After an eight-year hiatus from coaching but not teaching history at Branson-Ross, Jonas Honick has un-retired and is back at the helm of the Bulls boys basketball team replacing off-campus coach Brett Tovani who was told in May he would not be brought back.
The Harvard graduate that started his high school coaching career at Choate in Connecticut before coming west and landing the Branson job in 1980 now has a chance to add to what is already one of the greatest coaching careers in Northern California history.
When Honick initially retired after the 2008 season, he could not have gone out on a higher note. He had contemplated stepping down at the end of the 2007 season and had already announced his retirement. During the playoffs some questioned whether this team had the same muster as his team’s that had won two previous state titles.
In the end Honick protégé Oliver McNally (who went on to Harvard) led the Bulls to a three-peat in four consecutive CIF Division V state championship game appearances after Branson capped a three-year run that saw them go 101-6 with a 40-33 victory over Renaissance Academy-Altadena in the 2008 D5 state title game.
When he retired Honick had not only won three state championships but five CIF North Coast Section titles and five Marin County Athletic League titles in seven years in the league. He left with 628 coaching wins (657 if you count 29 in two years at Choate) which at the time was fourth all-time in the North Coast Section.
Since then Tom Bonfigli of Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (722 wins) and retired Frank Allocco of De La Salle-Concord (655 wins) have passed him on the Cal-Hi Sports record list for coaching victories but he almost assuredly will pass retired Tom Blackwood (636 wins at Miramonte-Orinda) and if he stays more than a year Allocco could be in his sights.
Honick is back primarily because the current administration wants to transition to on-campus coaching teachers.
“I was done when I retired and I never thought I would come back but when it was put to me that I would be the first, the point person for this transition to all on-campus coaches I was reluctant, but gave it careful consideration,” the 61-year old Honick told Prep2Prep.
Still, he needed the approval of his wife of 38-years Donna Mezias and he had an all-inclusive and complete physical and got the green light from his doctor.
“I was getting a little antsy and Donna could see that, plus I was working out every day but wanted to stay even more active, but I wasn’t looking for a coaching position,” said Honick, who says the Branson administration has talked about a potential four-year stint for him at this point.
To bolster Honick’s contention he had no plans on returning to coaching is the fact he had major plans this summer he certainly would not have made if he knew he was coming back. He will miss the De La Salle summer Greenline tournament and a bunch of practices because he and Donna are scheduled to take a two-week, 100-mile trek on Mont Blanc in France in July.
Honick admits he was “burned out” in 2008 but now that he’s had some time to re-charge his batteries he inherits a team that went 22-9 (10-4 in league) last season and beat Drake-San Anselmo 69-66 in overtime in the MCAL playoff title game. They made it to the second round of the NCS D5 playoffs before losing 62-58 to eventual runner-up University-San Francisco.
The Bulls had a solid season but there will certainly be some re-building to do since both leading scorers and a total of 48 points a game have been lost to graduation.
The top returning player is incoming 6-2 senior guard Caleb Better who averaged 6.1 points a game last season. The remaining returning core is made up of incoming juniors Alec Ritch and Marco Castillo, incoming senior Ming Bacharach, and incoming sophomores Will Jacobsen and Aidan Demian.
Whether or not Honick can get back to contending for state championships remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain, the curtain that fell in 2008 on his career is back for a final act.
