Fiery, competitive Chris Kroesch has set standard for girls basketball success in San Diego – elcajon newson Elcajon News only

SAN MARCOS — The young woman was headed for a fast-break layup during a San Francisco State intramural basketball game. Most of her male opponents conceded the basket but not Chris Kroesch. Female, male? Didn’t matter to Kroesch. This was a game, score was being kept, so he swooped in and blocked the shot.

Recalling the play more than 20 years later, Kroesch said: “She’s out on the court, playing. I’m here to win. If she’s out here with us, I’m going to block her shot.”

Kroesch is 45 years old now, in his 18th season as the girls basketball coach at Mission Hills High School. With five CIF titles, four in the Open Division, and a current streak of 11 straight 20-win seasons, he has developed one of the San Diego Section’s best programs, in any sport.

And he has done it the same way he played that intramural basketball game. With a never-back-down, never-let-your-foot-off-the-throat intensity.

“He’s a competitor,” said Dante Carey, the boys basketball coach at San Marcos High who played basketball with Kroesch at San Marcos and Palomar College and was Kroesch’s teammate that day when he rejected the woman’s shot in the intramural game.

“He doesn’t want to lose.”

This year’s Mission Hills team is young. The team’s only senior, Destiny Walker, blew out her knee before the season and won’t play this season.

At 9-6, the Grizzlies have played a national schedule, including losses to three teams ranked in the nation’s top 25 by MaxPreps.

Mission Hills is San Diego’s reigning Open Division champion. And despite the team’s youth and record, the Grizzlies are the section’s No. 1-ranked team.

What makes Kroesch’s teams so fascinating aren’t all the banners and wins. It’s the way the Grizzlies win. Influenced by former Arkansas men’s basketball coach Nolan Richardson’s “40 Minutes of Hell” full-court pressure, the Grizzlies play a smothering, man-to-man, full-court press.

“We win with aggression,” said junior H.C. Harding.

“I don’t want to concede half the court,” said Kroesch.

The Grizzlies jack up 3-pointers like the Golden State Warriors. It’s not unusual for Mission Hills to grab an offensive rebound near the basket and not even look for a contested layup but instead kick the ball out to a teammate for a deep shot.

Former Grizzlies player Jessica Grant (2019-22), now playing at UC Santa Barbara, holds the state record for career 3-pointers at 486.

Kroesch stresses the 3-point shot for multiple reasons. For one, Mission Hills typically is not big, and can’t jam the ball into the post for points. Secondly, misses from deep typically carom farther from the basket, giving the smaller, quicker Grizzlies a better chance at offensive rebounds.

“But also,” said Kroesch, “a 3 is worth more than 2. It’s as simple as that.”

It’s a style the Grizzlies love to play. When a teammate launches a 3-pointer, the bench players rise to their feet. When the ball swishes through the net, and often while the ball is still arcing through the air, the bench cries, “Boom!”

“He treats us as basketball players, not just as girls basketball players,” said junior Kendall Nguyen. “We play our own distinct style.”

Mission Hills’ 87-32 win over San Marcos on Friday typified the Grizzlies’ brand of play. Mission Hills jumped to a 32-2 lead after the first quarter, forcing 19 turnovers in eight minutes.

The Grizzlies led 62-14 at halftime with Harding scoring 25 points — 21 of them on 3s.

Harding transferred from Coppell High School in Texas and came to Mission Hills in part because the Grizzlies have established a national reputation. A 5-foot-8 shooting guard, Harding wants to play college basketball in California; her Texas club coach recommended she play for Kroesch.

It took Harding a while to understand that Kroesch meant it when he said if she has an open look behind the arc, he wants her to launch.

Said Harding, “He’s like, ‘Even if you miss five in a row and don’t shoot the sixth, I’m going to get mad at you. I want you shooting, no matter if you miss.’”

Regarding the freedom he gives his athletes, Kroesch said, “As a player, I always struggled when constraints were put on me.”

Kroesch can be demanding and direct with his players. Up 67-16 in the third quarter against San Marcos but unhappy with the players’ intensity, he yelled from the bench: “I’m going to give you one more possession to lock in.”

Minutes later, after fresh subs entered the game, he barked, “You just came in and there’s no O (offensive) boards.”

“We don’t play to the scoreboard,” Kroesch said. “The standard here is the standard. And the standard is championship basketball.”

With their helter-skelter, pressing style, the Grizzlies are a balanced team. Five players average from 7.1 to 12.4 points. As junior Izzy Medina put it, “With this style, anybody can go cook.”

Kroesch is respected by his peers, including La Jolla Country Day’s Terri Bamford, the San Diego Section’s all-time winningest coach with 733 wins, including four state titles.

“I think he does a fantastic job,” Bamford said. “They play the right way. They share the ball. I think all the intangibles are there. Good attitude, playing hard, being a good teammate. You see it all on the court.”

Kroesch is a basketball junkie. The previous 12 years he also served as an assistant coach on Palomar College’s women’s team. He doesn’t teach at Mission Hills but instead is co-director of Coastal Elite, a club program for boys and girls in the second grade through high school.

At 6 feet and 165 pounds, with cubic zirconia stud earrings in both lobes, he plays about four times a week, specializing in dishing and launching left-handed 3s.

“Where do I play? Everywhere, you name it,” he said.

He’s passionate about coaching girls.

“It’s their desire to learn. They’re so accountable,” he said.

“He helps us grow as people, as well as players,” said Medina. “He teaches us how to be tough mentally. When we get in the real world, there’s no one who can hurt our feelings.”

For all the winning Kroesch has accomplished, his resume is missing something. He has zero state championships.

Late last Friday, with San Marcos’ gym nearly empty, with his 69-year-old mother and No. 1 fan, Cathy Wilson, at his side, Kroesch began to ascend the gym steps and said, “That bothers me. I want to get it.”