Bishop Named Coach at Santa Ana Valley

Jeff Bishop, a junior varsity coach for the past 11 years at three different high schools, has been named basketball coach at Santa Ana Valley High School, replacing Tom Riach, who was fired after the 1985-86 season.

Bishop, 28, a 1975 graduate of Mater Dei High School and a 1985 graduate of Cal State Long Beach, spent the past three years at Edison as the JV coach under Jon Borchert. He previously spent two years as the JV coach and a varsity assistant at Verbum Dei and six years as JV coach at Westminster.

Bishop was hired in February as the Falcons’ swim coach but said he would not continue in that capacity. He will take over a basketball program that has gone 24-42 in the past three years and has suffered from declining participation.

Last year, Santa Ana Valley had 35 to 40 players on four teams (varsity, junior varsity, sophomore and freshmen).