Las Plumas softball head coach Toby Thompson guided team to 31 wins in the spring after girls basketball team he coached in the winter won 21 games. Photo: lasplumasthunderbirds.com.
In addition to overall State Coach of the Year Katie Stith from JSerra, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2026 season going to Toby Thompson from Las Plumas of Oroville (medium schools) and Ramon Lara of Woodlake (small schools).
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MEDIUM SCHOOLS
STATE COACH OF THE YEAR
Toby Thompson (Las Plumas, Oroville)
One of the most anticipated showdowns in the CIF regional playoffs was in D3 for the north with Las Plumas pegged to play East Nicolaus of Nicolaus in the semifinals. Las Plumas had a 29-1-1 record entering the matchup while East Nicolaus was 26-1. The Thunderbirds had won the CIF Northern Section D2 title. East Nic won another D5 section title and essentially was moved up to D3 (medium schools) for the NorCal regionals.
After Las Plumas won that game, 7-6 in eight innings, it went on to beat Chico High in another All-Northern Section contest, 4-1, to win its first-ever CIF NorCal regional title. The Thunderbirds, who downed Foothill of Pleasanton, 9-2, in the first round of regional action, are now collecting more accolades for their championship season as head coach Toby Thompson has been named as the Medium Schools State Coach of the Year.
Prior to getting this state honor, Thompson has been selected as the CIF Northern Section J. Howell Coach of the Year. It’s not the first time he’s gained that one, either. He was voted coach of the year for the section back in 2018 for a 26-7 squad.
“I truly appreciate it,” Thompson responded in an email. “It means a lot to myself, coaches, players, and my school.”
This year’s team capping its record at 31-1-1 and with the No. 1 D3 state ranking follows up a 25-5 campaign from a year ago. That team lost in the section final to Pleasant Valley of Chico and didn’t move on to the regionals. Under Thompson’s guidance as head coach, Las Plumas also had a 23-6-2 record from two years ago. The only loss this year was 7-2 to Christian Brothers of Sacramento.
The Northern Section has had several state coaches of the year in softball for small schools, but Toby will go down as the first one ever for medium schools. The honor was first handed out in 1998.
In addition to being the head coach at Las Plumas in softball since 2017, Thompson has juggled the role of also being the school’s girls basketball head coach since the 2018-19 season This past season’s team posted a 21-7 record and a few years ago Toby was head coach of the Northern Section South All-Stars team in girls basketball.
“Well it’s definitely not easy juggling both sports,” Thompson said. “I do have great assistant coaches and JV coaches that help out with some of the off season workouts and open fields. I do start my practices for basketball later in the evening after younger teams practice so I can be at as many open fields as I can. Also staying engaged in the off season with many of the players’ travel ball seasons. I will be stepping down from basketball this year after nine seasons as the head coach.”
And, well, he’ll be doing that move with a state honor at the end of it.
Recent State Medium Schools Coaches of the Year: 2025 – Bill Hunyady (San Diego Point Loma); 2024 – Larry Loger (Oakdale); 2023 – Jason Ramirez (Whittier California); 2022 – Andy Meza (Salinas Alvarez); 2021 – Obie Galindo (Hesperia Sultana); 2020 – No selection (pandemic); 2019 – Ed Medina (Santa Ana Godinez); 2018 – Kristin Grubbs (Benicia); 2017 – J.J. Vaivao (Ventura Buena); 2016 – Bobby Flores (Grand Terrace); 2015 – Brian Goulart (Manteca East Union); 2014 – Jim Maier (Santa Fe Springs St. Paul); 2013 – Linda Merrida (Woodland Pioneer); 2012 – Randy Willis (Novato San Marin); 2011 – Jerry Dumatrait (Bakersfield Ridgeview); 2010 – Michael Roberts (San Diego University City); 2009 – Howard Miller (Torrance North).
Ramon Lara of Woodlake has had teams the past three years that have gone 31-4, 30-1 and 29-3. Photo: whs_varsitysoftball / Instagram.com.
SMALL SCHOOLS
STATE COACH OF THE YEAR
Ramon Lara (Woodlake)
One year after Woodlake landed the State Small Schools Player of the Year, the Tigers have gained another big one with Small Schools Coach of the Year. Lara is the third honoree in this category in the last five years from the CIF Central Section, following Jodi Russell of Bakersfield Christian from 2024 and Jeff Day of Caruthers for 2022.
It can be hard to lose a player like Woodlake did for the 2026 season as 2025 grad Audrina Rodriguez was about as dominant a pitcher as possible. Even without Rodriguez, who was the small school state player winner, Lara had the Tigers in championship form.
The Tigers won their third straight CIF Central Section title with a 11-1 win in the section final over California City. They didn’t have much trouble in their CIF SoCal D4 regional playoff games, either. Following a 13-0 romp past Irvine in the semifinals, Lara’s girls dispatched Grossmont of El Cajon, 14-4, in the championship game. This year’s regional final taking place on the home diamond, as opposed to being on the road last year, also made the title game victory more special.
Senior Ella Lara, Ramon’s daughter, was Woodlake’s leading hitter. She had 57 hits in 33 games for a .582 average and 60 RBI. Her hits and RBI totals will be high enough to go in to our all-time state record lists. Senior Mareli Zamora also had 52 hits and batted .510 while senior Marriah Ellis had 53 hits and batted .491. Ellis also took over as the top pitcher and had 197 strikeouts in 179 innings with a 1.69 ERA.
As a team, Woodlake scored 412 runs and had 397 hits. The run total will be No. 2 in CIF Central Section history (Taft scored 418 in 2014) and will rank in the top 10 in state history. The hits total looks like it will be in the top 20 in state history.
With a first-game forfeit to Central Valley Christian of Visalia not counted in Woodlake’s record the way we do things, it had a 31-3 slate for this season. It was ranked No. 1 in the state for D4 teams once again, too. Lara’s team went 30-1 last year and since the 2022 season when he returned to being the team’s head coach the Tigers have gone 133-16-1. Small schools or not, that’s impressive. He had a previous stint of coaching softball at Woodlake from 2007 to 2012 and has coached at the travel ball level as well.
What makes Lara a much different coach of the year than the usual, though, is that his main job is serving as the city manager/administrator of Woodlake. He’s been in that role since May of 2012 and oversees all aspects of city services, including police and fire. Lara, a UC Santa Cruz graduate, has been especially involved in the project of a new Woodlake City Hall complex and civic center.
Despite all the time he obviously has to spend as city manager, Lara has done some very special work with city’s high school softball team.
Recent State Small Schools Coaches of the Year: 2025 – Michelle Felkins (Biggs); 2024 – Jodi Russell (Bakersfield Christian); 2023 – Melissa Snyder (Holtville); 2022 – Jeff Day (Caruthers); 2021 – Stefanie Danna (Sutter); 2020 – No selection (pandemic); 2019 – Robert Vernon (Ripon); 2018 – Neil Stinson (East Nicolaus); 2017 – Flo Galindo (Sun Valley Village Christian); 2016 – Tony Williams (Mariposa County, Mariposa); 2015 – Margaret Neill (Lancaster Paraclete); 2014 – Russell Emberson (Taft); 2013 – Melissa Bugarin-Espinoza (San Pedro Port of Los Angeles); 2012 – Jim Pingree (Monterey Santa Catalina); 2011 – Mike Pontius (Lodi Elliot Christian); 2010 – Raoul Singh (Sutter); 2009 – Alan Borges (Eureka St. Bernard’s).
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