El Capitan High School announces new girls basketball, flag football head coaches
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- El Capitan promoted two assistants to head coach roles in girls sports programs.
- Adam Her inherits a 25-5 basketball team with a returning core of senior players.
- Juan Valdovino leads flag football amid statewide growth in school participation.
El Capitah High School didn’t have to look far to fill two coaching vacancies, as the school promoted two assistant coaches to lead the Gauchos girls basketball and girls flag football programs.
Adam Her, 27, was tabbed to take over the girls basketball team with former coach Tyler Dietz sliding over to run the boys program. Her has spent the last three years as an assistant under Dietz.
Juan Valdovino was an assistant last year with Dietz, who also served as the girls flag football coach.
“I inherited a great program from (Dietz),” Her said. “There’s great culture, and we had a great season last year, and now I just want to ride that momentum and try to do it again.”
Her takes over a program coming off their best season, which included the team’s first Central California Conference championship. The Gauchos finished with a 25-5 record, reaching the second round of the playoffs for the first time. El Capitan shared the CCC championship with Atwater, which went on to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship.
The Gauchos lose only one senior from last year’s team and come into this season with high expectations.
“I actually started out with this very group when they were freshmen and now they’ll be seniors,” Her said. “So it’s kind of exciting that to start with them their JV year as freshmen, and now I’m coaching them as the head coach at the varsity level.”
Valdovino takes over the Gauchos in a new sport that has exploded since it was introduced two years ago. The Sac-Joaquin Section saw the number of girls flag football teams almost double to 130 this past season from 69 in the first season in 2023.
“It just tells you that it’s a popular sport,” Valdovino said. “Now it’s growing so fast. Rules are constantly changing as well, but even colleges are starting to implement flags football as one of their sports. So as it keeps growing hopefully it’ll spread all over California.”
The Gauchos finished 20-8 last season, finishing second in the CCC and qualifying for the playoffs.
“I’m very excited,” Valdovino said. “Taking over the program now gives me a whole new perspective of being with the program and being with the school. I love the school, the faculty there. It’s a great program to be at and I am very excited for what’s to come.”
