job,”Finnetery said. “But as a coach I give 100 percent of myself, they know everything about me and there is a deeper relationship with my players than with an average day student.”