Over the decades, Cuesta Athletics has enjoyed the benefit of a stable and talented coaching staff that has mentored winning teams in competition and top scholar-athletes in the classroom. This year, the Cougars are adding new coaches in six sports, which marks the largest staff turnover since 2002. So, we turn back the clock to 2002 and Cuesta's first great coaching transition when Larry Lee, Darrell Rich and Terry Bowen all let go of the clipboard and handed in their whistles.
Coach Larry Lee is the only one of the trio to continue coaching after leaving Cuesta. He is currently the Head Baseball Coach at nearby Cal Poly. Prior to his move down Highway 1, in 1987, Lee took his first head coaching job at the helm of a program that produced only seven winning seasons, three playoff berths and one conference title over its first 21 years. He led the Cougars to back-to-back 20-win seasons to open his tenure and reached the playoffs in his fourth season. By the end of his first decade, Lee transformed Cuesta into a perennial contender in the Western State Conference (WSC) and regular playoff contender, including a CCCAA Final Four appearance in 1992. The rest of the Baseball World took notice and the Cougars held onto Lee for only six more seasons, but what an amazing six seasons. The Cougars won six straight conference titles and Top 4 playoff seeds, while adding three more CCCAA Final Four appearances, including 3rd place in 2002. Lee was also named WSC Coach of the Year all six seasons, while compiling a 126-28 (83.1%) record against the conference over the span.
After Lee's departure the Cougars hired Bob Miller, who has maintained Cuesta's place among the CCCAA's elite teams for the past two decades. This past season, while leading the Cougars to their 16th post-season during his 18 full seasons, Miller tied Coach Lee's school record for both wins (460) and conference titles (9) at Cuesta. Down the road at Cal Poly, Lee has also continued to enjoy success over the past 20 seasons. This summer, Lee enjoyed a double success when his star Mustang Infielder and son Brooks Lee, who was born during the Cougars' 2001 season, was selected in the first round of Major League Baseball's Free Agent Draft by the Minnesota Twins.
Coach Darrell Rich joined the Cougar's athletic staff in 1972, as an assistant football coach and head track and field coach. Rich assumed men's and women's cross-country duties at Cuesta in 1977, after the football program came to an end. He enjoyed immediate success in his first year, when the men's team won the Coast Conference and Northern California Regional Championships, while finishing 4th at the CCCAA State Cross Country Meet. Cuesta's men won another Northern California Regional Championship in 1981. In 1983, the CCCAA dissolved its two-division playoff system the same year Cuesta College moved to the Southern Region. The women's team, which began in 1976, blossomed against the new competition. They won Western State Conference Cross Country titles in 1985, 1987 and 1988, while also nabbing a pair of Top 5 finishes at the CCCAA State Meet. The women also won conference titles for Track & Field in 1985 and 1988, before going on to 3rd place at the 1988 CCCAA State Track & Field Meet. Between cross country and track, Darrell was named conference coach of the year nine times and won 12 conference titles.
After Rich's departure he was replaced by Jani Johnson and later Brian Locher. Johnson coached cross country for five years and track & field for seven, while Locher, who stepped down from coaching at the end of the 2021-22 school year, helmed cross country for 15 years and track & field for a baker's dozen. Johnson led women's cross country into the State's Top 10 in 2005 and women's track & field to Top 10 finishes in both 2004 and 2006. In cross country, Locher led the Harriers to a pair of Top 10 State placings for the men and five for the women. In track and field, he led the men into the State's Top 10 in both 2015 and 2016, while also guiding the men's program to its only conference title in 2016. In 2021, Locher led women's track to its first conference title since 1988, while adding a pair of Top 10 CCCAA State Meet finishes in two of their last three complete seasons. The Cougars finished 7th at the 2018 CCCAA State Meet and sent off Coach Locher with a 6th place at the State Meet this past spring. Locher was also accorded 2022 CCCAA State Women's Track & Field Coach of the Year honors.
Replacing Terry Bowen after a quarter century of excellence was a tough call. Bowen began Cuesta College's aquatics program in the Spring of 1979, so he completed his 25th water polo season in the Fall of 2003. Bowen is Cuesta College's most successful coach, by almost every measure. He led Cuesta's Aqua-Cats to a school record 556 wins in water polo, which leads Men's Basketball Coach Rusty Blair, who is still active, by 23 victories and Coaches Lee and Miller, tied for third at 460, by almost 100 wins. In his quarter century on the deck, Bowen's teams garnered 52 conference titles, including 20 for women's swimming, 19 for men's water polo and 13 for men's swimming. His women's swim teams finished in the State's Top 10 in eleven of his final 15 seasons, including a Silver and trio of Bronze Medal team finishes. The men's team was not too far behind with 11 Top 10 finishes, but also boasted three Silvers and a pair of team Bronzes. In the Spring of 2002, Bowen put down his whistle after mentoring 56 All Americans on the women's team, including 11 State Champions, and 61 All Americans, including 13 State Champions, for the men's team. In the Fall of 2003, he concluded his quarter century on the deck with his water polo program's 25th straight winning season, which was also capped by a 25th straight playoff berth. Bowen's poloists reached the State's Final Four three times, including back-to-back Runners-up in 1989 and 1990. He counted 38 All Americans on his water polo teams and two CCCAA Players of the Year.
One of Bowen's first All Americans was John Marsh, who earned honors in both 1980 and 1981. Marsh returned as Bowen's Assistant Coach and eventually took over as the head coach for swimming in 2003 and water polo in 2004. Marsh has continued Bowen's streaks, excluding the COVID season, with 17 more winning seasons and 17 more playoff berths for water polo, while the swim teams continue to thrive. This season, both teams finished 3rd at the 2022 CCCAA State Championships.
