Since Corona del Mar High opened its doors in 1962, the school has enjoyed success in virtually every sport.
Walk through most high school gymnasiums and you’ll see league championship banners draped from the walls and rafters. At Corona del Mar, only national, CIF State and Southern Section level triumphs are honored among the cloth-bearing accolades.
No matter the coach, the CdM boys basketball program has been at the forefront of league and CIF competition, and to reach a new level of achievement is no easy task.
That’s why this year’s version of the Sea Kings is so special.
In his fifth year as coach, Jason Simco has lifted the Sea Kings to even greater heights with a school-record 27 wins, an undefeated Sunset League championship and the eighth seed in the prestigious CIF Southern Section Open Division.
The Corona del Mar basketball program has won 18 league championships, five CIF Southern Section titles, produced 43 All-CIF players, won 20 or more games in a season 25 times and featured only eight head coaches in its six-plus decades of basketball excellence.
Since Coach Bob Leslie rolled out the balls for the Sea Kings’ first practice, the pantheon of CdM hoops coaches comprises Bill Bloom, Tandy Gillis, Jack Errion, Paul Orris, Ryan Curry, Ryan Schachter and Simco, who served as an assistant coach at CdM for 15 years before replacing Schachter.
The no-nonsense Simco said the students he teaches in his six special education science classes at CdM would be amazed at how emotional he gets on the bench during basketball games. But assistant coach Brett Matsen is always seated next to him to calm him down.
“I’m hyper-competitive as you can see on the sidelines, but in my day-to-day life I’m pretty soft-spoken,” Simco said. “I don’t say much … my students would never guess that I’m the guy on the sidelines. But when it comes to basketball, and the lights are on, and the ball’s tossed up, you prepare to win, and you prepare to compete, and that’s our standard and expectations.”
Simco got his wish this season: That Corona del Mar, with its student enrollment of about 1,550, the smallest in the Sunset League, would qualify for the elite Open Division, the highest division in the CIF playoffs. It features the top 12 teams, according to computer-based power rankings generated to place and seed schools into playoff divisions.
The Open Division, unlike the section’s other divisions, is a pool-play format with the schools divided into four pools. The Sea Kings were placed in the pool with Crespi and top-seeded Sierra Canyon.
Corona del Mar has been so good this season that it will face superpower Sierra Canyon, a school that has produced myriad NBA and top collegiate players, including Marvin Bagley III, Amari Bailey, Brandon Boston Jr., Kenyon Martin Jr., Ziaire Williams and Bronny James, the son of LeBron James.
One Corona del Mar alum has reached the NBA – 1960s-era standout John Vallely.
While it might seem like David versus Goliath in the CIF playoffs, based on basketball résumés in comparison to Sierra Canyon, the Sea Kings have proved they can play with anybody. They’re unselfish players who play well together and any of the starters could likely be leading scorers on other teams.
Maxwell Scott, Luke Mirhashemi, Oliver Nakra, Ryan Masouri, Jackson Harlan, Kai Goldberg and Grayson Porter have sparked the Sea Kings this season. Scott is the leading scorer, while Mirhashemi, a left-handed senior point guard, is a four-year letterman and highly praised by Simco.
Richard Dunn, a longtime sportswriter, writes the Dunn Deal column regularly for The Orange County Register’s weekly, The Coastal Current North.