Petaluma High School seniors are teaming up with coaches from Casa Grande to work with and inspire the next generation of local basketball players.
Kieran Mannion, who played on Petaluma High School's varsity basketball team, began coaching the Stack Basketball Club's seventh-grade team last year.
“I've been playing basketball since third grade and it's always been my favorite thing to do,” Mannion said.
His journey with Stack began after he began helping out with the local CYO basketball program and was approached by Casa Grande women's varsity basketball coach Scott Himes, who said the club was looking for another youth coach. was. Himes, whose son Clayton is also on the team, currently coaches alongside Mannion in the program.
Founded in the summer of 2023 in partnership with Sonoma's Hanna Center and the Sonoma Stack Family, the Stack Basketball Club of Sonoma County is an amateur athletic union basketball club run by Nicholas Guillory, program director and Casa Grande varsity men's basketball coach. It's a club.
The program currently consists of four competitive travel teams (a 7th grade team, an 8th grade team, and two high school teams) made up of athletes from the Petaluma and Sonoma Valley areas. Guillory said he hopes to expand to fifth- and sixth-grade boys and girls next season.
Its mission is to provide competitive basketball opportunities for local youth, “teaching perseverance and grit, fostering new friendships, and serving as a means to support athletes becoming young adults.”
The program's philosophy also centers around “positively enhanced coaching and communication.”
“The most rewarding thing about being a part of this club is seeing the relationships and friendships that develop when kids from different schools come together and play on the same team,” Guillory said. “These friendships last a lifetime, and it’s great to have basketball be that connection.”
He added, “As a coach, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing each kid's hard work pay off. I watch both their skill sets and confidence gradually improve as the season progresses.'' It’s amazing to see.”
Mannion said he has already noticed an improvement in his players' skills as well as their ability to work together as a team in the few months he has been coaching them.
“We really try to get our players to think about the team and not just think about themselves,” he said.
Mannion plans to play basketball at Napa Valley University next year and said his ultimate goal is to become a team manager at a Division I university. He said he looks forward to returning to town to watch his team play during his college years.
“I can't wait to watch them grow as players and as people. I think all of these kids are really great kids,” Mannion said. “They all want to get better, they all work really hard, and they all have fun doing it.”
The stack season ends in early June after each team competes in the NorCal Elite Summer Bay Battle tournament in the East Bay.
For more information, visit stackbasketball.com, @stackbasketball on Instagram, or email nicholasguillory@gmail.com.
Amelia Richardson is a staff writer at the Argus-Courier. She can be reached at amelia.richardson@arguscourier.com or 707-521-5208.