New Santa Ana boys basketball coach Rick Mares wants team to compete for league title

Santa Ana High School’s boys basketball coach Rick Mares. (PHOTO: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).

Santa Ana High School’s new boys basketball coach Rick Mares is excited about leading the Saints.

Mares, a graduate of Santa Ana and a former player for the Saints, has been an assistant coach with the varsity the past two years. He took over for former coach Zach Johnson, who took an assistant coaching job after two years.

“We want to get the boys to compete and play hard,” said Mares. “We want them to turn them from kids to young men and compete in league and my goal is to win a league title, we haven’t won one since 1988.”

As part of re-leaguing, the Saints will be in a new league set-up the Saints and grouped with Laguna Hills, Valencia, Buena Park and Westminster.

“We have four returners (including) Aaron Rivera, who was a captain last year, Issac Alvarez; Pedro Moran and Jayden Carter, it should be interesting,” Mares said. “We’re young from there but the boys have a lot of heart, so we’re going to be competing.”

After graduating from Santa Ana, Mares coached the Saints JV team. He then went to Anaheim to coach for two seasons.

“I took some time off and I returned, this is my alma mater, I played here in 2008,” Mares said. “It makes it extra special, I just want the boys to do great. Coming from Santa Ana and knowing what is around them, I want them to use basketball as a tool to be young, successful men. Basketball is just a tool to get them what they can accomplish.

“Santa Ana basketball means a lot to me so I want that to mean a lot to them as well.”

Santa Ana has started the season 2-3.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com