
This is 2025 State Coach of the Year Sean Erickson talking to his players at Del Oro of Loomis after a game against Clovis in 2022 CIF NorCal D1 playoffs. Photo: Nick Pecoraro / Sacramento Bee.
Back in January, a 30-day break from social media helped the Del Oro of Loomis softball team come together for the 2025 season. The school’s longtime head coach, Sean Erickson, is now the 2025 State Coach of the Year after the Golden Eagles went 31-2 and won the CIF NorCal D1 championship.
FOR THIS YEAR’S MEDIUM SCHOOLS & SMALL SCHOOLS STATE SOFTBALL COACHES OF THE YEAR, CLICK HERE.
Note: We hope you enjoy this free story on CalHiSports.com. Some of our all-state softball content and some of our upcoming preseason football content will be for Gold Club members only. You can get started for just $4.99 for one month. Join our team today by CLICKING HERE.
CHECK OUT CALGAMESWANTED.COM
Created for Coaches by Coaches for California Varsity High School Head Coaches and Athletic Directors, Start building your schedule with CalGamesWanted.com.
User friendly to take the stress out of scheduling.
Del Oro of Loomis has had Sean Erickson as an off-campus head softball coach since the 2009 season. He’s been a coach at the school for 26 years. His day job is to run a family painting business begun many years ago by his father: Erickson Classic Painting, which provides painting, decorating and cabinets home services to the south Placer County and Sacramento County region.
For the 2025 high school softball season, it could be said that Erickson and the girls at Del Oro painted a masterpiece. The CIF NorCal D1 champions only lost twice all season (and that was to a team they also beat twice) and for doing what they did and for doing what he’s done over a long coaching career Erickson has now been selected as the 2025 State Coach of the Year by Cal-Hi Sports.
“I am completely honored and humbled,” Erickson said on Saturday after he was informed via text that the selection was going to him. “Thank you very much. This has made my day.”
Erickson had been a strong candidate for the state’s top coaching honor in softball after the 2022 season when Del Oro won the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D2 title, lost in the CIF NorCal D1 semifinals to Clovis but still had a 27-5 record.
This year’s team gained notice locally more than a month before the first game when Erickson had the girls on the team turn in their smartphones for one month to take a break from social media. The girls did it en masse at a special event at the school that also was used as a fund-raiser to help with lights being installed at the softball field. That event featured guest speakers, including San Francisco Giants pitcher Logan Webb (a nearby Rocklin High alum), who talked about the importance of mental health for all students as well as warn them about taking pills such as Fentanyl (which claimed the life of Webb’s cousin).

Del Oro head coach Sean Erickson and his team almost went from 9-17 last year to No. 1 in the state this year. Photo: Mark Tennis.
“When all 27 girls came up on stage that night and put their phones in the lock-up box, and the way they did it, it actually brought me to tears,” parent Jennifer Christensen told CBS News Sacramento. “I did not foresee 100% participating.”
How much the experience brought the team together is hard to quantify, but this season the Golden Eagles went all the way to the top of Northern California softball after last season when they struggled to a 7-19 season.
“Last year’s team was divided,” Erickson told Gold Country Media after the final game. “This year, they showed up on day one and I could feel the difference. They said to me, ‘Last year cannot have any residue to this year. Last year was last year. This year is this year, and we can’t look back.’”
It will be impossible for anyone at the school to not look back and smile about what happened in the 2025 season. It helped that the Golden Eagles played in one of the top leagues in the state that included preseason state No. 3 Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills (which was coming off of a CIF NorCal D1 title game loss) plus Whitney of Rocklin and Rocklin, all teams with a number of top returning players. Del Oro had top returning players as well, but it was easy to see why the team wasn’t regarded as a preseason favorite along with the other three (check the 2024 win-loss record).
Erickson’s team came out smoking to start the season and was 9-0 when it opened league play against Whitney. The Golden Eagles stayed hot with a 7-4 win in that game and then beat Rocklin, 6-2, before dropping the first contest of the season to Oak Ridge, 5-1. Despite the loss, Del Oro had shown it might have the best team in school history and the group continued to play at a high level.
As the winning continued, including one more win against both Whitney and Rocklin, then one against Destiny Christian of Sacramento (which had Gatorade State Player of the Year Ayla Tuua) and then an avenging win over Oak Ridge, Del Oro was moved to No. 1 in the overall state rankings. At the time, the group had the chance to win the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 title and then the CIF NorCal D1 title and finish 32-1 overall. A 3-2 loss to Oak Ridge in the section final, though, pushed Norco back to No. 1 in the state where it stayed after winning the CIF Southern Section D1 championship. Del Oro then played Oak Ridge for a fourth time in the NorCal final and won, 5-3.
The Golden Eagles only had nine varsity players plus a JV player who was brought up to the varsity for the week of the NorCal playoffs. That extra week of games with a lot of players missing for pre-planned senior trips or the start of the travel ball schedule is why some teams like Norco don’t play in the regionals at all. Del Oro’s nine, however, was enough since many of those nine were underclass players.
Sophomore pitcher Mikayla Finn had a complete game in the regional final and ended the season 21-1 with a 1.13 ERA. Junior Chloe Champas, who led the team with 58 hits, had three hits and one RBI. Freshman Caelyn Campos had three doubles and batted .442 for the season. Senior Abby Davidson (team leading 14 homers) was the main lost player during the final week. Another senior, Delaney Osborne, was on a family trip but still went back and forth from Santa Barbara to play in games. She had 40 hits for the season, six homers and a .400 batting average.
With returnees like the Golden Eagles have, they may start out not far behind Norco in the next preseason state rankings since the No. 1 Cougars will have a lot back as well. Erickson would like to take next year’s team down to the Michelle Carew Classic in Anaheim (where Norco usually is in the field). He’s been offered the chance to go, he wants to go but the administration has not signed off and nothing is official yet.
Erickson, who is a graduate of Casa Roble High in Orangevale, began what he calls “a 40-year passion” with softball coaching to go along with the painting business he runs as an assistant at Rocklin 28 years ago.
“My daughters played and that was it,” he said. “If I had sons, maybe it would have been something else.”
Del Oro hired him as an assistant coach in 2000 and then in 2001 and 2002 the Golden Eagles won their first two SJS softball titles under head coach Steve Evans. There was a co-coaching situation with John Peck for two years, but Erickson has been the head coach since 2009.
Erickson has not been reluctant to reach out to other notable coaches in the area either, and became fast friends with legendary Sheldon of Sacramento head coach Mary Jo Truesdale (now retired). The last State Coach of the Year from the SJS was in fact Truesdale for the 2007 season.
“She’s been like another mentor to me,” he said. “To be on any list with her is just incredible. We played Sheldon twice this year and she was able to come out to both games.”
Like Truesdale and other state coaches of the year, Erickson was quick to credit all of the players he’s had and assistant coaches he’s had and seemed slightly reluctant to talk about himself.
“That is how it should always be done,” he said. “The reason for winning is always the players first. And the reason for a loss is never about the players. They lose because of me, because I didn’t prepare them properly.”
Well, that certainly didn’t happen very often (only twice) in a memorable season for Erickson and his girls.
All-Time List Cal-Hi Sports
State Softball Coaches Of The Year

Mary Jo Truesdale is a former State Coach of the Year and is one of the top 15 winningest coaches in state history. Photo: Mark Tennis.
2025 – Sean Erickson, Loomis Del Oro (31-2)
2024 – Jason Ramirez, Whittier California (28-5)
2023 – Jim Bennet, Poway (29-3)
2022 – Mike Centrullo,
Chula Vista Mater Dei Catholic (22-11)
2021 – Ed Tunstall, Anaheim Esperanza (22-2*)
2020 – No selection (pandemic)
2019 – Matt Sweeney, Pleasanton Foothill (28-0)
2018 – Teresa Mayes-Borchard,
Pleasanton Amador Valley (23-5-1)
2017 – Mike Noel, Clovis (25-6)
2016 – Judy Shaubach, Madera (26-7)
2015 – Margaret Neill, Lancaster Paraclete (27-4)
2014 – Margaret Mauro,
San Diego Cathedral Catholic (29-3)
2013 – Mike Smith, Chino (26-2)
2012 – Rick Robinson, Norco (30-2)
2011 – Scott Smith, Hollister San Benito (29-1)
2010 – Teri Johnson, Union City James Logan (25-5)
2009 – Tony Dobra, San Pedro (28-4)
2008 – Duane Zauner, Lake of the Pines Bear River (29-3)
2007 – Mary Jo Truesdale, Sacramento Sheldon (29-1)
2006 – John Perez, Corona Santiago (26-5)
2005 – Art Banks, Roseville Woodcreek (28-6)
2004 – Pete Ackermann, Westlake Village Oaks Christian (34-1)
2003 – Rob Weil, Garden Grove Pacifica (31-2)
2002 – Brad Griffith, San Diego Mira Mesa (35-1)
2001 – Gary Walin, Thousand Oaks (24-5)
2000 – Jo Ann Byrd, Corona (28-4)
1999 – Jim Liggett, Belmont Carlmont (35-4)
1998 – Joe Given, Salinas Notre Dame (30-2-1)
1997 – Alan Dugard, Irvine Woodbridge (34-2)
1996 – Nancy Acerrio, Chula Vista Hilltop (27-2)
1995 – Marie Dean, Fremont Washington (27-0)
1994 – Joe Gonzalez, Tustin Foothill (25-7)
1993 – Jill Matyuch, Covina Charter Oak (29-0-1)
1992 – Jeff Carlovsky, Escondido (26-2)
1991 – Kevin Newman, San Jose Gunderson (33-2)
1990 – Susie Calderon, Huntington Beach Marina (28-5)
1989 – Sharon Coggins, Ventura Buena (28-2)
1988 – Rich Kerr, San Lorenzo Arroyo (29-1)
1987 – Bob Regpala, Stockton Lincoln (30-0)
1986 – Dick Barnes, El Monte Arroyo (22-1)
1985 – Neils Ludlow, Woodland Hills El Camino Real (19-0)
1984 – Aaron Ishikawa, Stockton Lincoln (37-1)
1983 – Carol Hamilton, San Diego Madison (23-1)
1982 – Rich Spiekerman, Lodi (29-3)
1981 – Leslie Steffen, Hanford (20-4)
1980 – Bob Bush, Santa Maria Righetti (29-0)
1979 – Barbara Weding, Santa Rosa Montgomery (26-1)
1978 – Peggy Linville, Fairfield Armijo (23-0)
1977 – Betsy Ward, Huntington Beach Marina (17-0)
1976 – Janet Balsley, Chula Vista Hilltop (17-0)
1975 – Sally Carmen, Downey Warren (19-1)
1974 – Sandi Behrmann, El Segundo (undefeated)
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports