Valley Christian's Mark DeLuca, one of the Bay Area’s most accomplished basketball coaches, has announced he will step away from the sidelines this season and take on an administrative role, citing a need to spend more time with his family during the upcoming year.
“For multiple years I have preached to student-athletes to place Jesus and family above basketball. Now I have to practice what I preach,” DeLuca said. “My youngest son needs special attention and I have promised my wife I will momentarily step away from coaching basketball next year to put his needs above all else.”
DeLuca, 54, will still be running Valley Christian’s summer program and youth camps and directing the annual Basa-Merza Classic, a prestigious one-day showcase event that has the likes of Campolindo, Salesian and Weston Ranch lined up to play in the December 2021 edition. He’ll also be assisting players with the recruiting process and will remain in his role as the school’s Director of Annual Giving, and he’ll be on the committee to find his replacement as head coach.
“I’ll still be a strong supporter of the program, attending the games of the players and coaches I love so much. My job on campus battling for youth with promise remains as important as ever,” he said. “Our team next season will perhaps be the strongest ever, so I feel really good about the timing of my pause.”
The Warriors, who went 5-8 in the pandemic-shortened spring 2021 season, return much of their core for the coming year. Center Will Hook and forward Chidi Onu will both be seniors and sharpshooter Pasha Goodarzi and Jurrion Dickey, known as a nationally-renowned wide receiver on the football field, will both be entering their junior seasons. Marcus Washington, an athletic forward who threw down a dazzling display of dunks over the course of the brief year, will only be a sophomore.
“I made an agreement with Eric Scharrenberg, our head of athletics, and Jerry Merza, our superintendent, that no matter how much I ask to coach this year, they must tell me no,” DeLuca explained.
DeLuca has been a fixture on Bay Area sidelines for the past three decades, with stints at St. Elizabeth, Holy Names University, Pinole Valley, De Anza and Berkeley before spending the past five seasons at Valley Christian. The only thing that interrupted his time with the Warriors before this season was a heart attack in early 2017 that took him away from coaching for a month and a half. When he returned to the team in time for the postseason, they managed to reach the CCS Division II championship, ultimately falling to Mountain View.
He added, “taking a pause from coaching for my son will also benefit my personal health, which has been up and down lately.”
His accolades include a NorCal championship appearance at St. Elizabeth, where he also coached the small, now-closed Oakland school’s football team, and a Northern California Division I title with Berkeley in 2016, resulting in the Yellowjackets’ first state championship appearance since 1925. During his 14 seasons at Pinole Valley, he coached Sudan Williams and Paulo Rodrigues, better known to the general public as rappers Iamsu! and P-Lo. His relationship with the pair has remained strong in the decade-plus since they graduated, with P-Lo visiting DeLuca shortly after his heart attack.
“My relationships with players last a lifetime and my greatest joy is seeing them go off to college and make their mark in this world,” DeLuca said. “I’ll miss the grind of practices and joking with players every day.”
The Warriors went 51-57 under DeLuca, winning the 2018 CCS Division II championship and reaching the NorCal Division III semifinals.
“I’ll never forget our buzzer beater victory over number 1 seed Branson at their place in NorCals,” he said. “The CCS championship games were also cool.”
The prospect of having the entire 2020-21 season wiped out may have deprived the Warriors of what would have been their best season since the 2004-05 campaign, as it led to the departures of two key players.
Six-foot-10 Congolese forward Tichyque Musaka, who holds offers from Kansas and Illinois, left for Durham, North Carolina, while forward Sam Roush, a tight end commit to Stanford, moved to Nashville. Still, the Warriors managed to piece together a solid season with the remaining pieces, reaching the CCS Division II quarterfinals before falling by two points to Pioneer.
The search for a new head coach, which will begin immediately, has plenty of solid internal options available. Drew Snelgrove recently served as the head coach at Monte Vista Christian and was the interim coach for 12 games in 2017 after the heart attack. Shawn Hook, Will’s father, coached Homestead from 2006 through 2018 before joining the staff at Valley Christian to be with his son. Assistants Steve Barnes and Dom Pennix have also been extremely active with DeLuca in recent years, and the job could certainly attract outside candidates as well, especially when considering the school’s amenities and resources.
DeLuca’s decision makes Valley Christian the second open WCAL boys basketball job. Sean MacKay announced his resignation after five seasons at Sacred Heart Cathedral.
