Jim Salmina is not retiring from coaching, but he has voluntarily stepped down as the varsity girls” basketball coach at Kelseyville High School.
Salmina, who inherited a train wreck of a program when he came aboard as coach prior to the start of the 1998-99 season, leaves it after leading the Knights to eight winning campaigns out of nine, six seasons of 20 or more victories, three league titles, five second-place finishes and seven trips to the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs.
During his nine-season run as the Indians”/Knights” skipper, he compiled an overall record of 177-77 (.697) and a league record of 73-23 (.760).
While Kelseyville was a force to be reckoned with in the late 1980s and early 1990s under former head coach Bob Gomez, the Knights went five straight seasons without a winning record after an 18-9 campaign in 1991-92.
In fact, the Knights never came close to breaking even, going 8-18, 8-15, 6-15, 9-15 and finally 3-20 in 1997-98, when the program bottomed out to the tune of an 0-10 league mark.
Salmina took over in 1998-99 really not knowing what to expect as this was his first varsity job, and he was coaching girls, not boys.
“My first year I wasn”t much of a basketball coach, I needed to train myself,” Salmina said. “I had only a handful of plays and I relied a lot on Stan (Weiper, the varsity boys” coach). He taught me a lot.”
Though he was inheriting the remnants of a 3-20 team, Salmina didn”t dwell on the past.
“I feel like I”m a positive person and people feed off of that,” Salmina said.
He held an open gym the summer prior to his first season to gauge interest in basketball at Kelseyville and said he was pleasantly surprised that there was plenty, despite the team”s struggles in previous seasons.
“Some of the seniors who were coming back, like Aja Garcia, Sara Suenram and Misty Barker, you could tell they had talent. I had a lot of athletes out on the floor,” Salmina said.
And he also inherited a couple of pretty good players in sophomore Caitlin Andrus and transfer Tara Silva, a standout for Lower Lake High School the previous season.
“Tara really solidified that team with her leadership,” Salmina said. “Getting her was a big break.”
Under Salmina, Kelseyville won its first four games, an omen of things to come. The team went on to finish 15-10, including a second-place finish in the NCL I standings at 7-3. The team also earned an at-large berth in the NCS playoffs, losing to powerhouse Marin Catholic. But Salmina, and the then-Indians, were well on their way.
By the 1999-2000 season, the team had a roster that would carry it to its best seasons under Salmina. Moving up from the junior varsity squad were Michelle Fletcher, Kristen Andre and Casey Hyde, and the Knights were on their way.
After a 16-12 season in 1999-2000 and another second-place finish in league, the Knights went 21-8 in 2000-01 and then broke through with a 26-3 campaign that included a 12-0 league run in 2001-02. That squad featured a lineup with offensive punch from top to bottom in Fletcher (12.5 points a game), Niki Simons (10.7), Hyde (9.7) and Andre (8.6).
Though the team took a dip in 2002-03 following the graduation of Andre, Fletcher and Simons, dropping to 9-18 (Salmina”s only losing season), the Knights quickly reloaded with the likes of Emily Schaefer, Makaila Rodrigues, Blair Walker, Jaymie Wilson and Olivia Solomon.
The 2003-04 club went 24-5 and secured a share of the league title. In fact, it was the first of four straight 20-win seasons as the team would go 23-6 in both 2004-05 and 2005-06, and 20-9 this past season, Salmina”s final one as Kelseyville”s coach, with stars such as Lauren Nixon and Jill Bailey leading the way.
Salmina said his decision to leave after the 2006-07 campaign was a difficult one, but that it was time for him to make a move.
“It”s not a retirement, it”s a change,” said Salmina, who was influenced by several factors.
“I knew going into the year that it would be my last, but I didn”t make a big deal out of it,” Salmina said. “The tough part is that you get close to the players and you never want to leave them. But I had a good senior group this year and I decided I would go out with them. You have to leave some time.”
Owner of a successful carpet and flooring business now located in Clearlake, Salmina said business concerns alone were enough for him to step down as coach.
“My business probably suffered by as much as 30 percent with me being away so much,” said Salmina, who was never one to skimp on his team”s equipment needs, pouring thousands of dollars of his own money into uniforms, tournament entry fees and traveling costs, just to name a few expenses.
“My wife added it up one time and estimated I had spent $30,000 of my own money,” Salmina said.
Certainly another factor Salmina”s decision to step was his status as an off-campus coach.
“It”s a real grind being an off-campus coach, the lack of protection (job security) because you have none,” Salmina said. “Some of that works on you because you can”t feel comfortable. You can”t say the things you want, things an on-campus coach could say.”
And then there”s all the time getting teams ready for an upcoming season, summer leagues being at the top of the list.
“You spend a lot of time on the road, it”s just incredible,” Salmina said.
A 1972 Lower Lake High School graduate, Salmina said he was interested in coaching at his alma mater but there were no vacancies. “I really never thought of coaching at Kelseyville. I didn”t like Kelseyville for my own personal reasons (the two schools were big rivals back then).”
But then came the call from Stan Weiper, fellow Lower Lake graduate and longtime Kelseyville coach, who said there would be a job opening at Kelseyville in varsity girls” basketball for the 1998-99 season. Salmina applied and got the job, and the Kelseyville girls” basketball fortunes changed overnight.
While Salmina has plenty of experience coaching girls and boys (he was Kelseyville”s junior varsity football head coach for many seasons), he said girls are more willing to take constructive criticism than their male counterparts.
“If they ask you a question, they really want input,” Salmina said. “A boy may ask you what he”s doing wrong and if you tell him, he listens but often disagrees.”
Though Salmina said he treated his girls much like the boys he”s coached down through the years, it”s not quite the same.
“Everybody loves their daughter,” Salmina joked. “Every one of my players is someone”s little girl. You can yell at boys and get away with it most of the time, but if you yell at girls, it”s totally different (in the way parents react).
“You can”t coach girls exactly like boys, but you can push them pretty hard,” Salmina added. “I tried to find a happy medium.”
Dealing with unhappy and unpleasant parents is one thing Salmina certainly won”t miss.
“If you”re going to coach you better have a thick skin because you”re going to hear things you wouldn”t believe,” Salmina said. “Most of the time it”s not personal, it”s just a heat-of-the-moment thing, but it can test your patience. I won”t miss that part of it.”
Salmina”s best team? The 2001-02 squad that went 26-3.
His best overall player? “Niki Simons,” Salmina said. “She could do everything.”
His best shooter? “Some people might be surprised, but it was Emily (Schaefer).”
His toughest player? “Michelle Fletcher,” Salmina said. “That”s easy.”
His most exciting win? Beating Clear Lake 57-51 in overtime in a league game during the 2001-02 season. “I don”t know how we won that thing … we were down by five with 40 seconds left (in regulation).”
His most disappointing loss? 61-41 to Healdsburg in the first round of the NCS playoffs in 2002. “We nearly beat them earlier in the season (Kelseyville lost 53-52), so losing to them like that surprised me.”
His biggest disappointment overall? Going 0-7 in the playoffs as the Knights lost in the first round seven times.
“I would have liked to win once, but I really have no regrets about anything,” Salmina said.
“I had a great time and I”m sure I”m going to miss it,” he added.
