POWAY’S TROUSDALE GETS 700TH CAREER WIN

Welcome to The 700 Club.

On his first try, Poway High girls basketball coach Jay Trousdale reached a milestone no other girls coach in the San Diego Section has ever reached.

With a 67-25 victory Saturday at Canyon Crest, Trousdale clinched his 700th career victory as the head coach for the Titans.

“You never get into a profession for accolades,” Trousdale said. “The best thing about this record is that every girl over the last 34 years has a hand in getting me here.”

Trousdale’s career coaching record is now 700-266 in his

34 seasons.

Poway downed Canyon Crest 7014 on Friday for No. 699, setting up Saturday’s milestone.

“With the pandemic, I thought this would have to wait until December,” said Trousdale, who turns 66 in April. “I’ve told a few of the alums after milestones of 500 and 600 that this honor is close to winning a CIF title.

“I thought once I retired from teaching (2017) I would be done coaching, but I’m still having fun, so no retirement thoughts yet.”

The former point guard at Kearny joins an elite Fab Five of coaches — Kevin Kiernan (Westminster La Quinta, Santa Ana Mater Dei, 805 wins), Melissa Hearlihy (Mission Hills Bishop Alemanynorth Hollywood Harvard-westlake, 762), Joe Vaughan (Ventura Buena, 761), Sue Phillips (San Jose Archbishop Mitty, 718) at 718 and Brian Harrigan (San Francisco St. Rose-san Francisco Sacred Heart

Cathedral-mountain View St. Francis, 703). Kiernan, Hearlihy and Phillips are still active.

“It’s really cool that I’ve done all this at Poway,” Trousdale said. “When I found out there are only five others with 700 wins at the end of the last season I sat back and had a wow moment.

“Winning 700 wasn’t even on my radar until I found that out.

“And I know there are only two boys coaches in San Diego over 700 wins in Ray Johnson (788) and John Singer (727).’’

Now in his 34th season at Poway, Trousdale has claimed 12 league championships as well as four CIF San Diego Section crowns.

“He’s had some amazing teams and some that were a work in progress the whole way,’’ said former player Kara (Milling) Hanes, who graduated in 1994. “I played two sports and instead of quitting basketball to concentrate on volleyball, I stayed on because I knew playing for Jay would help me become a better volleyball player.’’

Trousdale played a tournament game at Poway as a senior at Kearny, beating a good Titan team before playing for Bob Kloppenburg at U.S. International University.

His first coaching game was also at Poway in 1978 as the JV coach at Kearny.

Trousdale’s first game coaching at Poway in 1987 came at El Cajon for victory No. 1.

“I did not think I’d still be coaching,” he said. “I was glad to get my first head coaching job, but I didn’t know what I was getting into.

“This coaching thing has been the best professional decision I’ve ever made because, at one point, I was thinking I wanted to major in zoology while I was at Kearny.”

Jay Trousdale