2008-09 Basketball Coach of the Year: Canyon's Harrison

A team is not supposed to lose the county player of the year and be better the following year.

That happened at Canyon. The 2007-08 player of the year, Jerime Anderson, graduated and went off to UCLA. Yet Canyon had the best season in the school's boys basketball history.

The Comanches went to a CIF-Southern Section championship game and won it, beating Santa Margarita in the Division III-AA final. They went undefeated in the Century League for the second year in a row, and finished 26-7.

For leading Canyon to such an outstanding season, Nate Harrison is the Orange County boys basketball coach of the year for the 2008-09 season.

"Any success I had," Harrison said, "definitely is because of the kids and the effort they put out there on the floor."

Many of the players on this year's Canyon team played supporting roles last year when Anderson was clearly the go-to guy. Those supporting roles became lead rules this year for seniors Dan Galluccio, Chris Nelson and Braden Priest. Junior Trevor Lampe and sophomore Chris Anderson moved into the starting lineup, with Anderson replacing brother Jerime at point guard.

"We were a team whose sum was greater than its parts," Harrison said. "The kids had phenomenal chemistry, and we got great senior leadership from Priest, Galluccio, Nelson and (Danny) Baeza. People didn't realize how young we were the year before, around Jerime."

Harrison also shared credit for Canyon's success with assistant coach Gary Gaspard, who played professionally overseas after playing at Crenshaw of Los Angeles and St. Mary's in Texas.

The Comanches had a fine summer season but got off to a bumpy start in December. The lost six games that month, some to good teams like Mater Dei and Los Alamitos, but others to teams Harrison felt the Comanches should have beaten.

Canyon concluded December with a victory over White Rock of British Columbia at the Orange Holiday Classic, which started an 18-game winning streak that included a 10-0 run through the Century League and the five victories in the CIF-SS playoffs that culminated with the 52-48 victory over Santa Margarita in the III-AA championship game at Honda Center.

Kevin Reynolds, coach of Villa Park of the Century League, would have preferred that his team won the league championship but does not mind too much that Canyon won it.

"I'm happy for Nate," Reynolds said, "because I know how hard he works. He's not an over-controlling coach. He gives his players structure and a system, and let's them play."

All season, Canyon had held opponents to 35 percent shooting from the floor. Santa Margarita shot 30.8 percent from the floor in the III-AA final.

"I don't think we got enough credit for our good our defense was," Harrison said. "We held most teams' scoring to somewhere in the 40s."

Offensively, the Comanches ran the Princeton offense that calls for constant motion and screens away from the ball.

"We weren't super fast or super big," Harrison said, "but we passed the ball and shared the ball pretty well."

Although it was a CIF-SS champion, Canyon had to go on the road in the first round of the CIF Southern California Regionals, in Division III, and beat La Jolla, 60-46, in a first-round game. The Comanches lost to Ocean View, 66-57, in the semifinals.

It did not figure that Canyon could have such a remarkable season, but Harrison led the way as the team made school history.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com