Steve Pezzola-
Head Coach: Black Team, 2010

 As the coach of the Black team, Steve’s goal is to continue the program that his good friend Darrell Hirashima Sr founded, which placed numerous girls in position to play basketball at Division I, II, and III schools.  He is looking for highly competitive girls who: (1) love the game of basketball, (2) respect the game and its players, coaches and officials, (3) are willing to work to become better players while having fun in the Spring and the Summer; and (4) desire to continue playing basketball past their high school years.  
 Steve Pezzola has coached at the high school level for over 5 years and just began as the Salesian Varsity Girls Basketball Coach. His prior coaching experience includes  6 seasons of CYO boys’ basketball, 6 seasons of CYO girl’s basketball, several MVP Flight teams, 5 years as the head Frosh girls coach @ st. Mary's of Berkeley and in 2008 was an assistant coach for the Orinda Magic Red Team and in 2009 was Head Coach of the Orinda Magic Blue team.  Coach Pezzola is a graduate of Salesian High School where he played basketball and ran cross country.  He received a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1981. Mr. Pezzola practiced law in private law firms for fifteen years before moving to work in various executive roles in private and public corporations.  Currently, he is the CEO of Yorkshire Ventures, LLC, a business consulting firm. Mr. Pezzola also currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wmode, Inc, a private Canadian corporation.    

spezzola@spezzola.com


        Trisha Hirashima- Co-Coach: Blue Team, 2010
 

Trisha started coaching CYO basketball in 1995, while a senior at Miramonte High School.  As a freshman and sophomore at U.C. Berkeley, she coached Miramonte's first freshman girls' basketball team, and then moved on to coach the Miramonte junior varsity team for two seasons.  During this time, Trisha also coached several teams for East Bay Xplosion, ranging in age from 10-15.  From 2004 to 2008, Trisha helped Darrell Sr. as the assistant varsity coach at Miramonte.  Those Miramonte teams won four straight league titles (the team had won three in a row prior to this time) and three North Coast Championships.

Trisha's passion for coaching stems from her extraordinary experiences playing for and coaching with some of the best basketball coaches in Northern California.  These include Mark Anger (EBX director) on the Miramonte varsity team from 1991-1995, the late Rick Tanaka (formerly at John Swett) in asian league from 1993-1995, Mike Fulton (San Domenico) at College of Marin from 2000-2001, and of course, her father Darrell.  Trisha currently works as an attorney in Walnut Creek.

  tjhirashima@hotmail.com

La Rone Smith- Co-Coach: Blue Team, 2010

 

La Rone has been a member of the Orinda Magic Family for the past several years, he has been a tireless supporter and our #1 fan as a parent. As a coach, La Rone's objective will be to help young ladies enhance and develop their passion for the game of basketball through practical, fundamental coaching and teaching which will help to maximize the athlete’s potential. La Rone began coaching basketball at the CYO level. Since 2001 he has coached boys and girls

  from 3rd through 8th grade. From 2003-2005 La Rone was a coach at Salesian High School in Richmond, CA. First serving as the Head Coach to the Women's Freshman team in the '03-'04 season and then taking over the same duties at the Junior Varsity level the following year. La Rone has also coached at the AAU level w/ a brief stint for the Bay Area Lady Warriors in '06. In the Summer of '07 he served as the head coach to Rising Suns East Bay Women's Junior Varsity team, but most recently La Rone finished a three year stretch as the Holy Names High School Varsity Women's Coach before joining Piedmont High School's Varsity Women's team as an Assistant.

                                           

Greg Ginsburg - Assistant Coach: Black Team


Greg Ginsburg is currently the assistant coach for the Salesian Women’s Varsity Basketball team.  Prior to that, he coached with Steve Pezzola at Saint Mary’s College High School.  His previous basketball coaching experience includes three seasons of CYO boy’s basketball, five seasons of CYO girl’s basketball, and several MVP Flight teams.  Prior to coaching at St. Mary’s, he was a Head Coach for the Xceleration Volleyball Club.  Coach Ginsburg is a graduate of Claremont High School where he played basketball and ran track.  He received a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley in Biology (where he also played basketball) as well as advanced degrees in business from CSUH and Wharton. Mr. Ginsburg has worked in the chemical and consumer products businesses and is employed by Berkeley based, Clifbar & Co.  Currently, he is Vice-President of Supply Chain.  He has an extensive background in operations, procurement, logistics, demand and operational planning as well as financial management for small companies. He is married with three children; Katie, a sophomore at Cal;  Mark, a sophomore at Miramonte High School, and Kyra—currently on her way to a successful graduation from kindergarten.
  

Dustin Hirashima- Head Coach: Gold Team, 2010

Dustin has been a coach for the Orinda Magic since 2005. Coaching basketball as well as wrestling since 1996, he is a consummate student of the game with a rare understanding of the players he coaches. Following in the athletic footsteps of his father on the high school wrestling mats, he competed in the State Tournament as a grappler at Miramonte H.S., and later established himself as a force in his weight-class at Chabot College. As a team captain at both Miramonte and Chabot, Dustin has thrived in leadership positions as both a vocal leader and a leader by example. An avid recreational basketball player who plays the way he coaches, Dustin is well-known at local gyms for being a ferocious defender and relentless hustler. He was the original coach of the first sixth grade Orinda Magic team, helping to establish a previously non-existent youth program in a club dominated by high school teams. As head coach for the Orinda Magic Red Team, and assistant to the Orinda Magic Black Team he has traveled the country and competed against the nation's premier programs at the nation's elite tournaments.

dustin@orindamagic.org


Darrell Hirashima, Jr.- Managing Director

Darrell has been coaching basketball since 1994, he has worked as an assistant for Miramonte boys and girls Varsity since 1999, and has been head coach of the JV girl’s team at Miramonte since 2006. Currently he is the Varsity Men's basketball coach at Acalanes High School in Lafayette. In 1999 he started coaching girl’s AAU basketball as a coach for East Bay Xplosion. Darrell has been coaching for the Orinda Magic since 2000 and served as Managing Director since 2003. Darrell. was the starting point guard for the Miramonte varsity boys basketball team for three years between 1995 and 1998. He was selected as the Contra Costa County Player of the Year and TCAL League MVP in 1998. As team captain his junior and senior year he led his team to two league championships, and in 1998 lifted Miramonte to the first and only boys NCS Championship in school history. Darrell was the first player in school history with over 1000 points, 500 assists and 300 steals in their career, and still holds all time records for 3-point shooting percentage, most assists in a game, steals and total wins. After high school Darrell played for Diablo Valley College on a team that went to the Final 8 of the Junior College State Championships. Darrell also served as Sports Editor for the award-winning student newspaper at CSU Monterey Bay in 2004-05.

dj@orindamagic.org


Courtney Johnson-Clendinen

As a player Courtney played basketball on a full scholarship for UC Berkeley between 1997 and 2001. First team All PAC-10 in 2001, she was a starter and team captain for three years and team MVP as a junior and senior. Courtney still holds many records, which include being 8th all time in free throws made, the 2nd all-time leader in steals for both Cal and the PAC-10, and only the 13th player to score 1000 points in their career. Prior to that, she was selected as a Parade All-American at Antioch H.S. where she holds the mark as the 2nd all-time leading scorer (fittingly, behind her big sister). Courtney has been coaching since 1993 and coaching basketball since 1995. Her first high school job was as co-coach alongside Darrell Hirashima for the State Finalist Miramonte Varsity in 2001-02. She has been a coach for Orinda Magic since 2002, and currently serves as Director of CYO Athletics for San Fransisco, San Mateo and Marin.


Assistant Coaching Staff

Sam Johnson

Mark Freeburg

Katie Batlin

Lauren Kimble



Darrell Hirashima started coaching girls basketball in 1990. He was the JV coach at Miramonte High School from 1991-94, then took over as varsity head coach in 1997. In the ten seasons since Darrell started coaching varsity he led the team to seven straight DFAL League Titles between 2002 and 2008, four NCS Championships in 2002, 2005 and back to back in '07 and '08, and a Northern California CIF Championship in 2002. In 2002 Miramonte played for the state championship and Darrell was recognized as the Contra Costa Times Coach of the Year, an honor he received again just three seasons later in 2005 when the team was the Nor Cal Championship runner up. Darrell has been coaching AAU girl’s basketball since 1997. In the spring of 2000 Darrell founded the Orinda Magic Girls Basketball Club. He acted as Club President and head coach every year, as the club has grown from a single team to being nationally recognized as one of the top programs in Northern California. Coach Darrell passed away from a fatal heart attack Dec 19th, 2008, he can never be replaced, but we carry on in his name, continuing his dream of bringing the love of basketball to all young people with the desire to learn, play and compete!