Santa Ana Valley Basketball Coach Riach Is Fired

Tom Riach, Santa Ana Valley High School basketball coach for the past three years, has been fired as coach, according to Dr. Murdo MacLeod, Santa Ana Valley principal. Riach, a math teacher, will continue teaching in the school’s business department next year.

The Falcons went 24-42 under Riach, but MacLeod said he was most concerned with a lack of participation at all levels of the program. Riach estimated that this past season there were 35 to 40 players on Santa Ana Valley’s four teams (varsity, junior varsity, sophomore and freshman).

“Tom has been on the job for three years and the progress just wasn’t there,” MacLeod said. “I’m looking to build a basketball program on all levels, and I would like it to involve more students. Tom is a very nice young man--it had nothing to do with personalities--it was just time for a change.”

Riach, who said he contemplated resigning before MacLeod informed him of his decision last week, won’t look for another coaching position right away.

“For right now, I’ll just teach and kind of relax for a while,” he said. “I’m not sure what I want to do. It was something that was weighing on my mind, too. I had thought about backing away from it.”