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Kofa hoops coach Williamson on the move
Kevin Williamson didn't take long to make his mark on Arizona prep basketball.
In the first season of his first head coaching position, he guided Kofa into uncharted territory for any local 5A boys team as the Kings reached the 5A Division II final four.
And now, after one year with the Kings, the Sedona native has decided to move on.
Williamson resigned from Kofa this week to become the head basketball coach at Cathedral Catholic in San Diego.
"I loved my time here at Kofa. I loved the administration and the players that I had," Williamson said. "It was a great chance for me to get to work on floor management and player management as well, and I enjoyed everything about Kofa itself.
"I'm just moving on to try something new. I want to see what I could do at a really high level in California and play in that Southern California type of competition."
During Williamson's lone season at the helm of the Kofa basketball program, the Kings went 21-11, claimed the Gila Valley Region championship and made a Cinderella run to the 5A-II semifinals as a No. 15 seed, upsetting No. 2 Phoenix Pinnacle in the first round.
Kofa went 7-20 the year before Williamson arrived, and only won 20 games total the previous three years combined.
"Now there's an expectation for success here," Williamson said, "and I think there's a real possibility to do that next season with the type of team we left behind."
Kofa athletic director Frank Garcia said Williamson did more than teach basketball and win games.
"What he did is he showed these student athletes the importance of the game and he also demonstrated that it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be successful," Garcia said. "I think that's the lasting impact he's going to have on the students."
At Cathedral Catholic, Williamson inherits a team that only lost two players from a squad that went 19-10 and reached the second round of the CIF playoffs. The Dons play at mid-level for California in the Class 3, which is equivalent to the 5A in Arizona.
One service Williamson brought to Yuma county basketball is he promoted local players from all schools and tried to help them play at the next level.
Garcia said the search for a replacement is already underway.
"it's going to be a process. I'm not in any hurry," Garcia said. "Obviously, I'm hoping we have a strong pool of candidates. We'd like to have someone in by the summer, but if we don't, I'm not going to push it."
