In November, we will begin the release of our preseason 2024-25 Cal-Hi Sports boys basketball state rankings. As a preview to how things could shake out, here is a list of the major 2024-25 tournaments and classics involving California teams that figure to be ranked. The 2024-25 season officially begins November 18. The CIF state basketball championships are scheduled to take place March 14-15, 2025.
Cal-Hi Sports Insider Blog
Quick-hitting, behind-the-scenes news and notes from the CalHiSports.com staff, including previews of upcoming content and events.
Hearlihy Trading Hoops For Links
Head coach Melissa Hearlihy is shown after team at Harvard-Westlake won the CIF D2 state title last March in Sacramento. Photo: Mark Tennis.
State’s second winningest girls hoops coach on the all-time list announced on Monday she will be joining the winningest head coach on the sidelines starting this season.
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Around noon on Monday, Harvard-Westlake of Studio City girls basketball head coach Melissa Hearlihy gathered her team and proudly announced that after all these years she had “finally graduated from high school after 40 years.”
The girls stared whooping it up and cheering for their coach not really understanding that this graduation was a bit different than the one the California native had from Alvin High in Texas, or even her college graduation in 1983 from the University of San Francisco where she starred as a power forward.
This graduation comes in the form of the retirement of Hearlihy from the ranks of girls’ high school basketball coaches.
“Telling the team was very emotional,” Hearlihy remarked. “And I thought telling them that way would soften things but they didn’t really understand until I actually told them I was retiring today.”
Hearlihy addresses the media after her team won a CIF D4 state title in 2010. Did she wear the same shirt in 2024? Photo: Mark Tennis.
“It’s time,” continued the 62-year old Hearlihy. “There is really nothing left for me to
accomplish.”
Along the way, Hearlihy amassed 839 career coaching wins in 39 years of coaching, 15 at Bishop Alemany (West Hills) and 24 at Harvard-Westlake, two CIF state championships, both at Harvard-Westlake, including the 2023 Division II state championship, seven CIF Southern Section championships, three at Bishop Alemany and four at Harvard-Westlake.
The 839 career coaching wins currently places Hearlihy at No. 2 all time in the Golden State according to the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book. Number one on the list is Kevin Kiernan of Santa Ana Mater with 900 career victories.
Ironically, Kiernan announced his retirement at the end of the season meaning No. 1 and No. 2 all time have retired. This leaves Sue Phillips of Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) as the leading active head coach with 819 career wins.
After her Wolverines won the Division IV state championship, Hearlihy was named the 2010 Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year. When it came time to write that story at the time, research showed Hearlihy was not on the list of all-time winningest coaches in the record book even though at the time she had been coaching since 1986 and almost assuredly had 500 career wins and would qualify for the list.
When she went back and reviewed her coaching record, low and behold it showed she had 553 victories, and the rest is history.
In 2023, after Harvard-Westlake was eliminated in the third round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs, Hearlihy was driving on the freeway in Los Angeles when she got a call from a woman saying she represented the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
“I thought it was about wanting to use our gym like they have in the past,” Hearlihy said. “But then she said she wanted to be the one to congratulate me on being named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association National High School Coach of the Year.
“I thought ‘oh my god’ and asked her to repeat what she had said,” Hearlihy continued. “I had no idea who nominated me or who voted for me but I was so humbled. This was the highest award I could win, and as a team we didn’t really win anything.”
The WBCA was a year early.
After a slew of injuries to begin the season that resulted in an 0-4 start and a 4-12 record going into Mission League action and an opener with powerhouse Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) that left them at 4-13, somehow Hearlihy got Harvard-Westlake turned around and the girls finished 19-18 in a season that culminated in 60-45 victory over Colfax in the CIF Division II state championship title game.
“For us to come back the next year after my winning that prestigious honor, and after such a terrible and troubling start, and then to win a state championship, God had to be smiling on us,” Hearlihy said.
Soon after graduating from the University of San Francisco, Hearlihy accepted a grad assistant position with Billie Moore at UCLA before coming to Alemany in 1984 to coach junior varsity.
In 1986, she took the varsity reins at Alemany and after a very successful stint there moved on to Harvard-Westlake where she also taught physical education with a master’s degree in the field.
“In my first four years and right after I got my masters I seriously considered coaching in college, and people still ask me why I didn’t move on to college,” Hearlihy remarked back in 2010. “This is the epitome of why I coach high school, for the life’s lessons, and to watch the girls trust and care about each other.”
Last month during the Girls of Summer Caravan stop at Seal Beach we called Hearlihy after seeing 2029 Lucia Khamenia perform. The younger sister of Nik Khamenia, a 6-foot-8 incoming senior forward for CIF Open Division state champion and Cal-Hi Sports No. 1 Harvard-Westlake, is ticketed to play for the Wolverines and we wanted to let Hearlihy know how impressed we were with her play.
During the call, she told us she had moved to Huntington Harbor and was enjoying living on the water and playing golf, but the commute to the San Fernando Valley was a tough one. That could have been a hint.
“I’m planning on staying on some of the committees and still helping the CIF Southern Section if they still want me, I’m happy help,” Hearlihy said.
“I might like to coach golf for little kids but I’m done coaching basketball,” Hearlihy continued. “I’m trading in the big orange ball for a little white one.”
Congratulations Melissa Hearlihy on a storied career as one of the greatest coaches in the history of California girls’ basketball, and good luck on the links.
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
Sporting Interest & The Smartphone
The smartphone is an example of technology that has had enormous social ramifications – both positive and negative. It’s easy to get so lost in the large-scale changes that you stop thinking about how smartphones have affected individual interests or industries.
Read more…
All-State Baseball Patch List 2
All-State baseball patches for any player named to any of our annual all-state teams can order a souvenir patch with certificate of recognition through our partners at BillyTees.com. The 2024 baseball patch link is now available.
For those just wanting to check to see about a particular player on this year’s All-State second and third teams for baseball without being a subscriber, here is a simple alphabetical list. If you want the full presentation and are not Gold Club, please check out getting a membership today.
Read more…
All-State Baseball Patch List 1
All-State baseball patches for any player named to any of our annual all-state teams can order a souvenir patch with certificate of recognition through our partners at BillyTees.com. The 2024 baseball patch link is now available.
For those just wanting to check to see about a particular player on this year’s All-State Underclass Teams (juniors & sophomores separately) for baseball without being a subscriber, here is a simple alphabetical list. If you want the full presentation and are not Gold Club, please check out getting a membership today.
Read more…
All-State Softball Patch List 2
All-State softball patches for any player named to any of our annual all-state teams can order a souvenir patch with certificate of recognition through our partners at BillyTees.com. The link to order All-State softball patches for 2024 is now available.
For those just wanting to check to see about a particular player on this year’s All-State Second or Third Teams (juniors & sophomores separately) for softball without being a subscriber, here is a simple alphabetical list. If you want the full presentation and are not Gold Club, please check out getting a membership today.
Read more…
All-State Softball Patch List 1
All-State softball patches for any player named to any of our annual all-state teams can order a souvenir patch with certificate of recognition through our partners at BillyTees.com. The link to order All-State softball patches for 2024 is now available.
For those just wanting to check to see about a particular player on this year’s All-State Underclass Teams (juniors & sophomores separately) for softball without being a subscriber, here is a simple alphabetical list. If you want the full presentation and are not Gold Club, please check out getting a membership today.
Read more…
More State Baseball Coaches of Year
State Medium Schools Coach of the Year Paul Martinez from Oakmont of Roseville talks to one of the other coaches during a game this season. Photo: Allene Salerno / Sacramento Bee.
In addition to overall State Coach of the Year Corrigan Willis from Granada of Livermore, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2024 season going to Paul Martinez from Oakmont of Roseville (medium schools) and Scott Neal from Chavez of Delano (small schools).
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More State Softball Coaches of the Year
Larry Loger (left) is shown coaching with Jaelyn Lee at an early season game for Oakdale. We believe he is close to or has achieved 500 career wins. Photo: Jeff Kettering / Oakdale Leader.
In addition to overall State Coach of the Year Jason Ramirez from California of Whittier, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2024 season going to Larry Loger of Oakdale (medium schools) and Jodi Russell of Bakersfield Christian (small schools).
Read more…
Salute to Larry Allen & Taylor Dockins
Larry Allen is shown during his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction. Taylor Dockins is shown during a game in 2017 season. Photos: NFL YouTube.com & Patrick Takkinen / SoCalSidelines.
Two of the most inspirational athletes we’ve ever written about in the 45 plus years of Cal-Hi Sports both passed away earlier this week on the same day.
If the all-time great NFL lineman Larry Allen ever met 2017 Ms. Softball State Player of the Year Taylor Dockins, he could probably lift two Taylors on one arm and two Taylors on the other. Allen was that big and strong and Taylor stood barely 5-foot-5 in height.
Both Larry and Taylor died on the same day, Sunday June 2, in entirely different circumstances. Allen was vacationing with his family in Mexico and died suddenly. Dockins had been battling liver cancer since her junior year of high school and died several months after the latest attempts for her to beat the disease had failed. He was 52 years old. She was 25.
Allen became an inspirational figure for the almost miraculous path he took to become one of the best offensive linemen in NFL history. He did not play varsity high school football due to moving around so much in his youth, attending Centennial of Compton, Edison of Stockton, Tokay of Lodi and finally Vintage of Napa. When he was 12, Larry was stabbed 12 times in an incident with another youngster in Compton.
Allen eventually wound up at Butte College where he began to really see what football could do for him. That led him to Sonoma State and it was there where he really blossomed and as a senior began to gain attention of NFL scouts. After the senior bowl that season, Allen was a second-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys. He would end his career being named All-Pro 11 times and finished up with the San Francisco 49ers.
Dockins had the opposite high school career. She was a standout as a freshman at Norco High, where under head coach Rick Robinson the Cougars have become a state & national powerhouse. In the summer between her junior and senior years, Taylor and her family were shocked by the initial cancer diagnosis. She was back to full strength after that first run-through with treatments for the 2017 season and led Norco to an unbeaten record entering the CIF Southern Section D1 championship game. Although Norco fell in that game to Los Alamitos, as one of the top hitters and the leading pitcher for a 33-1 team, Dockins was an easy choice to be the Ms. Softball State Player of the Year. She sent a heartfelt text of appreciation to us afterward.
After that last game, our reporter on scene, Harold Abend, approached Taylor in the Norco dugout after a decent amount of time and asked her that the loss must be tough after all she’d been through. Her response, “It was tougher in the hospital.”
Many around California and the nation will never forget these two inspriational athletes. We offer our peace and love to all of their families, friends and supporters.
