South Coast Coach Milestones, Hall of Fame Nods

It's been a busy few weeks for South Coast Conference colleges as two current coaches reached milestones while several current/retired coaches and a few student-athlete alumni have been selected to various Halls of Fame.

• Long Beach City College baseball head coach Casey Crook picked up his 700th career victory earlier this week in 30 seasons in the dugout. The Vikings defeated Mt. San Antonio, 18-5, on April 2 at the LBCC diamond. Crook was the SCC Men's Sports Coach of the Year for in 2005-06 when he directed Long Beach to the state title. 
  
  
  
• Jessica Rapoza recorded her 250th win as El Camino College softball head coach in the Warriors' 8-2 win over Pasadena City (at off-campus Robinson Park) on April 4. She is in her ninth season at the Torrance campus and also has 135 wins in five seasons prior to that at Santa Ana College. She needs 15 more victories to reach 400 overall in her career. Rapoza earned SCC Women's Sports Coach of the Year in 2014-15. 
  
  
  
• Long-time Long Beach aquatics coach Chris Oeding will be inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in June. The former U.S. Olympic men's player has had a distinguished career coaching both at the national and community college levels. Oeding, who directed the Vikings' men's water polo (four) and women's water polo (three) teams to seven state championships, has served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women's National Team for more than a decade, helping guide Olympic gold medal-winning teams in 2016 and 2021. In February, the U.S. won the World Championships and he will be part of the staff for the Paris Olympic Games in July. Oeding was the only coach to ever win both the SCC Men's and Women's Coach of the Year in the same calendar year in 2006-07 for his team's achievements in both water polo and swimming.
  
  
  
• El Camino's current beach volleyball head coach and former women's volleyball coach Le Valley Pattison was inducted into the 3C2A Hall of Fame in March. She is the only person to ever win a state title as a student-athlete (Tournament MVP of the 1983 ECC team) and as head coach-back-to-back state titles at El Camino in 2007 and 2008. She earned SCC Women's Sports Coach of the Year in 2019-20.
  
  
  
• Former Long Beach women's track and field head coach Dan Ripley also was named to the 3C2A Hall of Fame in the same induction. Between 1987-2002, he coached three state championships and two state runner-up finishes. Ripley was a 2-time South Coast Women's Sports Coach of the Year during the 1990s.
  
  
  
• Pasadena City College women's basketball alumnae Kinyada Johnson was inducted into the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in March. The Lancers all-time leading scorer with more than 1,000 points in her two-year career, Johnson was the MVP of PCC's historic state title team in 2009. That was the college's first-ever women's state championship. She was a 2-time, All-SCC selection.
  
  
  
  PCC ALUM/LAKERS GREAT MICHAEL COOPER INDUCTED INTO NAISMITH BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME
  
  Former NBA Lakers defensive great Michael Cooper, a Pasadena City College Hall of Famer, is expected to be officially be announced as an inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend.
  
  Cooper played for PCC prior to the college joining the South Coast in 1987, but is a proud Lancer who played at the college as the #7 all-time leading scorer (1,070 points) in 1974-76.
  
  Cooper was a member of the "Showtime Lakers" with Magic Johnson and played on five NBA World Champion teams. 
  
  Michael Cooper at PCC 
  
  

Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID