BOYS COACH OF THE YEAR FINALISTS — Three worthy candidates

By barstoolfanatics on March 23, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Kellen Maynard

By Ray Hamill — A very competitive boys basketball season on the local courts has resulted in a competitive race for the 2023/24 Humboldt Sports Boys Coach of the Year.

The quality of coaching here on the North Coast has been very good in recent years and this season was no different.

But three or four stood out above the rest.

Our three finalists include two coaches who have firmly established themselves as among the best in the area in recent years, as well a newcomer who quickly announced himself this winter while leading his team to a rare conference championship.

All three led their respective teams to a successful winter, and any time they faced off against each other it always resulted in an intriguing showdown and battle of wits.

In his first year in charge, Chris Davis did an outstanding job with the McKinleyville Panthers, leading them to just the program’s third-ever Big 5 title.

Davis also won the battle of the sidelines in a hugely intense North Coast Section quarterfinal showdown against the Panthers’ biggest rivals, Arcata, showcasing his leadership in one of the biggest games of the season.

Arcata’s Kellen Maynard was equally brilliant this season, leading an injury-ravaged Tigers’ squad to a co-championship in the Big 5 and a thrilling Dick Niclai tournament championship.

Maynard continues to grow in stature year after year and championships are nothing new for him, but the manner in which he rallied his players after a difficult start to the year and changed strategy midway through the season suggests this was his best year yet.

St. Bernard’s Issac Gildea also overcame adversity while leading the Crusaders to an undefeated Little 4 championship.

Along with his staff of assistants, including Pat Shanahan who served as interim head coach for a few weeks, Gildea and the Crusaders were the most consistent team in the H-DNL, boys or girls, and were relentless in their pursuit of glory.

Chris Davis

An honorable mention here goes to South Fork’s Taylor Morrow.

The Cubs were outmatched in conference play and suffered an unexpected loss to Hoopa in the opening round of the Niclai tournament, but Morrow rallied his players in the postseason and guided them to a first North Coast Section championship game since 1990.

We’ll announce our boys coach of the year next week, along with our girls coach of the year, as well as our boys and girls players of the year and our boys and girls teams of the year.

Here then are our boys coach of the year finalists.