Last month Nick Jones, 34, led Monte Vista to the CIF-State Division I title. Now he can go on his honeymoon.

"It will be a much-needed break for both of us," Jones said of his impending trip with wife Kim to Hawaii. "There will be no questioning any decisions or replaying games in my mind. We can just relax and enjoy ourselves."

Jones has earned the right after leading Monte Vista to a 32-1 record, including a 66-55 victory against Centennial-Corona in the state title game. For his efforts, he is the Prep2Prep North Coast Section Coach of the Year.

"It was wild - a dream come true," Jones said of the whirlwind season.

The Mustang win total was the most in program history. It was also the first state title for Monte Vista in any sport and the first for a Contra Costa County public school since 1995.

An in-your-face defense and hot shooting led Monte Vista to the state crown. Monte Vista forced turnovers on defense and shot the lights out, with Trevor John making five 3-pointers in the first quarter against Centennial and finishing with a state-record six for the game.

That same formula had also helped the Mustangs to East Bay Athletic League and NCS titles.

"On film we saw that we had a height advantage and figured we could get the ball to our 6-9 center Spencer Rust," Jones said of the Centennial game. "But Trevor got some good looks early on and was able to knock them down and so we scrapped our offensive game plan and threw the ball to Trevor."

While 3-pointers are nice, defense was Monte Vista's cornerstone as the Mustangs did not allow as many as 60 points in any game. It began the season 18-0 and also beat De La Salle three times in one season for the first time.

A key victory was its NorCal title win against Freedom, which it had defeated 57-41 in the NCS title game. Freedom had a great resolve to reverse that outcome tied Monte Vista with a 3-pointer at the end of regulation, but the Mustangs ruled the overtime period to earn their return trip to Sacramento to meet Centennial.

Since defeating the Huskies, Monte Vista players have been the toast of the town.

"It's been great," Jones said. "Everywhere we go around town the kids get congratulated on what a great job they did. There were about 200 students at the state title game. And our fans included not just students and parents, but community members too."

A former Monte Vista player, Jones was only in his second season as coach of the Mustangs when they won it all.

His personal life has been noteworthy as well, as he and wife Kim married at the end of October, right before basketball season. She is the cheerleading coach at Castro Valley.

Now, they can finally take that much-deserved honeymoon and not be troubled with any what-ifs.

"After that it's back to work," Jones said. "We'll play hard and compete and see what happens."

Also considered: Don Lippi, St. Joseph Notre Dame; Lou Richie, Bishop O'Dowd.

NOTE: We would like to thank our readers for all of the nominations you sent in for the season-ending NCS basketball awards. It is a daunting task to narrow down our selections to just the top few as we recognize there are lots of great players who make contributions on the court that are not necessarily well-documented but mean a great deal to the success of their teams. We salute all of the players that have made this a wonderful season of NCS basketball.