Sean MacKay has been named the new boys’ basketball coach at Sacred Heart Cathedral, according to a tweet from the school.
MacKay has most recently been an assistant coach at San Jose City College. He was also the head boys’ basketball coach at San Leandro High from 2007 through 2013. He coached San Leandro’s underclassmen teams before that, beginning in 2004.
MacKay was the HAAL coach of the year in 2008 and the 2013 norcalpreps.com coach of the year.
While at San Leandro, the Pirates were ranked among the top 50 in the nation, ranked in the Top 20 in the state twice and reached the CIF-State quarterfinal.
One of MacKay's players at San Leandro, Jared Cunningham, made it to the NBA.
SHC’s new coach has West Catholic Athletic League experience. He was an assistant varsity basketball coach at St. Francis from 1999 through 2001 and is a graduate of St. Francis (Class of 1995) and USF.
MacKay replaces Darrell Barbour, who was not retained as coach after last season. Barbour’s teams went 195-112 in 10 seasons and won a state title in 2009. In all, the Fightin’ Irish won five Central Coast Section titles and three CIF-State Northern California titles under Barbour. He is still a part of the SHC faculty.
The Irish went 12-17 last season and lost 12 games in each of the three seasons preceding 2015-2016.
