San Lorenzo Valley High’s athletic department stayed busy during the offseason as it looked to fill four vacant head coach positions before the start of the 2026-27 school year.
The school announced in a sports newsletter that veteran basketball coach Todd Kent was named new head coach for the boys’ program, while Andrea Jacobs will take over the girls’ hoops team.
Dave Chisler returns to the boys’ soccer program but this time as a head coach, while Ashlyn Sartain will have to get work right away as the new head girls volleyball coach.
Sartain, along with her husband and three boys, moved into the Valley in 2016. She began working for San Lorenzo Valley Elementary School in 2021, and is currently teaching transitional kindergarten.
Sartain, 48, played volleyball on high school and club teams in Wyoming, and competed at both Western Nebraska Community College and Hastings College. After moving to Colorado, she coached for the Premier Volleyball Club team for seven years.
Some of the local families at SLV reached out to Sartain knowing she had a background in the sport.
“There were times in the summer that I would get girls together just to show them a few things,” she said. “When the opportunity came up, they were very excited to push me into it. I don’t know a whole lot about the past seasons. But there’s been such a love for the sport that I can see that the girls do want to play, and that’s what matters.”
At the top of Sartain’s list is teaching skills development. She said it’s also about building a program with long-lasting athletes starting from the new incoming freshmen who are really excited about it.
“Then you have the seniors who are really looking forward to having a good season,” she said. “That skill development and that longevity of a program is something that I really want to create.”
Kent, 53, has more than 300 combined wins in 30 years experience as a high school and collegiate head coach. He recently stepped down as assistant coach on the University of San Francisco women’s basketball team in June.
“What intrigued me was giving back to my community, trying to share the stuff that I’ve experienced over the last 30 years coaching,” said Kent, whose youngest daughter is an incoming freshman at SLV. “Just being closer to the family, and being in a position where I can hopefully impact some of these young men in a positive way.”
The former University of California, Santa Cruz, women’s basketball head coach spent 13 years (2009-22) with the program.
He continues to stand as the most successful coach in the program’s history by compiling a 169-148 overall record while earning two Division III NCAA women’s basketball championship appearances in 2016 and 2017.
In five seasons at La Salle High in Yakima, Wash., Kent posted a record of 106-23 while leading the girls’ basketball team to a Class B State Championship title in 2006. He was named Seattle Times Washington State B Girls Coach of the Year.
Kent said there’s an opportunity to work with the Cougar boys hoops program and middle school coaches to develop some type of pipeline.
“The game plan is hopefully long term,” Kent said. “You just never know what’s going to happen, but that is the plan. It’s long term and overall, just development of the total player.”
The plan is to also build a culture that has the ability for players to be in a situation where they’re supported, encouraged and pushed both physically and mentally.
“They’re pushed in a way where they can fail, but we can be there to help them get through those processes,” Kent said.
Jacobs, 44, was the SLV Middle School’s boys’ head basketball coach for the past three seasons, and an assistant coach on the girls’ team.
She was also named interim head coach for SLV High’s boys’ basketball team in December when former coach Dr. Bill Ciancio was fired after he took part in a shoving match with one of his assistant coaches.
“I love working with all the kids,” Jacobs said. “I’ve worked with the boys since they’re in junior high, but I do prefer the girls’ program.”
Jacobs, who played ball at Gunderson High and De Anza College, will be joined by assistant coach Chantel Long. Similar to Kent, both coaches want to build the girls program and encourage players to stay put at SLV rather than transfer to a different school.
“If we stick with the middle school and continue to bring the girls over to the high school, we can have a stronger program,” Jacobs said.
Chisler, 58, spent five years with the Cougar boys soccer team as the goalkeeper coach before he took a break during the 2025-26 campaign. He is currently a music teacher for the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District.
This will be his first-ever head coaching job for him after working under other head coaches, such as Turkish striker Hakan Sukur, who studied at Juventus Academy in Turin, Italy.
Chisler’s coaching staff will include former SLV coach Ken Moberg, and a pair of former players in Owen Garrahan and Jac Chisler.
“I want to try to get a futsal and soccer club so we can keep those developmental skills,” Chisler said. “We’re trying to build it as much as we can. It’s going to be tough, but Ken and I have coached at pretty high levels, so I’m hoping that we can just make it better. I’m trying to make it fun for the kids.”
