State D5 Coach of Year Chris Lavdiotis of Novato San Marin (left) raises CIF state title trophy. At right is State D4 Coach of Year Mark Hatton of Tulare, who only needs three wins next season to reach 600 for career. Photos: Quinn Ostroff / San Marin Pony Express & ABC30 Fresno.
Congratulations to all of the Cal-Hi Sports State Coaches of the Year for boys basketball for the 2025-26 season. We have one selected for each CIF division and like the all-state teams the Open Division & Division I are bunched together. One of those we have selected has won more than 500 games in his career.
FOR MORE ON THE 2026 OVERALL STATE COACH OF THE YEAR,
CLICK HERE.
We hope you like this free post on CalHiSports.com. Please help us out today by becoming a member of our Gold Club so you can see all of our great content, including some of our upcoming all-state boys basketball teams. For more on special offer to get signed up for $4.99 for one month, CLIK 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.
OPEN DIVISION/DIVISION I
Randy Oronoz (La Mirada)
This is one of those seasons in which the State Coach of the Year is not from either the CIF Open or CIF D1 state playoffs. There is always a very deserving Open/D1 coach to honor when that happens and La Mirada’s Oronoz has gotten that nod for the 2026 season.
La Mirada head coach Randy Oronoz won the 100th game of his career during 2024-25 season. Photo: Instagram.com.
Oronoz and his team made sure not to be in a play-in game. The Matadores knocked off higher ranked St. John Bosco of Bellflower in a CIFSS Open Division pool play game, and in the quarterfinals of the bracket they upset No. 3 seed Redondo of Redondo Beach. The No. 12 seed then came up short in the semifinals with a loss to Harvard-Westlake of Studio City and in the CIF SoCal D1 playoffs they were upset in the first round by Mater Dei of Santa Ana.
In the final State TOP 40 rankings, Oronoz and team still were ranked higher than Mater Dei with an overall record of 24-9. This followed a 25-7 record from the previous season. And before that, the Matadores went 21-8 in 2024, and 25-10 in 2023. With State Freshman of the Year, State Sophomore of the Year and candidate for State Junior of the Year Gene Roebuck leading the way, La Mirada also has now won three straight Gateway League titles.
Oronoz became the head coach at La Mirada for the 2017-18 replacing Bryce Jones who’d been the head coach for the previous six seasons. His previous experience was serving as an assistant varsity head coach at Whittier Christian of La Habra, which also is where he played and graduated from high school. Randy does have a lot of family connections to La Mirada, however, since brother, Johnny, went to the school and he’s had an aunt and uncle play basketball for the Mats as well. Oronoz also is friends with former La Mirada player and former NBA player Derrick Williams.
Both of the CIF Open Division and D1 head coaches — Andre Chevalier of Sierra Canyon and Mike LeDuc of Damien — have been State Coach of the Year honorees before (just last year for Chevalier). Mike Wall of Folsom, whose team won the CIF NorCal D1 title, also has been a divisional state coach of the year before. No one is ever State Coach of the Year twice and the only way a previous divisional state coach of the year can be selected for a second time is if that coach is later named overall State Coach of the Year.
This is the second time in three years that the Open/D1 coach of the year is from the Long Beach/LA County region following Matt Dunn of St. John Bosco for 2024. The previous winner from the region before that was Wayne Merino from Artesia of Lakewood for 1998
Recent honorees: 2025 Andre Chevalier (Chatsworth Sierra Canyon); 2024 Matt Dunn (Bellflower St. John Bosco); 2023 Mike Hansen (San Ramon Dougherty Valley); 2022 Mike LeDuc (La Verne Damien); 2021 Josh Giles (Corona Centennial); 2020 Dave Rebibo (Studio City Harvard-Westlake); 2019 Jonas Honick (Ross Branson); 2018 Dave Kleckner (Etiwanda); 2017 Steve Singleton (Eastvale Roosevelt); 2016 Russell White (Encino Crespi); 2015 Dave Kleckner (Etiwanda); 2014 Nick Jones (Danville Monte Vista); 2013 James Hecht (Santa Monica); 2012 Tony Amundsen (Fresno Bullard); 2011 Gary McKnight (Santa Ana Mater Dei); 2010 Reggie Morris Jr. (Lawndale Leuzinger).
DIVISION II
Brad Roznovsky (San Joaquin Memorial, Fresno)
It’s been awhile since there’s been a State Coach of the Year who wasn’t from the D1/Open category. But Roznovsky has done it with the strength of winning two CIF state titles in the last five years and building one of the top programs in the Central Section plus keeping one of the state’s most historically great schools relevant.
The last D2 coach of the year who also was State Coach of the Year was Pete Diepenbrock of Palo Alto in 2006, who along with guard Jeremy Lin beat Mater Dei of Santa Ana to win a state title and had a 32-1 season. We also had a D3 coach of the year who was State Coach of the Year in Arnold Zelaya of San Francisco Mission in 2017.
Recent honorees: 2025 Garrett Brown (Bakersfield Christian); 2024 Karega Hart (Oakland Tech); 2023 Steve Garrett (Las Flores Tesoro); 2022 Yousef Etemadi (Tustin Foothill); 2021 Tim Kelly (Carmichael Jesuit); 2020 Jeff Staniland (Oxnard); 2019 Jerry DeFabiis (Colony, Ontario); 2018 Ryan Bailey (Los Angeles Brentwood); 2017 Mark Hill (Anaheim Esperanza); 2016 Michael Booker (El Cerrito); 2015 Chuck Rapp (San Mateo Serra); 2014 Mike Wall (Folsom); 2013 Reggie Morris Jr. (Redondo Beach Redondo Union); 2012 Patrick Roy (Inglewood); 2011 Dan Larson (Ventura); 2010 Jason Bryant (San Diego Lincoln).
DIVISION III
Michael Thomasson
(Cornerstone Christian, Antioch)
For building up the Cornerstone Christian program from the super small sized D6 level to D3 and winning this year’s CIF D3 state title, Thomasson has been named as the D3 State Coach of the Year.
Cornerstone Christian head coach Mike Thomasson peaks over a couple of his players during CIF D3 state title photo. Photo: @CIFState / X.com.
While Thomasson has done a ton in his four years at the helm, the Cornerstone Christian program was in a good spot for his first season due to the efforts of previous head coach Ezra Hunter Jr., who had a 128-29 record in five seasons, including 34-2 in 2019 when the Cougars won their first CIF NorCal D6 title. Thomasson was in his second season in 2024 when Cornerstone captured the CIF NorCal D6 title, which is a CIF division that doesn’t have a state championship game. The program began to move up in divisions within the CIF North Coast Section last season, but lost in the NCS D3 playoffs and didn’t get to the regionals.
This year’s team won the NCS D3 title to gain entry into the NorCal regionals and was placed in D3. The Cougars had to win a tough game on the road in the regional semifinals at Willow Glen of San Jose, which was 26-2 overall entering that matchup. They topped last year’s CIF D4 champions from Priory of Portola Valley in the regional final, 60-58, and in the state final they beat Birmingham of Lake Balboa, 74-64. Junior point guard Ben Lukacs led the way in that game with 26 points and eight assists. Cornerstone finished with a 29-8 final record.
Thomasson and girls head coach Madison Alexander have worked hand-in-hand in looking to push their school to even higher levels of basketball, including the CIF NCS Open Division.
“Whoever wants to step in front of us, try us,” Thamasson said during the CIF state title press conference. “The train doesn’t stop here. We have other goals. And yes, if we can get to Division I, if we can get to the Open Division, why not?”
Those are big goals, for sure, but at the same time it doesn’t look like the Cougars are going to be actively recruiting as many transfers as they can to keep gaining credibility for their program. It’s been a build from within framework, which is perhaps shown best with the word “Family” on the back of one set of jerseys and the word “Faith” on the back of others.
In selecting Thomasson, he becomes the third D3 State Coach of the Year from the NCS since 2019. He follows Rich Buckner of Berkeley St. Mary’s for 2020 and Randy Bessolo from University of San Francisco for 2019. That’s also three from the East Bay since 2020 since Oakland High’s Orlando Watkins for 2023 qualifies as from the East Bay but not the NCS and he’s from the CIF Oakland Section.
Recent honorees: 2025 Cameron Bradford (Sunnyvale The King’s Academy); 2024 Tim Amundsen (Fresno Bullard); 2023 Orlando Watkins (Oakland); 2022 David Galley (Venice); 2021 Don Dumas (Chula Vista Bonita Vista); 2020 Rich Buckner (Berkeley St. Mary’s); 2019 Randy Bessolo (San Francisco University); 2018 Tim Keating (Chico Pleasant Valley); 2017 Arnold Zelaya (San Francisco Mission); 2016 David Brigante (Santa Barbara); 2015 Matt Dunn (La Verne Damien); 2014 Todd Wolfson (West Hills Chaminade); 2013 Mike Haupt (San Diego St. Augustine); 2012 Tim Tucker (Pasadena); 2011 Eric Cooper Sr. (La Verne Lutheran); 2010 Dwan Hurt (Gardena Serra); 2009 Jim Harris Sr. (Huntington Beach Ocean View).
DIVISION IV
Mark Hatton (Tulare)
Hatton’s selection for D4 breaks a streak of three years in which the coach of the year was from the CIF Central Coast Section. It almost happened again but head coach Jeff Wilbrun of D4 state champ Sacred Heart Prep was only in his first season there and Hatton has been a longtime head coach at Tulare and during the season also set a record for most coaching wins in boys basketball in the CIF Central Section. It just became too much of an opportunity to get some attention for Hatton.
Tulare won its first CIF Central Section title under Hatton after several runner-up finishes (2006, 2011, 2012) with a victory vs Central Valley Christian of Visalia in the D3 championship. The Tribe then went to the CIF SoCal D4 playoffs as the top seed but fell in the regional final at home to San Juan Hills of SJ Capistrano, which then lost on two made free throws with 0.3 seconds left in the state final.
Tulare’s final 31-5 record put Hatton’s career record at 597 wins, which means he could have gotten to 599 with those possible last two wins. He will undoubtedly get to 600 very early next season, which also is the total a boys coach needs to join the all-time state list. Hatton became the Central Section leader earlier this season when he reached 579 career wins to break the previous record of section wins at 578 that was held by Hanford’s Brad Felder. Current Buchanan of Clovis head coach Tom Orlich has more than 900 career wins, but still most of his wins come from his years while coaching at South Tahoe of South Lake Tahoe (which is not in the Central Section).
Hatton has been the head coach at Tulare for 28 of his 34 seasons. He began his career at Corcoran for the 1991-92 season and in his years there his teams won section titles in 1998 and 2000.
The teams at Tulare have gained a reputation for having some of the best grid-hoopers in the state. This year’s team had two of the best with senior Brayden Stevenson (18.1 ppg) and junior Demaje Riley (17.2 ppg). Another member of the team was senior Wyatt Hatton, Mark’s son. The family connection also ran strong for the head coach with his wife, Diana, serving as Tulare’s athletic director.
The last CIF Central Section D4 state coach of the year was Gino LaCava of Bakersfield Garces in 2005.
Recent honorees: 2025 David Moseley (Portola Valley Priory); 2024 Greg Daniels (Monterey); 2023 John Parsons (Half Moon Bay); 2022 Brock Flint (San Diego Scripps Ranch); 2021 Terry Tucker (San Ysidro); 2020 Luke Williams (Stockton Brookside Christian); 2019 Danny O’Fallon (Los Angeles Roybal Learning Center); 2018 Kraig Clifton (San Andreas Calaveras); 2017 Derek Walker (Vallejo St. Patrick-St. Vincent); 2016 J.J. Prince (Calabasas Viewpoint); 2015 Russell White (Encino Crespi); 2014 Doug Mitchell (Torrance Bishop Montgomery); 2013 Tom Bonfigli (Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman); 2012 Bill Mellis (Richmond Salesian); 2011 Miguel Villegas (Los Angeles Windward); 2010 Manny Nodar (Berkeley St. Mary’s).
DIVISION V
Chris Lavdiotis (San Marin, Novato)
The CIF North Coast Section has been winning CIF D5 state titles and D5 coach of the year honors quite often in recent seasons. Lavdiotis is the latest after his team at San Marin defeated Sylmar last month for this year’s D5 state title. His selection in D5 follows Paul Cortes from last season, Charles Johnson from 2022, Mike Fulton from 2020 and Don Lippi from 2016 as NCS D5 coach honorees.
Lavdiotis only completed his second season at San Marin, but has had a long career at other Bay Area high schools, including 17 varsity seasons at Piedmont, one year at Lowell of San Francisco and five years at Miramonte of Orinda. The 73-year-old also created some intrigue for some us in the media at the CIF state finals looking to answer the question if he’s the oldest coach to win a CIF boys hoops state title. It was easy to determine if Chris is older than Mike LeDuc of La Verne Damien since LeDuc won a state title in D1 later the same night and we asked him quietly after his press conference (he’s 71). We don’t know the months of when Chris was born, however, compared to the legendary Lou Cvijanovich from Santa Clara of Oxnard, who was 73 when he won his final state title in 1999.
San Marin’s win over Sylmar was not the key win in its quest for the state title. The Mustangs had lost in the NCS D4 championship to a Mission San Jose of Fremont squad that captured a lot of Bay Area media attention as a school more known for its academics won its first-ever NCS title. In a rematch in the NorCal D5 regional final, however, San Marin picked up a 56-46 win despite being on the road in a noisy gym. The Mustangs had an easier time of it vs Sylmar, winning 89-64.
Lavdiotis was a JV and freshman coach at Piedmont from the 1993-94 school year through 2000-2001. After leaving Piedmont after the 2017 season, he coached as an assistant at Cal State University Maritime for one season and then there was the one season at Lowell. Miramonte was Lav’s next stop where he went 74-50 in five seasons, including COVID seasons, and he had an NCS Open Division team there in 2022.
Recent honorees: 2025 Paul Cortes (San Francisco International); 2024 Jared Gibson (Tujunga Verdugo Hills); 2023 Ryan Watt (Tollhouse Sierra); 2022 Charles Johnson (San Francisco Stuart Hall); 2021 Alfonso Alvarado (Fowler); 2020 Mike Fulton (San Anselmo San Domenico); 2019 Donovan Blythe (East Palo Alto Eastside College Prep); 2018 James Mosley (Canyon Country Santa Clarita Christian); 2017 Robbie Robinson (Riverside Notre Dame); 2016 Don Lippi (Alameda St. Joseph Notre Dame); 2015 John Maffucci (Carlsbad Army-Navy); 2014 Sid Cooke (La Canada Renaissance Academy); 2013 Kevin McCloskey (San Gabriel Academy); 2012 Jon Shaw (Sun Valley Village Christian); 2011 Mike Jarvis (Vacaville Christian); 2010 Ed Kelly (Watsonville St. Francis CCC).
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
