Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — This year’s Humboldt Sports High School Coach of the Year is one of the greatest the H-DNL has ever seen.

And that’s only half the story.

This year Matt Tomlin also became the first head coach in California history to have won both a girls basketball state championship (2024) and a football state championship (2015 and 2019).

He has also won a NorCal championship in baseball (2022), three NorCal championships in girls basketball (2015, 2016 and 2024), two NorCal championships in football (2015 and 2019), and this past fall he led St. Bernard’s to a first-ever Big 4 championship in football, a conference that features far larger schools.

It’s a career resume that speaks for itself and one that probably puts Tomlin on the Mount Rushmore of all-time great H-DNL coaches.

But it’s his performances on the sidelines this year that make him a deserved choice for the 2024 Humboldt Sports High School Coach of the Year, matching the award he also won two years ago.

In the fall, he guided a young St. Bernard’s football team that featured mostly underclassmen at the skill positions to a co-championship in the Big 4 and set a new standard for the program.

He followed that in the winter by leading the SB girls to a state championship in basketball, which was not just a first-ever for the program but also a first-ever for H-DNL basketball, boys or girls.

By his own lofty standards, he did not enjoy his usual success in baseball in the spring, something that would have gone unnoticed but for the fact that expectations are always so high for any Tomlin coached team.

But his teams’ achievements in football and basketball this past year makes him a worthy winner for our coach of the year award, just one week after he also was inducted into the Humboldt Crabs Hall of Fame.

For good measure, Tomlin was also named the CalHiSports Division-4 Girls Basketball Coach of the Year in March.

Submitted photo

And let’s not forget, St. Bernard’s is a Division-6 school, which makes his accomplishments at the Division-4 state level all the more impressive.

As I’ve mentioned before — when Tomlin was named this year’s Humboldt Sports Girls Basketball Coach of the Year — he knows strategy, he knows how to motivate and he always seems to get the very best out of his players, something evident in the way they always continue to grow on the court as the season progresses and always seem to be playing their best ball at the business end of the campaign.

In short, no local coach succeeds as consistently in so many sports better than Tomlin.

He is arguably the best high school football coach in the H-DNL — or certainly one of the top two along with Fortuna’s Mike Benbow — as well as arguably the best basketball coach in the H-DNL and one of the top baseball coaches in the H-DNL, along with Arcata’s Troy Ghisetti, who was the 2023 Humboldt Sports High School Coach of the Year, and perhaps Ferndale’s Justin Andersen.

And a busy Tomlin is showing no signs of slowing down, which is great news for St. Bernard’s sports and bad news for his opponents around the league.

A huge shout out to the local businesses that have stepped up to help sponsor this year’s awards, a group that includes Mendes Supply, DelReka Distributing, Bode Construction, The Humboldt Fence Company, and Chris Prior of Coldwell Banker Cutten Realty, whose generosity ensures all six of our end-of-season award winners will receive trophies to honor their accomplishments.

In addition to the 2024 Humboldt Sports Coach of the Year, this weekend we’re also announcing our other end-of-year high school award winners, including our Little 4 Boys and Girls Athletes of the Year, the Team of the Year and the Big 5 Boys and Girls Athletes of the Year.

Submitted photo – The St. Bernard’s girls basketball coaches, from left to right, DJ Snowton, head coach Matt Tomlin, Sarah Shanahan and Martha Shanahan, celebrate their state championship in Sacramento earlier this year.