Dr. Denise Selbe is no stranger when it comes to leading athletic departments. Selbe started her 34-year career coaching girls’ varsity basketball for Cypress High School alongside her husband, Mr. John Selbe. She then became an administrator, overseeing the intramural athletic program. After her stint as an administrator, she’s also held the positions of  vice-principal and principal at both the junior high and high school levels. With this level of leadership experience accompanied with her passion for sports, Selbe feels right at home as the Athletic Administrator for LBUSD.

“As silly as it might sound it’s almost like this position was designed for somebody like me,” said Dr. Selbe. “It was like all the things that I’ve done [personally and professionally] bottled up into one professional position.” 

Our community has embraced Selbe with open arms and have tried to make this as easy a transition for her as possible. Her diverse resume in both the athletic, educational, and administrative fields make her an amazing addition to any district staff so when LBUSD had the chance to add her they jumped at the opportunity. 

“She has a unique background with both administrative and athletic supervision experience that we felt made her the perfect fit for our newly created District Athletic Administrator position,” said Assistant Superintendent Michael Conlon.

Dr. Selbe fell in love with our district after John Selbe took a job as the assistant coach for the LBHS football team. She recalls being attracted to the smaller community and the pride it has for its school system. After 32 years of working for the Anaheim Union High School District, and learning more about our district, she decided that the opportunity to work in Laguna was too good to pass up and applied for the job at LBUSD.

“I just fell in love with this community, and learned more about it from an educational standpoint,” said Selbe.  

Selbe’s plan to improve athletics at LBHS includes the athletic department and the entire student body as well. She greatly values student presence at all sporting events and is aware of the difference it makes to have that support. She attributes the recent spike in student section presence to Mr. Tu’s ASB class motivating the student body to show up for more games.

“We want to try to build up excitement about LBHS athletics, not just in football but across all sports, and try to build that presence. Mr. Tu is also doing a great job of getting the ASB leaders to go out to all games, so I believe we will start to see more of a presence at games and we will work together with ASB to make that happen.”  

Dr. Selbe plans to improve LBHS athletics, starting with the coaches. She believes that with this level of communication coaches can be the gateway to unlocking an athlete’s full potential, which, in turn, will benefit the teams.

“It really is important that coaches feel that they are supported through the administration, and they feel that there is good communication within the departments so that they can ultimately put together the best program that trickles down to our student-athletes.”  

Her philosophy is that the relationship and discipline that students build with their teammates and coaches far outweighs the amount of wins and losses each team experiences. 

“We want to make sure we’re doing things the right way, that we’re representing our school and our community in a way that would make anybody feel proud,” said Dr. Selbe. “We want to feel proud about the representation that we have through sports, but we do want to win!”