Submitted photo – The St. Bernard’s coaches, from left to right, DJ Snowton, head coach Matt Tomlin, Sarah Shanahan and Martha Shanahan, celebrate their state championship on Saturday.

By Ray Hamill — Over the past decade Matt Tomlin has established himself as one of the greatest high school coaches the H-DNL has ever seen, and perhaps even the greatest.

His resume of success is unparalleled and puts him in a class of his own.

On Saturday, Tomlin won a third state championship when the St. Bernard’s girls defeated Grossmont 47-29 in the Division-4 girls basketball final in Sacramento.

The state victory follows the titles he won with the St. Bernard’s football team in 2015 and 2019.

He also won a NorCal baseball championship in baseball in 2022 and a pair of previous NorCal championships in girls basketball in 2015 and 2016, and on those three occasions that was as far as his teams could go because there are no state finals in baseball or in D-6 basketball.

All in all it’s a resume that no other H-DNL coach in the modern era has come close to matching, and even considering that the state playoffs are a relatively new thing in many sports it truly is an incredible achievement, especially when you consider that a lot of his postseason success has come against schools far larger than St. Bernard’s, including Saturday’s big win.

But no matter how much success he achieves, the longtime coach is always quick to credit his assistants for his success.

“It’s a simple philosophy for me,” he told me two years ago after winning a NorCal championship in baseball. “I just try to surround myself with best assistant coaches, because no one can do it on their own.”

And after Saturday’s historic win, he was quick to credit his assistants once again, speaking of how influential coaches Martha Shanahan, Sarah Shanahan and DJ Snowton were this year and the impact they had in the team’s standard-setting success.

Both Martha and Sarah played Division-I college basketball at University of Pacific.

All three are immensely popular among the players, all of whom have benefitted from the coaches’ knowledge of the game and their court-side presence.

“All three of them have made this a complete coaching staff,” Tomlin said. “I’m honored and blessed to coach with them.”

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s girls head coach Matt Tomlin

St. Bernard’s assistant coaches Martha Shanahan, left, and Sarah Shanahan.

SB assistant coach DJ Snowton, left