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Retiring coach, former student named to LCHS hall of fame

La Cañada High School soccer coach Louie Bilowitz holds the runner-up trophy after playing in the CIF SS Girls Div 5 final match vs. St. Margaret's High School at Corona High School in Corona, Ca., on Saturday, March 8, 2014.

La Cañada High School soccer coach Louie Bilowitz holds the runner-up trophy after playing in the CIF SS Girls Div 5 final match vs. St. Margaret’s High School at Corona High School in Corona, Ca., on Saturday, March 8, 2014.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
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Coach Louie Bilowitz and former Spartan Josh Henderson — whose prowess on the soccer field earned La Cañada High School national honors in 1995 — will be inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony Sunday.

Bilowitz, who began coaching in 1987 and plans to retire at the end of the year, will be the first ever coach to receive the honor, started in 1989 to bring attention to La Cañada High’s athletic excellence, according to Hall of Fame administrator, coach and teacher James Harvey.

“When I first started it, I wanted to honor the kids, the athletes,” Harvey said. “But the more I thought about it, a lot of collegiate (halls of fame) have coaches, general managers and administrators. They can make important contributions, too.”

Graduating with the Class of 1995, Henderson was the star player on the undefeated 25-0 CIF champion soccer team his senior year, scoring 41 goals and 34 assists despite missing the season’s first 10 games because of chickenpox.

He was named LCHS Player of the Year for soccer, the first time the honor was ever bestowed for the sport, as well as the CIF Player of the Year and the Rio Hondo League Player of the Year.

After graduation, Henderson attended Duke University on a full scholarship and was named National Player of the Year as a freshman. Professionally, he’s played for teams in England and Scotland and was the 2011 draft pick of the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Today, married to high school sweetheart Diana (Collins), and with sons Jace, 8, and 4-year-old Jaxon, 38-year-old Henderson lives in Glendora and coaches soccer for the club F.C. Golden State. He said in an interview Tuesday he was pleasantly surprised to hear he’d made the Hall of Fame.

“It’s really a culmination of everything we tried to accomplish, and eventually did accomplish, as a team,” he said. “No matter what happens in your life, those memories stay with you forever. So it’s kind of cool to be circling back around 20 years later.”

Henderson credited his success to Bilowitz’s coaching, which mixed equal parts mentorship and friendship.

“We wouldn’t have had the successes we had without Louie,” he said. “He made every one of his players feel like they were his favorite.”

Bilowitz, who will retire this year, came to La Cañada High in 1987 and has been coaching boys and girls soccer teams with passion and commitment ever since.

His teams have won 12 Rio Hondo League championship in boys soccer and snagged CIF championships in 1989, 1995 and 1996, the last two of which were both perfect seasons. His girls teams were also honored with five championships, and were CIF runners-up last year.

The 68-year-old coach said Tuesday he figured now was a good time to leave, since the team members he’s been coaching through F.C. Golden State, the Diamonds, are set to graduate in June.

“I think I’ll miss it tremendously, and if I was 10 or 15 years younger, I wouldn’t hesitate continuing,” he said of coaching. “(But) it’s time. I know it’s time when I have boys who played for me, who are now coaching their own children.”

Bilowitz plans to sell his La Cañada home and move to Orange County with wife Carol, a retired Palm Crest Elementary School teacher. He hopes to spend more time with his sons, who live in Monrovia and the San Francisco area, as well as his three young grandsons.

Looking back on his long tenure at LCHS, Bilowitz said he’s never seen another player quite like Henderson, whom he feels is more worthy of the Hall of Fame honor than he is.

“This is a kid who should have his own Hall of Fame,” he said. “I’ve been coaching for 30 years, and he’s the best young soccer player I’ve seen in my entire life.”

Former players and colleagues are encouraged to attend Sunday’s ceremony, which takes place at 1 p.m. in La Cañada High School’s North Gym, 4463 Oak Grove Drive.

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