The Canyon boys basketball team did not look like a CIF champion when its starting five took the court.
The tallest guy was 6-foot-2. The point guard was a scrawny 5-10.
But this was a team that won a league championship, went 30-5 and, yes, was a CIF champion.
For getting the maximum out of the Comanches, Canyon’s Nate Harrison is the Register’s Orange County boys basketball coach of the year.
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Canyon won the CIF-Southern Section Division 2AA championship by beating Westlake of Westlake Village, 71-54, in the title game.
The Comanches had a lot of comeback wins, and the 2AA final was one of them. Canyon trailed by four points at halftime, and took a three-point lead into the fourth quarter. In that final quarter, Canyon outscored Westlake, 23-9.
The Comanches won two state tournament games before losing by three points to Compton in the CIF-Southern California Regionals Division 2 semifinals at Compton. It was the school’s deepest foray in the state tournament.
The 30 wins is a school boys basketball record. The Comanches won the Century League championship, too.
Two of their losses were in the deep Century League. The others were to Compton, CIF-SS finalist Sonora in the North Orange Championships final and CIF state champion Mater Dei in the semifinals of the Orange Holiday Classic.
All of that might surprise some, but not Harrison.
“Our kids are really good basketball players,” said Harrison, who was the Register’s coach of the year five seasons ago. “They sacrifice for each other, they’re fearless and they’ll play anybody.”
It is an intense team playing for an intense coach. Harrison, who completed his 12th season at Canyon, is among the more verbally demonstrative coaches when addressing a team lapse during a timeout.
“He stressed himself out all the time,” said Canyon All-County point guard Anthony Ballestero. “It’s just that he knows how good our team can be. If we’re not doing the best we can, he makes sure we fix it.”
Harrison, 39, a history teacher at Canyon, played at Esperanza and soon after graduation began coaching there. He then joined the coaching staff at Orange Coast College when Tim O’Brien was coaching there. Harrison remained on the OCC staff when Mark Hill, whom he played for and coached under at Esperanza, replaced O’Brien.
When O’Brien became coach at Northwood, he hired Harrison as an assistant. Harrison got the Canyon job before the 2002-03 season.
Harrison, who has a 242-112 record at Canyon, said Hill and O’Brien are the coaches who have most influenced him.
“But I’ve taken stuff from a lot of different guys,” he said. “There are so many good coaches in the county and it doesn’t get any better than Gary McKnight (of Mater Dei).”
Harrison’s coaching philosophy is simple.
“More than anything, I try to put kids into the position to make plays,” he said. “When you expect and demand that they be great every day in practice and then give them the space to do that in games, the kids will step up and do it.”
When Harrison’s kids stepped onto a court, they did it well enough to be CIF champions.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
