After an extensive search to find the right fit Heritage-Brentwood has announced the hiring of Carly Perales as only the second-ever head boys’ basketball coach in school history.
Coach Perales takes over for Pat Cruickshank, who served as the head boys’ basketball coach and athletic director during all 13 years of his time at Heritage, which was since the school opened in the 2005-2006 school year.
Coach Perales comes to Heritage from Armijo-Fairfield, where he was the head coach for seven seasons, and coached a total of 15 years. In 2013, his team won the Monticello Empire League title. Perales is also in his first year on campus as a physical education teacher at Heritage, after having previously taught and served as the athletic director at Armijo.
"We are excited to have a veteran leader such as Coach Perales taking over our program. He embodies the ideals which we expect to have our coaches convey to our student-athletes, and he brings the experience necessary to continue pushing our program to even greater heights," said athletic director Nate Smith. "We are equally excited to add him as another on-campus coach to our tremendous staff across the board."
Cruickshank, who left his AD and boys coaching duties at Heritage to take a position as Assistant Commissioner with the CIF North Coast Section, leaves the new head coach with a solid program as Perales takes over a program which has captured back-to-back Bay Valley Athletic League titles, and last year added the first North Coast Section Division I title in program history.
"I'm very excited for the opportunity to coach these young men," Perales said. "Coach Cruickshank ran a great program and I look forward to continuing the winning tradition that has been established here."
Perales is also no stranger to winning traditions. He grew up on the bench at Lindsay High School, where his dad Don was the head boys' basketball coach for 36 years, racking up 469 career wins, which was the most in the history of the CIF Central Section at the time of his retirement.
