Santa Ana boys basketball team enjoying early season success under new coach

Zach Johnson is Santa Ana’s new boys basketball coach. (Photo OC Sports Zone: Tim Burt).

Santa Ana High School’s boys basketball team is off to a 4-1 start under first-year coach Zach Johnson.

The Saints finished 2-1 at the Luis Macias Tournament last weekend and added two more wins this week over Godinez and Pacifica.

Johnson replaced long-time coach Fareed ElMasry, who resigned to spend more time with his family. ElMasry, who coached the Saints for 13 years, is still teaching at Santa Ana High School.

So far this season, Santa Ana has been led by 6-3 junior Jack Rivera and 6-4 senior Emmanuel Lemus, who had 31 points and 15 rebounds in the win over Pacifica.

“Jack has been picking it up, he’s been pretty good for us this season and our big man Emmanuel Lemus has been a really steady piece for us,” Johnson said during last week’s tournament at Santa Ana. “He averaged about 17 a game in this tournament.”

Johnson said the goal for his team is “trying to get better every single day, nothing more than that.”

The new coach hasn’t thought too much about the Orange Coast League season which begins on Friday, Dec. 16 against St. Margaret’s. The Saints still have four non-league games to prepare for league play. The Saints next game is Monday, Dec. 5 at Rancho Alamitos.

Johnson expressed confidence in his players’ ability this season.

“There are a decent amount of new guys but the core returners are guys who played on the varsity last year,” he said. “It’s new (his system) but they were coached well last year so they know what they have to do to be successful.”

Johnson returns as a head coach after recently being an assistant coach at Westminster High School.

In the 2020-21 season, he was the interim head coach at Northwood, taking over for legendary coach Tim O’Brien after O’Brien’s death.

From 2016 to 2019, Johnson coached at Foothill and was the Knights head coach from 2017 to 2019.

“I enjoy it, basketball is a lot of fun,” Johnson said of being a head coach again.

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