Don Minard

SPORTS BACKGROUND

When my oldest Daughter Carolyn wanted to join a rec softball team with her next door neighbor friend in 1974 I thought it was a foolish idea but by the end of that first season I was hooked and signed up to coach the following year. When my youngest daughter Laura was 12 a travel ball coach asked her and several other players from my rec ball team to join his travel team and recruited me to coach with him. I coached and managed several successful travel teams and programs and in 2000 joined the Firecrackers where I continue to coach.

Because I had a job in the morning before school and another job after school I was not able to participate in any of the H.S. team sports. The track coach however did not have enough athletes so although I couldn’t attend practices I was able to compete in weekend track meets where I ran sprints, middle distances, long jump and high jump.

BUSINESS BACKGROUND

Worked for a major typewriter company for many years becoming a branch manager in Long Beach. In 1974 it was becoming evident that the typewriter was an ageing dinosaur so I left the company and went to work for Newport Mesa Unified School District where I completed my 20th year in administration prior to my retirement in 1994.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Met my wife Mary Beth in Vancouver B.C. in 1959 and we were married in 1962. In 1964 we immigrated to the United States and in 2000 we became U.S. citizens. We have two daughters Carolyn and Laura and a granddaughter Sarah 18, Grandson Colin 15, Granddaughter Maya 13, and Granddaughter Zoey 8.