BOYS’ COACH : Sweetwater Improvement Is an Honor for Ybarra

Sweetwater High’s basketball team left little room for improvement after 1988-89.

And even less after 1989-90.

With that in mind, the Red Devil’s David Ybarra was honored as The Times’ San Diego County boys’ coach of the year at a breakfast ceremony Sunday morning.

Sweetwater improved to 29-2 this year with its only losses coming against out-of-town teams. It lost once in a prestigious British Columbia tournament championship to a nationally-ranked team from Seattle, and it lost in a thrilling triple-overtime game against Lynwood in the Southern California Regionals.

Of course, to get to those state playoffs, Sweetwater won everything else, including the Division I San Diego Section championship over highly regarded Mt. Carmel.

Each of those accomplishments, one-upped last year’s team, which went 25-3 and lost a thrilling double overtime game to Valhalla in the section semifinals.

“I knew we were going to be good, but I didn’t even know if we could improve on last year’s record,” said Ybarra, who is in his fourth year at the National City school.

Sweetwater beat other odds, too. Coaches in the Metro Conference agreed that the league was more competitive this year, and Sweetwater was experiencing its first year as a year-round high school--the only one in the county.

And then there’s that height thing. Ybarra, who is 6-feet-2, is taller than all but one of his players--6-4 Carlos Campbell.

With such limitations, Ybarra implemented a five-guard, free-style offense and defense that seniors Campbell, Joe McDowell and John Gilbert ran to near perfection.

“It was an easy decision,” Ybarra said of his up-tempo game plan, “I haven’t had a big man since I’ve been here.”

Nor has he had a better season.