Durzo pleads guilty to sports camp assault charges

Scott Durzo, a former assistant basketball coach at Los Alamitos High School, Westerly High, and a well-known operator of local youth sports camps , has pleaded guilty to numerous assault charges of a teenage boy from 2005 through 2009.  

Durzo was arrested in May 2014, after the boy reported the abuse to the police.  Other victims later came forward, but it was the original charge that had the best evidence, so prosecutors agreed to drop some charges in return for Durzo’s guilty plea.  Durzo is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 28 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana and is expected to get three years in prison, according to prosecutors.  

Durzo, a Long Beach native who lived for over twenty years in Seal Beach, was well known for his Total Sports Camp which ran at McGaugh during holidays and summer vacations.  He was also an assistant basketball coach and campus security administrator at Los Alamitos High,  a regular volunteer coach for Los Al NJB if there were not enough not enough parents to fill the positions, and a well-known figure in Old Town Seal Beach.  He was very involved in the marketing of the Abbey hats when baseball home run champ Mark McGwire turned that item into one of the most sought-after gift items during is record-breaking year in 1998.   In addition to his sports camps, Durzo also had a side business as a professional photographer covering local events ranging from weddings to surf competitions.