Former two-time CIF coach of the year Rusty Van Cleave to lead Ocean View basketball team

New Ocean View coach Rusty Van Cleave has been an assistant at Mater Dei.

Former two-time CIF coach of the year Rusty Van Cleave has been hoping to become a head high school boys basketball coach again.

This week, Van Cleave got his wish when he was named the new head varsity boys basketball coach at Ocean View High School.

“I’m grateful to have another chance to lead a program,” Van Cleave told OC Sports Zone Saturday, the same day that Athletic Director Tim Walsh made the announcement. “I think it’s a really good fit for a guy like me to come in and develop the kids that are there and the program and build on really what is one of the finest traditions in Orange County basketball at Ocean View High School.

“I felt really connected to the program for a long time, more from an admiration standpoint of what Coach (Jim) Harris was able to build there and the guys who have been there since him, his son Jimmy, Tim Walsh, Roger Holmes and his son Brendan Holmes. Those guys are good guys and good coaches so I’m excited to have a chance to work with some kids who I know have been developed on and off the court and looking forward to meeting the guys and getting started here at some point.”

Van Cleave led Foothill to four league championship and CIF titles in 2010 and 2015 and was named the CIF coach of the year both seasons.

After leaving Foothill, where he was the winningest coach in school history, Van Cleave was an assistant coach for two years at Mater Dei.

“The last couple of years at Mater Dei have been fantastic,” Van Cleave said. “I was able to coach in some places I had never been before around the country and be around some fantastic players and Coach (Gary) McKnight has a very talented staff. It was a real good experience. I got my health back and carved out a path forward. It’s definitely been on my mind to get back to leading a program and competing and just helping kids through basketball grow up.”

Van Cleave said he has fond memories of his career at Foothill.

“Foothill was an incredible blessing,” he said. “It was a school I played for and the community I still live in. I would have never dreamed we could have had the kind of success we had but I had a great staff and an incredible community to work in and some players who really did the things we needed them to do to get better and I’m just proud of all the guys I coached and proud to have the relationships I have with them going forward.”

Before taking the Foothill job in 2004, Van Cleave was an assistant coach at Estancia, Santa Margarita and Estancia.

Ocean View Athletic Director Tim Walsh said he was excited about the hiring of Van Cleave.

“We offered him the job this week and he accepted,” said Walsh, a former Ocean View basketball coach. “I’ve always felt like Rusty was an exceptional coach and I’ve known this unfortunately from coaching against him and having little success. I felt like every time I coached against Rusty historically we were in for a battle because his teams were always prepared and always well coached and the game plan was always where it needed to be to give his team a chance to be succesful.

“I’m very happy about the hire, there are a lot of bad memories of coaching against him in the 2010 CIF championship game. They beat us and in my first game as a head coach as well. I have so much respect for the way he carries himself and the way his team carried itself too.”

Van Cleave replaces Brendan Holmes, who resigned after one season. The Seahawks were 16-13 overall and 6-4 in the Golden West League last season.

“Brendan was a great coach and a great young basketball mind, but he has a child under a year old and he felt like right now he wasn’t ready to be a varsity head coach. not from the coaching piece but everything that goes with it as far as running a basketball program, he really wanted to focus on his family and I don’t blame him.”

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