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Tim Tulloch never dreamed he’d be a football coach.
After graduating from Menlo College, he spent two years in the corporate world before the football bug bit him again.
“I was working from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., so things fell into place to get into coaching,” Tulloch said.
Now after six years as the head coach at College of San Mateo, Tulloch has two national junior college championships — including a 43-11 win over Mt. SAC in the Dec. 14 California title game.
Tulloch knows all about championships. A defensive back as a player, Tulloch played at San Dieguito High School, then for Tom Craft at Palomar College. He was part of the Comets team that captured the 1991 national championship team.
“At Palomar, Tom Craft built his program with local guys,” Tulloch said. “We’d get a guy from Helix or Banning, but we were a local team. Here at San Mateo, we major in developing talent. We take the good local kid and coach him up. And it works for us.”
Tulloch is 65-10 in six seasons at CSM. His teams have won 23 straight games at home.
One of his losses was to Craft’s Riverside City College team on a last-second field goal in the 2023 national championship game.
“That one still hurts,” Tulloch said.
Tulloch took much the same coaching route as Craft, who recently retired after 30 years in the JC ranks at Palomar and Riverside.
“I’ve been part of something here at CSM for 27 years because I wanted to be a good husband and father,” Tulloch said. “I want to watch my daughter play volleyball. I couldn’t do that if I had a job at a four-year college.”
College of San Mateo is the cradle of coaches. Longtime NFL offensive line coach Mike Solari played at CSM. Ted Tollner, Bill Walsh, John Madden and Dick Vermeil all coached there
“When you coach at College of San Mateo,” Tulloch said, “you’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Men’s basketball
Torrey Pines High School grad Brandon Angel, who spent four seasons at Stanford, is a graduate player at No. 13 Oregon (15-2). He has started all 17 games for the Ducks and is averaging 8.9 points and 3.6 rebounds. Angel played 109 games for Stanford, averaging 13.0 points and 4.7 rebounds last season. He has 1,101 career points
• USC (10-6) has a pair of graduate transfers from the San Diego area. Chibuzo Agbo (St. Augustine), who played at Boise State and Texas Tech, is averaging 12.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He averaged 13.7 points and 5.1 rebounds last season at Boise State and has 1,109 career points. Bryce Pope (Torrey Pines), who averaged 18.3 points per game, has played in nine games for USC. He is averaging 1.1 points per game.
• Jurian Dixon (St. Augustine), a redshirt freshman at UC Irvine (15-2) is averaging 5.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. He scored a career-high 17 points against Cal State Bakersfield.
• AJ Burgin (San Diego) is having the best season of his Idaho State career, averaging 7.0 points and 2.1 rebounds in 14 games. Burgin, who has played in 108 career games, graduated early and is working on a Masters Degree in Business Administration in Finance.
• Brady Burman (Pacific Ridge) is a junior guard at NCAA Division III Sarah Lawrence, where is is averaging 12.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game for a team that is 8-5 overall and 4-0 in league play. Burman has scored in double figures in all but four games this season with a high of 19 against SUNY Purchase. The all-time scoring and rebounding leader at Pacific Ridge, Burman is a pre -med major.
• Anthony Aruffo (La Jolla Country Day) is averaging 2.0 points per game at Sarah Lawrence. He is a also pre-med major.
• Bishop’s grad Nicky Clotfelter is averaging 14.3 and 6.0 rebounds per game for Division III Occidental. He had 28 points vs. Whittier and 25 and 12 rebounds vs. Cal Tech. Clottfeller averaged 11.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game last season.
In the pros
Grossmont High School and UC Irvine grad Tommy Rutherford is playing for the NBA G League’s Motor City Cruise. He started the season with the Santa Cruz Warriors and spent time with the South Bay Lakers.
Rutherford played the previous four seasons in Europe with Racing Luxembourg, Starlings Basel in Switzerland, ZZ Leiden in the Dutch League and Neptunas Klaipeda in the Lithuanian League. He was the MVP of the Dutch Finals with ZZ Leiden.
Women’s basketball
Te-Hina Paopao (La Jolla Country Day) leads No. 2 South Carolina (16-1) in minutes played (428) and assists (45) heading into Thursday night’s game vs. No. 19 Alabama. She is averaging 11.1 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. South Carolina’s only loss came in November against No. 1 UCLA.
• Ice Brady (Cathedral Catholic) has started 12 games for No. 6 UConn (15-2). A redshirt sophomore, Brady is averaging 3.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
• Former teammates at La Jolla Country Day, Breya Cunningham and Jada Williams are having great sophomore seasons at Arizona. Cunningham leads the Wildcats (11-6) in scoring (12.8), rebounds (7.1) and blocked shots (30). She scored 21 vs. BYU and 20 vs. Grand Canyon with a 12-rebound game against Baylor. She’s shooting 65.7% (92 of 140) from the field. Williams leads the team in minutes played (478), assists (47) and steals (31). She’s averaging 12.0 points and 3.1 rebounds. She had a 24-point, seven-assist, four-steal game against Weber State.
• Alexa Mikesha (Carlsbad) is the starting point guard at William & Mary. She’s averaging 1.1 points and 2.9 rebounds for a 5-10 team.
John Maffei’s Alumni Report appears during the college season. Readers are encouraged to send items to joihn.maffei@sduniontribune.com.
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