Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Troy Ghisetti celebrates his team’s NCS championship this year.

By Ray Hamill — It was another memorable season on the local high school baseball and softball fields for many of the H-DNL teams.

And guiding the way were the local high school coaches, all of whom deserve a ton of credit for their efforts and many of whom led their respective squads to success.

In baseball, Jeff Cook and Matt Tomlin led Del Norte and St. Bernard’s to conference championships, while McKinleyville’s Mike Dobrec enjoyed another big spring in they dugout as the Panthers pushed the Warriors all the way in the race for the Big 5 championship and secured a thrilling Charles Lakin tournament title.

Hoopa’s Aaron Williams also deserves a ton of credit for leading Hoopa to a breakthrough season and their first winning campaign and playoff appearance in 14 years.

Likewise in softball, where Del Norte’s Aaron Healy guided a composed Warriors team to a third straight championship, while Fortuna’s Eric Helms had another great season in the dugout as the Huskies pushed the Warriors all the way in the Big 5 before securing a first Lakin tournament title in several years.

Ferndale head coach Jeremy Griffith also had a good spring in charge of a young team and guided the Wildcats back to the playoffs for the first time in seven years, where they secured a first playoff win in seven years.

But of all the great catching performances this spring, two stood out above all others.

In baseball, Troy Ghisetti worked his magic once again as the Tigers closed out the season stronger than any other local team and clinched a fourth NCS title in eight postseasons.

And in softball, South Fork’s Lisa Todd continued to excel with the Cubs and guided them to a first Little 4 championship since 1990 when she was a freshman on the team.

And because of that, Ghisetti and Tood are this year’s Humboldt Sports Baseball and Softball Coaches of the Year.

In a year that saw drastic changes to the NCS playoff format, no local coach in any sport had his or her program better prepared for those changes than Ghisetti, showcasing once again why he is one of the very best — if not the best — coach in local high school sports.

Despite facing more adversity than in any other season of his long and storied coaching career, Ghisetti put his players in position to succeed on the biggest stage of all and take home a section winning pennant.

While many other coaches around the league were left confused about the new NCS playoff format, Ghisetti embraced the challenge, and with some careful planning and his usual strategical awareness his team was playing its best ball of the year at the business end of the campaign.

The longtime Arcata coach has been of the best in local high school sports for much of the past three decades, but I’m not he ever did a better job than this year, especially considering the extra challenges and the loss of several players.

Quietly, Todd was every bit as impressive this spring in Miranda.

In her last five seasons in charge of the team, Todd has led the Cubs to three section crowns, and this year she added a long awaited Little 4 title to her list of achievements.

Remarkably, the Cubs won the conference with one of the youngest rosters in all of the H-DNL, earning the respect of opposing coaches along the way.

And you get the impression this might be just the start for the Cubs in the Little 4, especially with the majority of their star players still with two years of high school ball still ahead of them.

Congratulations to both of this year’s Humboldt Sports baseball and softball coaches of the year.