How about Jeff Perrault and Jon Wyers, who both took over varsity head coaching jobs this year and led their new teams to the CIF playoffs?

Wyers, an assistant coach at Ventura College over the previous two seasons, guided Villanova Prep to the Division 5-A playoffs, where the Wildcats drew Condor League powerhouse Besant Hill in Wednesday's first round.

Perrault, the Oxnard College assistant, spurred Newbury Park High to its first postseason bid since 2003. The Panthers will visit Arroyo Grande Wednesday in the Division III-AA first round.

Belated congratulations to former Ventura College assistant coaches Jeff Perrault and Jon Wyers, who picked up their first wins as varsity high school head coaches last week.

Wyers guided Villanova Prep to a 76-45 win over Laguna Blanca of Santa Barbara Dec. 2.

The next two nights, Perrault, who is also the assistant coach at Oxnard College this season, guided Newbury Park High to wins over Camarillo (56-47) and Rio Mesa (68-59).

The Newbury Park-Rio Mesa matchup actually pitted Perrault against Rio Mesa High coach Chris Ruffinelli, who also coached under Greg Winslow at VC.

Of course, Wyers took over for Perrault before the 2007-08 season.

Assistant coach Jon Wyers has left the Ventura College men's basketball program after a pair of WSC North title campaigns.

Wyers accepted the Villanova Prep boys' basketball head coaching job in April, but expected to return alongside new VC head coach Will Cowen until the Ojai school also offered him their assistant athletic director position this month.

"I enjoyed my time at Ventura College," said Wyers. "We had two successful years."

Wyers added that the budget cuts at the community college level and the lack of a Master's degree, which kept him from applying for the vacant head coaching position earlier this year, made "moving to the high school level a smarter move for me."

Ventura College men's basketball assistant coach Jon Wyers has accepted the head boys' basketball position at Villanova Prep.

In two years in Ventura, Wyers has helped Ventura to 50 wins and a pair of Western State Conference titles.

Wyers said assistant coach Dan Placial will remain with the program. He has also spoken to former Ventura guard Andre Jamerson about a potential role with the Wildcats.

Wyers will remain at Ventura, which isn't without precedent. Oxnard College men's basketball assistant Jeff Perrault also coached at Thousand Oaks High last season.

Wyers lives in Ventura with his wife Tonya and stepson Bryan, 7.

The same day the temporary association of Ned Mircetic and Will Cowen with the Ventura College men's basketball team ended, the Ventura County Community College District began advertising for their full-time successor.

The No. 10-seeded Pirates completed a 24-9 season with perhaps its only lopsided loss of the year, 83-66, at No. 7 Riverside Friday night in the Southern California regional semifinals.

Only hours before, the district posted an advertisement for a full-time coach on its website, http://www.vcccd.edu.

"It's going to be a normal hiring process," said Ventura president Robin Calote. "The district screens for minimum qualifications. There's a standard hiring committee that narrows down the pool and then I do the same."

Applicants must apply by March 29. The district lists the requested start date as Aug. 11.
Calote was asked if the events of the past 16 months would influence the type of candidate for which she was looking.

"I'm looking for a person who has both ability as an instructor and as a coach, and who has an impeccable reputation, strong ethics and commitment to student success," said Calote.

"(Someone who) understand that it's important to do so by working within college and district procedures and Commission on Athletics bylaws."

Ventura officials are preparing for a deluge of applicants.

"I think we're going to have a great pool and there's going to be a number of great applicants from in and out of the state," said Tim Harrison. "I'm sure we'll have a wide variety."

The job became open only two days after the man who filled the position for nine years, Greg Winslow, was arrested Wednesday on five counts of felony grand theft and one count of felony public officer crime, which involves the misuse of public money, allegedly stemming from his actions as men's basketball coach and athletic director.

He remains on non-disciplinary, paid leave.

Cowen begins his new role as the school's athletic director today.

Mircetic, convinced by Calote to steward the program for one year, until the school could fill the position with a full-time hire, returns full-time to his women's program, which is 32-0 and four wins from its sixth state title.

Which, once again, leaves assistant coach Jon Wyers as the only off-season face of the program.

Riverside coach John Smith made an interesting comment in complimenting Ventura's three coaches hours before tipoff Friday.

"They play as a team," said Smith. "They play like Ned's (women's) team."

"He has the men playing with that type of unselfishness you see in the women's game... That's hard to prepare for."

Ventura College men's basketball head coach Ned Mircetic has turned the keys over to his assistant coaches, Will Cowen and Jon Wyers.

While the No. 10 Pirates (24-8) arrived in Riverside for its regional semifinal against the No. 7-seeded Tigers (25-7) Thursday night, Mircetic had planned to attempt to drive east for the game following the Ventura women's practice this afternoon.

"I'm turning it over to Will and Wyers," said Mircetic by phone as the Pirates went through a shootaround at Wheeler Gym at 3 p.m. "If they go on to play next week, they're going to be without me then too.

"It's less disruptive. They took the team out there last night. They got the flow going. I would disrupt the flow they got going."

The Pirates were 9-1 without Mircetic in November and December.

"I have absolute conference in Will Cowen, Jon Wyers and the players. My rushing out there can't make things any better... My expecation is that they will win, as they so many times did in December."

Instead, Mircetic will scout the women's regional semifinal between No. 7 Canyons and No. 10 Mount San Jacinto, the winner of which may come to the VC Athletic Event Center next weekend.

A public thanks to coaches Wyers and Hester for sharing their work on the bracket projections. The number crunching can get long and tedious and we thank them for sharing.

Plus, it's always exciting to try to figure out how the pieces of the puzzle will fit together Monday and over the next three weeks, perhaps the best time of the year.

Here's a few notes from Ventura College assistant coach Jon Wyers' early stab at the Southern California regional men's basketball playoff pairings:

Defending state champion Citrus, which earned the top seed, had by far the best criteria. The Owls had the best record (27-4), the best RPI figure , the most wins over winning teams (15) and the most wins over teams with 20 or more wins (9).

No. 2 Saddleback had the best record over conference champions (8-1).

We'll have more notes on how the individual critera looks as we get more time to crunch the numbers.

Assistant coach Jon Wyers on the Ventura College men's basketball team's 76-45 win over Oxnard Wednesday night, which moved the Pirates within one game of the WSC North title:

"The guys were playing hard and having fun.That's when we're at our best.

"We've really broken out in our last two games."

Ventura College men's basketball assistant coach Jon Wyers on defending the Santa Barbara City backcourt, which features guards David Lane and Mark Keeten, who are both in the Top 20 in the state in scoring:

"Their backcourt is one of the toughest in conference and maybe top 10 in state.

"Keeten is a phenomenal scorer that moves well without the ball and can create his own shot. We really need to deny him... When he gets ball we need to contest all shots. Eric Gray has done a great job of this in past.

"Freshman David Lane is very quick and we need to do a better job of staying in front of him this time. If he beats us off the dribble again, we will need... to get the ball out of his hands where he is less effective.

"If we shut down these two players we win the game."

The Ventura College basketball coaching staff cast a wide scouting net during its off night Wednesday.

Women's assistant coach Robin Hester was in San Luis Obispo to see Cuesta-Santa Barbara while men's assistants Will Cowen and Jon Wyers scouted Los Angeles Pierce at Moorpark and Hancock at Oxnard, respectively.

The three assistants scouted both games of the doubleheader, contributing to both the men's and women's programs.

"It helps that we work close together like that," said Mircetic, who also scouted Pierce at Moorpark.

Ventura College men's basketball coach Jon Wyers said Thursday, following the Pirates' 71-69 overtime win over No. 11 Diablo Valley, a vanquished opponent had trouble shaking Ventura's hands for the third straight game.

Wyers said that Diablo Valley originally refused to line up to shake Ventura's hands, before actually deciding to walk through the lineup without actually shaking any hands.

"Teams don't like losing to us," said Wyers.

Or maybe they're just afraid of spreading germs?

The Ventura College men's basketball team won again Thursday night without head coach Ned Mircetic, who will coach the Ventura women to two games in Orange County this weekend.

The only Southern California team in the eight-team San Jose City College Classic, Ventura outlasted Diablo Valley, 71-69, in overtime.

"Usually before every game when Ned's not there, coach (Will) Cowen and I put a quote on the board," said Ventura coach Jon Wyers.

Written on the locker room whiteboard Thursday was "Another big game... represent the South well."

The message was simple:

"You've been working hard to finally get ranked," said Wyers. "Diablo Valley is another win that will push us up higher."