Los Alamitos High Football Head Coach Ray Fenton is leaving his job to become the head coach at Orange Lutheran High School, Fenton and the school announced at a press conference, Friday at Orange Lutheran.
Fenton, who led the Griffins for 10 seasons, finished his tenure with a record of 80-33 and capped that run with a CIF-SS Division 2 Championship in 2025. Fenton came to Los Alamitos after a short stint with Fountain Valley, where he helped a struggling Baron program back to a winning record.
Prior to Fountain Valley, Fenton coached at his Alma Mater, Cypress High, where he coached the Centurions to a CIF-SS Championship in 2007. Over the course of his career, he has built or re-built several programs into winning form. He’s won several state and regional coach of the year honors, including LA Times Coach of the Year.
“Coach Fenton brings proven leadership and a deep commitment to developing student-athletes who compete with integrity and grace,” Orange Lutheran stated in a social media post about his hiring.
Los Alamitos High put out a statement thanking Fenton for his commitment to the Griffin program, noting the incredible 10 years.
“Your commitment to our athletes went far beyond the field,” the football program stated in a social media post directed to Fenton. “Through your leadership, you taught our boys the value of discipline, hard work, and accountability while inspiring them to become strong leaders and teammates.”
Part of Fenton’s program often entailed non-football activities, such as assigning books to be read by the players of the summer break. In 2018, Fenton assigned the book Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual, by Jocko Willink, a former Navy Seal turned author and motivational speaker.
The team then reached out to Willick to see if he would visit the school. Willick responded with a challenge. He said if the students could do 1 million burpees in a month, he would visit. The team began counting their burpees and enlisted the community through word of mouth and social media, to get others to contribute to the total.
The movement went viral, with students throughout the school and groups doing burpees on short videos and sending them to the team to be added to the count. Teenagers at the fast food job were knocking out a few burpees and sending in the video. Board members at meetings were doing the same. Groups from universities as far away as Tennessee and Wyoming were sending videos with #losalmillionburpees to be added to the count.
Fenton also met with Los Al players on Friday to inform them of the change. Fenton noted in news report that the response was mostly happy for him. Fenton will move from the Alpha League to the Trinity League, which he called the toughest league in the country.
Orange Lutheran made the decision to seek a new coach, after the team went 3-9 and 1-4 in league play in 2025. The private school league also includes Santa Margarita, St. John Bosco, Mater Dei, Servite and JSerra Catholic.
