The Scotts Valley girls basketball program has been trending upward since Jim Hart took over the program in 2006-2007.

The upward spiral continued this season with a 25-6 record. That included victories against St. Francis-Mountain View, North Salinas, Archbishop Mitty and Cardinal Newman and a CIF-State NorCal Regional appearance.

The Falcons' excellent adventure finally ended in the NorCals with an 81-68 loss to Justin-Siena, which made it to the state title game.

For Hart's efforts, he is the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Girls Coach of the Year.

"When I took over Scotts Valley was a fairly new school and its most wins in a season was nine," said Hart, who is also running for sheriff of Santa Cruz County. "I grew up in Scotts Valley and I called the athletic director, Louie Walters, and filled out an application for the job."

The Falcons went 10-17 Hart's first year, with five players quitting the team as the program experienced some growing pains. After a 4-21 record in 2007-2008, Scotts Valley went 18-12 in 2008-2009 and has won at least 17 games every season since.

The program's success shouldn't come as any great surprise considering that Hart played on successful teams for the late coach Bob Enzweiler at Harbor High and once scored 50 points in a game. Hart averaged 32 points per game (before the 3-point shot) as a senior and later played at Fresno State before transferring to the University of Nevada.

"The thing I learned from Bob (Enzweiler) was he was great with kids and good at managing kids," Hart said. "He could talk with them."

Hart also learned his lessons well from coach Boyd Grant at Fresno State and Sonny Allen at Nevada.

The Falcon coach also gleaned plenty from his father Larry Hart, who was the basketball coach at San Lorenzo Valley High. Hart played for his father as a freshman at SLV before his dad retired, prompting the standout's transfer to Harbor.

Hart, with daughter Nadene coming up (she was a senior for the Falcons this season), coached the AAU Santa Cruz Quakes where he trained many of this season's standouts. Also aiding this year's teams is the fact Charlie Boyle, who lives in Scotts Valley, transferred in from Los Gatos and her sister Sam Boyle enrolled at Scotts Valley as a freshman.

Pacing the Falcons this season were Hart (15.5 points per game), Angela Silver (14.5), Charlie Boyle (10.5), Mandy Silver (9.2), Nikiya Bechtel (8.1) and Sam Boyle (5.6).

Scotts Valley's style was reminiscent of Enzweiler's old teams - fast-breaking with plenty of scoring.

Hart said that besides all of the success - his team easily won the SCCAL title - he most enjoys his interaction with the players.

"I love to be with kids," he said. "I have three daughters and one boy myself and it keeps me young. They're fun to be around. This group (of players) had a great sense of humor and it was good working with them."

Also considered: Doc Scheppler, Pinewood; Sue Phillips, Archbishop Mitty; John Mulkerrins, St. Ignatius; John Paye, Menlo School; Cynthia Ting, Lynbrook.

NOTE: We would like to thank our readers for all of the nominations you sent in for the season-ending CCS 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 CCS basketball.