Skip to content
 Zach Brogdon has been Capistrano Valley Christian's coach since the 2010-11 season, but it appears that he will soon be named head coach at JSerra.
Zach Brogdon has been Capistrano Valley Christian’s coach since the 2010-11 season, but it appears that he will soon be named head coach at JSerra.

In 2006, JSerra hired Brett Kay, then 26, away from Capistrano Valley Christian to coach its baseball team.

That worked out well for JSerra. Kay has coached the Lions to three Trinity League championships, recently earned his 200th career coaching victory and has the team in first place in the league and at No. 1 in the Orange County top 10.

JSerra is taking the same path with its boys basketball program.

The south county Catholic school Friday, as expected, selected Zach Brogdon as its basketball coach. Brogdon, 28, has been Capistrano Valley Christian’s coach since the 2010-11 season.

When asked Thursday if he would become the next JSerra coach, Brogdon would only express his satisfaction with all aspects of being at Capo Valley Christian.

That is a good hire for JSerra. Brogdon is a good basketball teacher. He coaches a game with confidence and energy.

The Trinity League is a rough-and-tumble league for any coach, young or older, in any sport and is especially so in boys basketball.

When a Trinity League boys basketball team is winning by 20 points in the fourth quarter, the parents of the team’s reserves don’t understand why the reserves aren’t in the game. If the reserves go in, the parents of the star players don’t understand why their kids aren’t in the game improving their statistical and recruiting profile.

Brogdon has dealt with that to some degree. Capo Valley Christian has the … how do we put this … well, it has the “best” of both Orange County high school worlds: It’s a South County school, and it’s a private school. So he has had a taste of what might come at JSerra.

Capo Valley Christian finished 23-8 overall and tied Saddleback Valley Christian for the league championship this past season. The Eagles advanced to the CIF-Southern Section Division 5A semifinals. The Eagles lost in the first round of the CIF Southern California Regionals for Division V.

JSerra fired Joedy Gardner as its coach after the 2015-16 season, his seventh with the Lions, in which JSerra finished 18-11 overall and advanced to the Division 4AA quarterfinals. In the Trinity League, the Lions were 2-8 for a fifth-place finish in the six-team league. Among the better JSerra players was junior Sebastian Much who averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds a game.

Gardner’s replacement might be Brett Kay, part II.

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:

• In the Orange County All-Star Basketball Games this past Saturday, the North girls beat the South, 88-73, and the South boys beat the North, 119-114.

Reili Richardson of Brea Olinda, the Register’s O.C. player of the year, scored 22 points for the North. Ally Rosenblum of Mater Dei led the South with 15 points.

Lucas Araujo of Foothill and Kiron Dey of University led the South boys with 19 points each. Zamir Kelly of Ocean View scored 17 for the South. Orange County boys player of the year Eyassu Worku of Los Alamitos scored a game-high 29 points for the North, and Yorba Linda’s Isaac Douglass added 24 points.

• It’s been a rough season for Huntington Beach baseball. The Oilers lost All-County third baseman/pitcher Logan Poulesen for the rest of the season to an elbow injury in early March, and All-County outfielder Dominic Abbadessa suffered a broken foot this week. Pitcher Hagen Danner has a touch of tendinitis in his arm, but tweeted Thursday that he will be good to go next week.

• El Modena baseball junior pitcher Nolan Kuchta had a no-hitter through 62/3 innings Wednesday in the Vanguards’ 7-0 win over Canyon.

• The three coldest baseball fields in county baseball: JSerra, as soon as the sun sets for the night games; Laguna Hills, when the wind is blowing in a particular direction; and Marina, where the wind is always onshore and strong.

• We did not get as much rain around here as anticipated, but we got enough to disrupt schedules. The Michelle Carew Classic softball tournament’s championship game was supposed to happen April 9, rain forced a postponement to Saturday, but now Saturday is out because some players will be away on college visits this weekend. A Carew Classic semifinal, Mission Viejo vs. Orange Lutheran, will be played today at 3:30 p.m. at Canyon. The winner plays Huntington Beach on a date to be determined.

• Mission Viejo football receiver Austin Osborne, who will be a junior this fall, was offered by Arizona State. Osborne, All-County first team this past season, has a bunch of offers already, with a bunch more to come.

• Crean Lutheran promoted Matt Bowman to head coach of its football team. Bowman has been an assistant coach at Crean for several years. He was the team’s defensive coordinator this past season.

• College Sports Quest has its final college recruiting workshop for parents and student-athletes May 7 at UC Irvine. The workshop provides information about the recruiting process and NCAA recruiting rules. Visit collegesportsquest.com for information.

• Publishing the exploits of lower-level teams is avoided because it’s difficult enough shining the spotlight on all of the great varsity accomplishments. We’ll make an exception. Foothill junior varsity golfer Tommy Haines, a sophomore, made a hole-in-one Tuesday in a match against Brea Olinda at Westridge Golf Club in La Habra Heights.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com