Bryan Camacho has big shoes to fill at Bell-Jeff

Jeff Tully

BELLARMINE-JEFFERSON HIGH -- There was a time when Bryan Camacho was

roaming the floor of Bellarmine-Jefferson High’s Keating Memorial

Gymnasium as a guard for the boys’ basketball team.

However, instead of playing sports for the Guards, he will now be

running athletic programs as the school’s new athletic director and

girls’ basketball coach.

Beginning in June, the 26-year-old Camacho -- who graduated from

Bell-Jeff in 1992 -- will take over positions held by longtime coaches

and administrators Jim Couch and Jess Rodriguez.

“This is just a great opportunity for me,” said Camacho. “I want to

help the school as much as I can and I want to make this a fun experience

... I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

Camacho takes over the new positions after being a teacher, assistant

basketball coach and assistant athletic director at the school for two

years.

“With Bryan, this is a great opportunity for us to put the athletic

program in a more focused direction,” said Bell-Jeff Principal Sister

Cheryl Milner.

“Bryan is very dedicated to Bell-Jeff and he brings a real enthusiam

and education to the program. He is also a great guy.”

Not only does Camacho say he is happy with the opportunity he has been

given, he is also elated it has come at his alma mater.

“I just love Bell-Jeff,” he said. “This is where I want to be,

somewhere I have a lot of good memories.

Those memories started when Camacho was a student-athlete at the

school in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Perhaps his shining moment came during the 1991-92 boys’ basketball

seeson when he was a member of an outstanding Guard team.

As a 5-foot-8 senior, Camacho helped the Guards win a San Fernando

Valley League championship. He averaged 13.3 points and nine assists a

game.

Under Steve Wahl, Camacho was part of a team that went 21-5, put

together a 14-game winning streak and advanced to the CIF Southern

Section Division IV semifinals, losing to Austin Croshere -- now of the

Indiana Pacers -- and Crossroads High, 69-54.

Camacho said he hopes to create his own winning attitude as a head

coach and administrator.

“I have learned a great deal from Mr. Couch and Mr. (Hal) Krug,”

Camacho said. “They have helped me and I am thankful for that. I have

just been a sponge these last two years. learning from them.”

Along with his playing days at Bell-Jeff, Camacho has also had success

as an assistant coach at another school. In 1998, he was on the staff of

a West Hills Chaminade High team that went 28-2 and won a CIF

championship.

He coached at the school for two seasons.

After Bell-Jeff, Camacho played for the College of the Canyons men’s

basketball team and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA. He

is now taking classes at Azuza Pacific University for his master’s in

education.

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Taking over the positions at Bell-Jeff, Camacho will be filling some

pretty big shoes. Although Couch and Krug have been sharing the athletic

director duties, Couch has been an institution at the school for more

than 25 years.

“Bringing Bryan on as the athletic director is something that Jim

Couch and Hal Krug both approved of,” Sister Milner said.

Beginning as a teacher and full-time coach at the school in 1973,

Couch had been the Bell-Jeff athletic director since 1981.

Couch will remain at Bell-Jeff as the school’s technology director,

heading the computer department, as well as serving as the boys’ and

girls’ cross-country coach. He is also the head women’s basketball coach

at L.A. Pierce College.

Couch’s biggest success as a coach at the school came in 1997, when

his girls’ basketball team won the CIF Southern Section Division IV

championship.

That year Bell-Jeff went 31-2, had a 30-game winning streak and

advanced to the semifinals of the California State playoffs.

The CIF title is the school’s only championship.

For 16 years Couch made the girls’ program one of the most successful

in the state. For his last five years as a coach -- ending in 1997 -- his

teams went 117-30.

Rodriguez -- who took over the basketball program from Couch --

stepped down as Bell-Jeff coach earlier this year after heading the

program for three years. His teams had a 28-45 record. He is retiring

after serving as the school’s dean of dicipline for the past three years.