| | Published July 21st, 2021
| Steven Dyer and Emmanuel Callas named Coach and Player of the Year
| | | By Jon Kingdon |  | | Steven Dyer in 2020 Photo Gint Federas |
After taking over a Campolindo basketball team that was 14-14 in 2015-16, coach Steven Dyer has led the Cougars to four consecutive winning seasons with at least 20 wins. It took the coronavirus to break that streak which limited the Cougars to 15 games and an undefeated record this season. In the last three seasons, Dyer's teams have had a combined record of 68 and 13, 30-1 in league play, a 13-1 playoff record along with a state championship, and a co-state championship.
The Bay Area News Group did not overlook the success of this year's team, naming Dyer as its Coach of the Year and senior Emmanuel Callas as its Player of the Year.
"Looking back, it was a challenging year," Dyer said. "We really were just thankful to have a season, so we took things in stride and tried to make the best of it, particularly for the seniors." Besides the virus, injuries were a factor with Logan Robeson missing the entire season and Aidan Mahaney being limited to six games.
As usual for a Dyer coached team, defense was an important factor in the team's success, only giving up an average of 45 points per game. "This was the best defensive team that I've had since I've been here," Dyer said. "We did not take anything for granted and came out ready to go in every game. This was a credit to the mentality of our players, particularly Emmanuel and Chase Bennett who were our co-captains this year. We never had a bad practice, and the team was always ready to play, and I give a lot of the credit to those guys."
Dyer did all he could to challenge his team with a schedule that did have any team with a final record below .500 and finished the season with a composite winning percentage of 66.5%. According to Dyer, "We knew we had a really good team so when it came out that there would not be any playoffs, I talked with our seniors, and they wanted me to get some of the best non-league opponents that we could and in the end, we proved ourselves against a tough schedule."
Callas' scoring average increased each season from 2.2 to 5.5 to 13.9 to 15.9 as a senior. "Emmanuel has gone through a lot of highs and lows these four years, but he really stuck with it, always wanting to get better," Dyer said. "He worked really hard on his jump shot and definitely deserved all of the accolades he has received. We tell all of our guys to improve every year in the program and he definitely did that." |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA