A veteran local high school basketball coach is changing schools after finishing on top and making a life-changing decision.
Phil Sherman, who retired from the Santa Barbara Unified School District after 27 years of coaching basketball and teaching at Dos Pueblos High, will be the new boys basketball coach at Laguna Blanca School.
Matt Steinhaus, the athletic director at Laguna Blanca, told Noozhawk of the hiring on Monday.
“I am truly excited to have Phil now leading our boys basketball program,” he said. “Separate of being a great fit and really understanding Laguna Blanca, his longtime success as a coach and educator will have an immediate positive impact.
“It is great to have such a huge presence in the Santa Barbara athletic community now part of Laguna.”
This past season, Sherman guided the Dos Pueblos girls basketball team to a 20-4 record and its first-ever Channel League title. The Chargers shared it with San Marcos.
Sherman did two stints of coaching at Dos Pueblos. He coached the boys program for 16 years before taking the women’s basketball coaching job at Oxnard College.
He coached there for five years — while still teaching DP —and returning to Sovine Gym in 2012. He coached the girls varsity until retiring at the end of the 2021-22 school year.
One of the best players he coached at DP was Shantay Legans (class of 2003), who went on to play college men’s basketball at Cal and Fresno State before embarking on a successful college coaching career. He is currently the men’s basketball coach at Portland University.
Sherman was hired at DP by the legendary Scott O’Leary, who was the athletic director and baseball coach at the time. The football stadium and baseball field at the school are named after him.
Before arriving at DP, Sherman coached at Compton College, Compton-Centennial, Leuzinger High, Ribet Academy and Marshall Fundamental. He won a CIF-SS boys title in 1992 at Ribet, a private school. He also worked as an NBA scout.
Sherman said retirement didn’t mean he was slowing down.
“I still feel really good,” he said. “I still play basketball every weekend, sometimes twice a week.”
Sherman’s final year at DP was a special one. His girls basketball team won the first Channel League title in school history and his daughter, Portia, a senior, played on the Chargers’ league-championship indoor volleyball team and won a league and a regional pairs championship in beach volleyball.
In addition, she signed a letter of intent with Cal for beach volleyball.
Sherman said he’s looking forward to coaching high school boys basketball again.
“I’m still up on the game. I play with young guys,” he said.
He plans to meet with Laguna Blanca members in the next few weeks.
Laguna Blanca last season went 1-6 in a tough Frontier League that included Cate, Villanova Prep and Foothill Tech. Villanova won the Division 5AA title and Cate lost in the 4A quarterfinals to eventual champion Western, 48-47.
Dos Pueblos named assistant Manny Murillo as its new girls basketball coach.