El Capitan High School boys basketball coach steps down. Why he’s making the move.
El Capitan High School boys basketball coach Adrian Hurtado recently announced he’s stepping down to accept an associate principal job at the school.
Hurtado led the Gauchos to playoff appearances in eight of his nine seasons, including a run to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championship game this past season. Hurtado compiled a 155-87 career record, leading El Capitan to three Central California Conference championships.
“It is one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make career-wise since I started working, understanding what I am leaving and stepping away from the kids and the program,” Hurtado said. “It was something that has been on my mind for a while and it’s an opportunity I can’t pass up.”
District policy wouldn’t allow Hurtado to work as an administrator and continue coaching.
Hurtado steps away after the program’s best postseason run in which the Gauchos went on the road as the No. 10 seed in Division III and upset No. 7 Beyer, No. 2 Placer and No. 6 Burank before falling to No. 1 Christian Brothers 59-56 in the championship game at Golden One Center in Sacramento.
After taking over the program in 2016, it didn’t take long for Hurtado to turn the Gauchos into a perennial CCC contender, finishing second in the conference with an 8-4 record that first year and then winning the CCC championship the following year.
“Adrian was a competitor, you knew his team would be well prepared for every game,” Golden Valley coach Derrick Jacobs said. “Every time you stepped into El Cap’s gym the atmosphere was different and that was set by Adrian during his first season until his last season, due to his success.”
Becoming an administrator has long been part of Hurtado’s career path, he just didn’t know the opportunity would come this soon. An opportunity to move into an administrative role at El Capitan High around people he’s familiar with was too good to pass up.
He says he’s excited to make the move, but hanging up his whistle isn’t easy because he established a family-like culture with his basketball program.
Many of his players have come back to help coach in the program and his wife and kids were always there with him in the gym and his parents in the stands at games. His top assistant Joe Serena has also been with him from the start at El Capitan.
“I knew that this decision affects a lot more people, my family, to be exact, my wife, kids, they live in the gym with me,” Hurtado said. “. My son always loves coming to practices. My parents travel to everything. So I think for me, knowing that I was going to step away meant that my whole family had to step away.”
Telling the players about the decision was one of the toughest parts, especially after the run to the section title game.
“I had a week or so to think about how I could tell them,” Hurtado said. “I wanted to make sure that I was able to keep strong in front of them, because I have about six or seven returners from last year’s team and that pretty cool run that we made. So looking them in their eyes and telling them that I wouldn’t be back was hard.”
