Devin Watson's newest basketball challenge: turning around Sage Creek's program
After traveling the world and playing professional basketball in Argentina, Canada and Australia, Devin Watson found there is no place like home.
“The more you travel, the more you see of the world,” he said, “the more you appreciate San Diego.”
Watson starred at Carlsbad’s Army-Navy Academy and El Camino High School and spent three seasons at San Diego State after transferring from the University of San Francisco. He was drafted by the G League’s Erie BayHawks and played professionally overseas before getting into coaching.
Now, the 31-year-old Watson - who also founded and runs the Watz Academy AAU team - will try to rebuild a Sage Creek High School program that’s coming off a 10-19 season. The decision to move to Sage Creek from Carlsbad High School, where he was helping Clark Allard, was a no-brainer, he said.
“I heard about the job at Sage Creek, a beautiful school that was in the area, applied for it, and got it,” he said. “My goal is to put players in the right positions to be successful, instill confidence in them. I want to play fast, play an exciting brand of basketball. Within the system, I want players to take shots.
“I want to build a new culture.”
The Sage Creek player who figures to benefit the most from Watson’s coaching is 6-foot-6 senior Samuel Jahries. He averaged 9.3 points and 5.1 rebounds last season, but blocked only five shots.
“I love Coach Watson,” Jahries said. “We all know he can still play, and he has encouraged us to shoot the ball. He has encouraged me to dunk the ball. He has given me the freedom to be a player, use my skills, average 20 or more points a game.”
Returnees Jacob Nguyen and Josh Liguori also give Watson some building blocks at Sage Creek.
“This is an academic school, so we need to give the students a good product to come out and see us play,” Watson said. “I think we can do that. I want the guys to play for their high school, so the students will come out and support us.”
Watson was a magnificent player in high school, averaging 21.6 points a game at Army-Navy as a sophomore and 23.6 as a junior in 2012-13.
“I was a skinny kid, but the Army-Navy coaches believed in me,” Watson said. “They gave me a key to the gym. That was huge.”
Led by Watson and 7-foot-1 Cheikh N’Diaye, Army-Navy won the CIF San Diego Section Division 4 championship in 2012-13.
But things fell apart at Army-Navy after Watson’s junior year. Watson said he felt disrespected and that the school was losing some of the discipline and traditions that made it great. He transferred to El Camino for his final season.
There, he played for Ray Johnson, San Diego County’s all-time winningest coach.
“He’s a student of the game, sees the game. That’s what made him a great player,” Johnson said. “But he had an ego and wasn’t easy to coach. He’ll take his lumps at Sage Creek, but he’ll learn to coach, learn to win.”
Watson spent two years at USF, averaging 8.4 points as a freshman and 20.3 points and 4.9 assists as a sophomore.
He appeared to be on his way to greatness. But USF coach Rex Walters and his staff were let go after Watson’s sophomore year, so he transferred to San Diego State. He redshirted during coach Steve Fisher’s final season, then averaged 12.2 points as a junior and 16.0 points and 4.2 assists as a senior under Fisher’s replacement, Brian Dutcher.
“I never got to play for Coach Fisher, but he taught me patience,” said Watson, whose brother Mikel played at Wyoming and Utah State. “I know Coach Fisher went around campus, passing out flyers and tickets to students when he first got to SDSU. I’ll do the same at Sage Creek to get students in the gym to watch us.
“Coach Dutcher taught me how to get the best out of my teammates, to get them to play hard.”
Dutcher, like Johnson, said Watson wasn’t the easiest player to coach.
“Devin was always a smart player, and now he’s learning it from the other end,” Dutcher said. “He’s going to appreciate me more now that he’s a head coach, appreciate all the stuff I had to deal with. He’ll have to deal with parents now and deal with his own players’ expectations. It’s what all of us deal with.
“The game came easy to Devin, so sometimes he probably didn’t practice as hard as we’d like him to practice. But he was extremely talented, and he knew how to play. Now he’ll try to get the most out of all his players like we did with him.”
As a player and coach, there’s no questioning Watson’s desire. Former Army-Navy coach Tom Tarantino called Watson “as passionate as anyone I’ve ever been around.”
“He loves the game, put in uncommon hours to improve as a player,” he said. “He loved to train, loved to play. I have no doubt he’ll do the same as a coach and will do a wonderful job.”
The Devin Watson file
Age: 31
Hometown: Oceanside
High School: Army-Navy Academy, El Camino
College: University of San Francisco, San Diego State
Career highlights;
• All-Coastal League first-team as a junior at Army-Navy
• MaxPreps Division 4 Second-Team All-State as a junior at Army-Navy
• Avocado West League Player of the Year as a senior at El Camino
• First-team All-CIF as a senior at El Camino
• First-team All-WCC Freshman Team at USF
• First-team All-WCC as a sophomore at USF
• Mountain West All-Tournament Team at SDSU
• Wooden Legacy All-Tournament Team at SDSU
• Selected by the Erie BayHawks in the 2019 NBA G League Draft
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This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 1:41 PM.