ECR's Orlando looks to make the best of the situation

Vince Orlando and Richard Yi showed up at the El Camino Real of Woodland Hills girls' soccer match Wednesday at Granada Hills to watch the Conquistadores battle the rival Highlanders in a showdown for first place in the West Valley League.

They wound up talking more about the current state of the ECR baseball program.

Orlando was named the Conquistadores interim baseball coach Wednesday, replacing Billy Ramirez, who served as head coach for one year after taking over for longtime program head Matt LaCour, who left ECR to coach at Harvard-Westlake of Studio City last season.

"Principal (Dave) Fehte felt the need to go in a different direction," said Yi, ECR's athletic director. "Vince is going to be the interim coach for one year and Billy will remain on staff as a (physical education) teacher."

Orlando, the assistant athletic director and girls' golf coach, was looking to focus more on administrative duties after coaching with LaCour during the 2005 and '06 seasons, but the Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks graduate possessed the most baseball knowledge of anyone on staff, especially with the decision being made less than a month before the Conquistadores' season opener.

"It's definitely an unfortunate turn of events and set of circumstances that have led to this, but it is because of my respect for Mr. Fehte that I agreed to take the position," said Orlando, who played college baseball at UC Irvine.

"It was more out of necessity. I wasn't looking to get back into coaching (baseball) and it's an unfortunate thing to happen so close to the start of the season. But somebody had to step in, and with the amount of respect I have for our administration and with the position requiring someone with a certain level of experience, I felt compelled to do it."

ECR, which captured its last City Section championship in 2005, went 17-14 last season under Ramirez -- who had coached in the program since 2001 -- and was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

"It's strictly an interim, one-year position and I'm going to do the best job I can," Orlando said. "I know a lot of the kids from when I coached with Matt and we're just going to look to make the best of the situation."

Orlando said the search will begin to find a permanent replacement approximately a month after the season starts.