LOWER LAKE — First a new gym and now a new honor.
Lower Lake High School varsity boys” basketball coach Marty Udy must feel like it”s his birthday. Udy, who just completed his 15th season, has been named the North Coast Section Honor Coach in boys” basketball.
Udy joins Tom Frangoulis of Las Lomas High School (girls” soccer), Lin Barrett of Mendocino High School (girls” basketball), and Bill Smith of Clayton Valley High School (wrestling) as the NCS winter sports honor coaches for 2008-09.
Lower Lake”s honor coach also has a new gym, which officially opened Jan. 17. The state-of-the-art facility has a seating capacity of more than 1,200 and offers several amenities, not the least of which are more than 15 video monitors scattered throughout the facility where fans can watch the action even when they”re not in the immediate vicinity of the gym floor.
Lower Lake”s athletic director for the past 10 years as well, Udy has taken the Trojans to the NCS Division IV playoffs five times, including a trip to the semifinals in 2002-03 when the Trojans became the first Lake County boys” team to win back-to-back games in the Division IV postseason tournament.
Among the career highlights for Udy, who is 194-205 overall in his 15 seasons (including a league mark of 79-75 and a playoff record of 5-5), are a 28-game league winning streak and back-to-back league championships in 2003-04, both times with 12-0 records. He also has guided the Trojans to five championships in the 15-year history of the Record-Bee Hoop Classic.
“I really enjoy making an impact on the lives of young people through sport, and coaching is the vehicle that provides this opportunity,” Udy said in the North Coast Section Championships official winter program for 2009.
