Top Five Coaches of the Year: Plenty of championships on course, deck for Ingrid Herskind with Flintridge Prep
The top five high school coaches from the 2015-16 season were voted on by the Glendale News-Press sports department.
1 Ingrid Herskind, Flintridge Prep boys’ cross-country and swimming — Flintridge Prep began the fall season off on the right note in cross-country and made a splash in the spring with swimming.
All told, from Prep League competition to CIF Southern Section meets to the pinnacle of the CIF State arena, Herskind guided the Rebels to 12 championships (five for boys’ cross-country and seven for swimming).
The boys’ squad won a triple crown of sorts, capturing Prep League, CIF Southern Section Division V and CIF State Division V championships. The Southern Section title was the second in three years for the Rebels and seventh in program history. The state crown was the first since 2004 and set the Woodward Park Division V course record of 79 minutes, 40.8 seconds.
“We always had great coaching in cross-country,” Flintridge Prep senior runner Jack Van Scoter said. “Hersh always had us dialed in.”
Flintridge Prep put together an impressive lineup that included All-Area Boys’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year Van Scoter, Evan Pattinelli, Nikhil Pool, Jonathan Valhala and Shyam Patel.
The Rebels won the league title for the sixth straight season and 23rd in 24 years.
At the CIF Southern Section Division V championships at Mt. San Antonio College, Flintridge Prep, led by individual champion Van Scoter (15 minutes, 12.6 seconds), claimed a 37-68 victory against Desert Christian.
At the following weekend’s CIF State Championships in Fresno, Flintridge Prep snapped an 11-year drought with a 43-168 win over Marin Academy. Van Scoter finished second in 15:07.28.
“I’m just so happy for these guys, especially our seniors, to be rewarded for all their hard work and focus,” Herskind said. “It’s been a long journey to get here and it hasn’t always been easy, but this group has been so committed to winning this title and I couldn’t be prouder of what they accomplished.”
In swimming, the Rebels’ boys’ team won the Prep League championship for the fourth year in a row and had an athlete advance to the state meet.
But coming into this season, it certainly wasn’t a sure thing that the Rebels would be able to continue their recent dominance at the league’s championship meet. After graduating many key swimmers the last couple of seasons, the Rebels had to regroup.
Flintridge Prep made the adjustments throughout the season, culminating with a fourth straight league championship at Pasadena Poly.
“We’ve lost a lot of great swimmers in recent years and we thought we might have to rebuild here and there,” Herskind said after the Rebels finished with 384 1/2 points to top second-place Webb (298 1/2). “We were able to figure things out along the way and you could see how much they wanted to win league again.”
Andreas Langen paced Flintridge Prep with a pair of first-place efforts, with the Rebels notching six league titles on the day (one team title, three individual crowns and two relay championships). The junior, who shared the league’s most valuable swimmer with Richard Parnell of Webb, took the 50-yard freestyle in 21.41 before coming back to repeat as league champion in the 100 freestyle (47.32).
Langen also worked with Winston Chen, Sean King and Brett Bell to win 400 freestyle relay in 3:17.59. The quartet just missed the league meet standard of 3:17.36. Kasen Barraclough, Matt Ng, Ben Brookbanks and Nate Morrissey of Flintridge Prep took first in the 200 freestyle relay (1:34.88). Bell also won the 100 backstroke in 54.62.
At the CIF Southern Section Division III finals at Riverside Community College, Flintridge Prep placed 14th. However, Langen had some more individual success, becoming the team’s first individual champion in two years.
Langen won the 50-yard freestyle race in 21.46 and became the first Rebel to advance to the state meet.
2 Jason Perez, Crescenta Valley girls’ basketball — Behind a tenacious defense, Crescenta Valley put forth its most successful season, which concluded with the Falcons winning the program’s first CIF Southern Section championship.
With Perez, who took over the program in 2006, calling the shots, Crescenta Valley finished 25-10, 12-2 in the Pacific League for second place. Crescenta Valley turned the corner during the second half of league play and rode that momentum into the CIF Southern Section Division I-A playoffs.
Alisa Shinn and Josie Brock provided a sturdy one-two punch in the frontcourt. While receiving support from a deep lineup, the Falcons went on an 11-game winning streak. The 11th victory proved to be the biggest, with Crescenta Valley posting a 37-36 triumph against top-seeeded Mira Costa in the title game at Azusa Pacific University.
Crescenta Valley, which had last played in a CIF championship game in 1997, yielded 37.4 points per game in the division playoffs.
“We felt like we were a playoff-built team,” Perez said. “We knew defense would give us a chance to get to the championship game and that our offense would be good enough.”
Perez, whose team won a CIF State Division III playoff game before losing in the quarterfinals to powerhouse Mater Dei, was tabbed as the division’s coach of the year. Shinn was bestowed with division player of the year and All-Area Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year accolades after averaging 18.3 points, 12.4 rebounds, 4.1 blocks, 3.8 assists and 3.7 steals per contest.
3 Darren Bradley, St. Monica Academy girls’ volleyball — In the school’s first season in Montrose, Bradley and the Crusaders had plenty to celebrate.
St. Monica had last appeared in a CIF Southern Section championship match in 2012. Several players from that squad looked to reverse the program’s fortunes heading into the season.
With Therese Boles, Rose Goodwin and Molly Hagen augmenting the lineup with solid playmaking and experience, the Crusaders went to work in search of the program and school’s first CIF crown.
St. Monica finished 25-5-2, 7-0 in the International League. The Crusaders extended their league winning streak to 56 matches en route to capturing a seventh straight league championship.
The regular season success spilled over to the postseason, culminating with third-seeded St. Monica meeting top-seeded Irvine Tarbut V’ Torah in the CIF Southern Section Division V-A championship match at Rio Hondo College in Whittier.
St. Monica rallied for a 16-25, 21-25, 25-13, 25-17, 15-11 victory.
“It’s special, if not unbelievable,” said Bradley, who also serves as the school’s athletic director. “It’s like a dream. I was telling a couple of players, it’s unreal. I can’t believe this is happening. The girls worked so hard and it’s just amazing.”
St. Monica then reached the CIF State Division V Southern California Regional semifinals at Upland Christian.
Bradley was named the All-Area Girls’ Volleyball Coach of the Year in addition to being selected the division’s coach of the year. Boles was selected the division’s player of the year.
4 Kevin Kiyomura/Jayme Kiyomura Chan, Flintridge Prep girls’ basketball — After taking over the reins of the program in 2012, the duo put the Rebels in position to contend for the CIF Southern Section Division V-AA championship. Unfortunately for Flintridge Prep, its playoff run would end every year in the quarterfinals or semifinals.
That changed in a big way last season, when the Rebels had an impressive cast of players that included Tala Ismail, Taylor Yoshida and Renae Tamura and finally cleared the last couple of hurdles to reach the program’s apex moment in the form of a CIF championship.
Flintridge Prep finished 21-5 and 11-1 in the Prep League for first place. Flintridge Prep captured the division title after defeating San Luis Obispo Mission College Prep, 39-34, in overtime at Godinez High in Santa Ana for the program’s first title.
The Rebels won their first-round playoff game in the CIF State Division V tournament before falling in the quarterfinals to Village Christian.
Kiyomura and Kiyomura Chan were named the division’s co-coaches of the year. Tamura was selected the division’s player of the year after registering 11.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game.
5 Jan Sakonju, Crescenta Valley aquatics — Sakonju enjoyed two fantastic runs with the Falcons during the 2015-16 season.
In water polo, Sakonju piloted the Falcons on another historic march.
He led the Falcons to their second straight Pacific League championship and saw them reach the CIF Southern Section Division IV championship match. Second-seeded Crescenta Valley suffered an 11-2 defeat against top-seeded Righetti. It marked Crescenta Valley’s first title match since winning the Division VI crown in 2008. Crescenta Valley went 26-7, 8-0 in league behind a bevy of talent that included Logan Goddard, Vasil Halchev, Regan Reese and Wesley Hovanessian and culminated with Sakonju being named the league’s coach of the year.
The accolades didn’t stop there.
In swimming, Crescenta Valley remained dominant. Crescenta Valley stretched its streak to 24 straight seasons of winning at least a share of the Pacific League championship. Perhaps most impressively, the Falcons only won two league titles, but Sakonju was able to manage his depth to earn a share of the team crown.
Crescenta Valley placed 15th in the CIF Southern Section Division II finals at Riverside Community College. Some of the key swimmers included Eddie Gallehugh, Justin Sheen, William Blake and Hyunsung Kim.
Sakonju was tabbed All-Area Boys’ Water Polo Coach of the Year and All-Area Boys’ Swimming Coach of the Year.
Honorable mention: Jim Bonds, St. Francis football; Jill Riehl/Mike Roffina, Flintridge Prep girls’ cross-country; AJ Yates, Flintridge Prep boys’ soccer.
