MUSTANG TRAILS

Richard Dunn

Costa Mesa High aquatics coach and longtime water polo guru Bob Shupp

is about to trade one Mustang for another.

Shupp, you see, is packing it up after this coming school year,

ending a long and illustrious prep coaching career second to none in

the world of water polo and swimming -- boys and girls -- while

extending a two-year commitment to Costa Mesa to a third season

beginning in the fall, when Costa Mesa’s crack boys water polo team

prepares to tackle the Golden West League and battle for CIF Southern

Section laurels.

Shupp was Costa Mesa’s boys water polo coach from 1977 through

‘85, when the Mustangs played big-school powers like Newport Harbor,

Corona del Mar, El Toro, Long Beach Wilson and Sunny Hills on a

regular basis and often finished a respectable second to Harbor or

CdM in the Sea View League.

“That’s what made it fun,” said Shupp, who retired a first time

after the ’85 season to pursue other interests.

Two years ago, Costa Mesa practically begged Shupp to come back.

He did. But only under his conditions. In no time, the Mustang boys

swimming and polo programs, as well as girls swimming, climbed to the

top. Both swim teams captured league titles this year.

Meanwhile, Shupp’s family is on the move, on the trail to Montana

to live in a stunning 150-acre working ranch outside of Darby (near

the Idaho border) with ownership of parts of the Bitterroot River and

Fern Creek in the Bitterroot Valley. (The name Bitterroot comes from

a flower indigenous to the area with a bitter-tasting root.)

The ranch is in a valley, tucked away and hidden nicely to keep

the elements in check. On days when it’s freezing at West

Yellowstone, it can hit 60 degrees at the ranch in Western Montana, a

golden-weather spot protected by the edge of the Rocky Mountains and

blessed with loads of running water and some of the best fly fishing

in the world. Hunting in the forests around Darby and the ranch is a

huge attraction.

“The fly fishing here is better than the [nearby] Madison River,”

said Shupp, who has pooled his finances with many family members and

intends to turn cowboy after retiring as a Costa Mesa teacher and

coach.

Shupp, a handyman around the house, and his wife, Janet, a real

estate agent, have worked hard and invested wisely in real estate --

and now they’re turning their dreams to the great Big Sky Country,

where the ranch has been featured in Architectural Digest and owned

by a Native American chief.

Their home in Huntington Beach, where Shupp has lived since the

late 1970s, has been sold and they plan to move to Montana later this

month. Coach Shupp, however, will remain in Costa Mesa for another

year -- living in an Eastside apartment they own -- and coach the

Mustangs on a farewell tour.

Shupp, who resurrected a boys swim program at Costa Mesa two years

ago, will miss his family during the 2003-04 school year, but will

make the best of the situation while anticipating his vision on the

Montana ranch.

“They say you should make an apartment nice enough to where you’d

want to live in it, and that’s what I’m going to do,” said Shupp, who

has owned and managed a couple of income-generating apartment

complexes with his wife.

Trying to afford the ranch is a challenge, but Shupp and his wife

felt similarly in ’79 when they bought their Huntington Beach home,

which is within walking distance to the beach at Brookhurst Avenue.

Now, it’s a goldmine.

The family intends to operate the ranch by hosting company

motivational retreats and excursions for hiking, hunting and fishing.

Shupp, who coached at Santa Ana High in the 1970s before leaving

for Costa Mesa in 1977, is considered a conditioning expert and

hard-nosed coach with a “focus” philosophy.

“We were teaching plyometrics before anybody even knew what it

was,” said Shupp, referring to the series of jumping drills to

increase the fast-twitch muscles used in athletic movements.

Shupp launched an intense conditioning program at Costa Mesa along

with former football coach Myron Miller in the early 1990s that

seemingly kick-started an athletic boom at the school during the

decade, which included Miller’s Mustangs reaching the CIF Division

VIII title game in 1993, Costa Mesa’s first-ever trip to a section

championship game.

But Shupp and his expertise are only around one more year, then

it’s off in the sunset to ride another Mustang.