Torrey Pines High School swimming coach Richard Contreras and Monte Vista football coach Ron Hamamoto have been named 2025 Coaches of the Year by the California Coaches Association.
Contreras has coached 24 CIF San Diego Section championship teams, split evenly between boys and girls. The Falcons’ boys team won its 10th straight team title at this year’s Division 1 finals.
Current section record holders from Torrey Pines include Mia Kragh (girls 100-yard butterfly) and Logan Noguchi (boys 200 IM, 100 fly and 100 back) as well as two girls relays (200 and 400 free) and two boys relays (200 medley and 400 free).
Torrey Pines is due to compete next season in on-campus pool, the first in the San Dieguito Union High School District.
Hamamoto recently retired from coaching after 39 years as head football coach at USDHS (now Cathedral Catholic), Rancho Bernardo, Lincoln and Monte Vista, compiling a 256-200-4 record.
Last year’s Monte Vista team won the San Diego Section Division 5 championship as well as the Southern California title before falling to Summerville Tuolumne in the state title game.
Contreras and Hamamoto will be presented with their awards on June 14 in Sacramento.
More honors
The CIF San Diego Section handed out several awards at its 28th annual Appreciation Luncheon last week at Liberty Station:
• Liberty Charter athletic director Linn Dunton and volleyball official Felix Chu, were recipients of the Distinguished Service Award.
• Lindsay Rubin of Brawley and Tim White of Borrego Springs were named Model Coaches of the Year.
• Tracy Stowe of Rancho Bernardo and Ruben Valenzuela of Southwest-El Centro were Athletic Directors of the Year.
• CIF lifetime es were awarded to Dunton, Granite Hills cheerleading coach Jennifer Long, former Cathedral Catholic softball coach Margaret Mauro and Pat Moramarco, the former Vista athletic director and girls basketball coach. es are given out for significant contributions to the CIF San Diego Section.
McCarthy dies
Lynne McCarthy, who for 31 years was the field hockey coach at San Marcos High School, died recently.
McCarthy’s Knights won the San Diego Section championship in 1977, ’78 and ’79. Four of her players were named CIF Player of Year: Sandi Chamberlain (1977), Barbi Chamberlain (1978), Mary Kellog (1979) and Nancy Frahm (1980).
Notable
California’s boys and girls soccer teams will begin playing for state championships next season, CIF San Diego Section commissioner Joe Heinz said.
• Heinz says he expects 85 or more girls flag football teams to participate in the 2025 season.
• This spring’s San Diego Section baseball and softball championships will all be held on college campuses. Baseball’s Division 5 and 5-AA finals will be held May 29 at UCSD. The Open Division and Division 2 finals will be played May 30 at Tony Gwynn Stadium on the San Diego State campus, with the Divisions 1, 3 and 4 finals held May 31 at USD’s Fowler Park.
The Division 5 and 5-AA softball finals will be held May 29 at UCSD, with the Division 1 and 2 championship games held the next day at San Diego State. UCSD will host the Divisions 3 and 4 finals on May 31.
