Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Last year’s Humboldt Sports High School Coach of the Year, Matt Tomlin of St. Bernard’s, receives his award from Jeff Meyer of Mendes Supply Company, one of the award sponsors.

By Ray Hamill — It was another memorable year for H-DNL sports, and as always the coaches all played a huge role in that.

And with that in mind, it’s almost time to name the 2025 Humboldt Sports High School Coach of the Year.

As usual, there were a ton of worthy candidates for this year’s award, including all 25 varsity championship winning head coaches.

The Coach of the Year award is one of six awards we will be announcing soon, along with our Team of the Year and our Big 5 Boys and Girls Athletes of the Year and our Little 4 Boys and Girls Athletes of the Year.

Before we announce the winners and present each of them with a trophy to commemorate their achievements, we will be naming our finalists in all six categories.

The finalists for each of the awards will be announced in the coming days.

And as always a big shout out and thank you to the award sponsors, a group that includes The Humboldt Fence Company, DelReka Distributing, Mendes Supply Company and Bode Construction, all of whose support will help to pay for the trophies.

The award winners will be announced next weekend.

HUMBOLDT SPORTS 2025 HIGH SCHOOL COACH OF THE YEAR FINALISTS

Clint McClurg, Ferndale Football, Track and Field

McClurg has reestablished the Wildcats as an NCS powerhouse and this year guided the team to a co-Little 4 championship, and another section championship game, handing conference rival and eventual state champion Arcata its only loss of the fall.

Aaron Healy, Del Norte Softball

Healy led the Warriors to a third straight Big 5 title, edging a very good Fortuna team for the championship.

Daniel Holmes, Fortuna Boys Soccer

The longtime local coach won his 10th league title in 12 full seasons this year, further solidifying his status as one of the greatest soccer coaches in H-DNL history.

Eric Helms, Fortuna Softball

Helms is the most respected softball coach in the H-DNL and worked his magic once again this year, leading his girls to second in the Big 5 and a Charles Lakin tournament title.

Troy Ghisetti, Arcata Baseball and Girls Golf

Ghisetti enjoyed another memorable season with the Tigers, leading the girls golf team to another league title and the Arcata baseball team to another NCS championship.

Issac Gildea, St. Bernard’s Boys Basketball

Gildea led the Crusaders to a second NorCal title in his four years in charge of the program and became the first-ever H-DNL coach to guide a boys basketball team to conference, section and NorCal titles in the same season.

Darren LaFazio, Del Norte Football

Since Lafazio took over the program two years ago the transition has been seamless and he led the Warriors to a fifth straight Big 4 championship in the fall.

Matt Mager, Arcata Football

Mager did what no other Arcata High football coach ever managed by leading the Tigers to a first-ever NCS title and a first-ever state championship in 2024.

Kellen Maynard, Arcata Boys Basketball

In his four years in charge of the program Maynard has established the Tigers as the most concistently dangerous program in H-DNL basketball.

Laurie Renteria, Arcata Volleyball

Renteria has built a powerhouse program at Arcata High and guided the Tigers to a Big 5 championship in the fall, her second in four seasons with the team.

Clinton Schaad, Del Norte Wrestling

Few H-DNL programs can boast the success of Del Norte wrestling over the past couple of decades, and longtime coach Schaad has played a key role in that success.

Lisa Todd, South Fork Softball

Todd enjoyed another outstanding season with the Cubs and led them to a first conference title in 35 years this spring.

Matt Tomlin, St. Bernard’s Football, Girls Basketball, Baseball

It was another big year for the multi-sport coach, who led all three of his teams to the NCS playoffs and guided the SB girls to a first-ever Dick Niclai championship.