Clovis West boys basketball coach Tom Orlich retires
Clovis West High boys basketball coach Tom Orlich, who won three Central Section championships and more than 300 games in 14 seasons, is retiring from his district job and will join the staff of new Stanford coach Jerod Haase.
Orlich’s retirement as a teacher and coach was announced in a Clovis Unified news release Friday. School administrators and Orlich met with players earlier to share the news and a timeline for hiring a replacement. A parent meeting is planned next week, according to the district.
His new job will be a reunion, having coached Haase at South Lake Tahoe High from 1988-92. Haase was hired away from the University of Alabama at Birmingham on March 25.
Orlich finishes with a 311-99 record that includes eight titles in the rugged Tri-River Athletic Conference and eight section Division I final appearances – including the three won consecutively from 2004-06. The Golden Eagles went on to capture the CIF Southern California Regional title in 2006.
“It’s tough winning the TRAC, it’s tough getting to Selland (for the section championship) and even tougher to win that game,” Orlich was quoted in February 2015. “It’s not a great feeling to lose at Selland, but it’s a great experience just for the kids to be there.”
Combined with his 25-year run at South Lake Tahoe, Orlich’s 832 wins as a boys basketball coach are third all-time in California, according to the Cal-Hi record book. He was named in March as the top boys basketball coach in Northern Nevada prep history by the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Stat stars item also salutes Tom Orlich (Clovis West) for moving to 3rd on state boys bb coaching win list. He passed Lou Cvijanovich.
— Cal-Hi Sports (@CalHiSports) February 18, 2016
The family’s legacy includes the four children Tom and Kelly Orlich sent through the girls and boys basketball programs – Ashley (2008 graduate), Bri (2010), Ali (2012) and Michael (2015), all of whom became stars in their own right.
This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Clovis West boys basketball coach Tom Orlich retires."