Christina Torres takes over an SBVC Women's Basketball program that has won eight Conference titles in nine seasons, big shoes to fill, but she is encouraged by the challenge that new scenery will bring.
As an assistant at Oxnard College, she helped reboot the women's basketball program after a three season budget cut. Coach Torres guided the 2015-2016 Oxnard Condors to a successful 2nd place finish, with a 15-9 overall record and an 8-4 Western State Conference record. Prior to her coaching at Oxnard College, Torres coached at Ventura College alongside head coach Ned Mircetic. Her work played a huge part in the journey the Pirates women's basketball team made to the post season where they won the CCCAA State Championship Title.
Coming from two collegiate coaching jobs in Ventura County, Coach Torres hopes to appeal to potential athletes in the district by bringing community involvement to SBVC and getting local high school teams and players out to games during the season. She states the importance of making connections to local high school and club team coaching staffs in order to recruit effectively. Torres also believes the new gym, set to open in August 2016, will be a great recruiting attraction for many years to come. She will be moving to the San Bernardino area in the coming weeks, and says that "being present and close to work here at SBVC is vital to the program".
Before her collegiate coaching experience, Torres attended Sonoma State University where she was a redshirt. She left to attend a community college in northern California where she played a combo guard for Yuba Community College in Marysville during the 2007-08 season. Due to injury, she took the following season off to recover, where she was first introduced to her coaching aspirations.
Torres coached at her alma mater Pioneer High School and coached her freshmen girls basketball team to a perfect 10-0 season. Torres transferred to American River College in Sacramento, CA to play her sophomore season of basketball in 2009-2010 where her team made a playoff appearance. Coach Torres then matriculated to Cal State Northridge where she completed her bachelor's degree in 2012. Upon completion of her undergraduate degree, Coach Torres coached at Channel Islands High School in 2012-2013. She served as the junior varsity head coach as well as an assistant varsity coach helping direct the Raiders to the first round of the CIF playoffs. After her second year of high school coaching she aspired to pursue her Master's degree in order to coach at the collegiate level. She received her Masters of Science degree in Physical Education in 2015.
Coach Torres predicts the new Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC) to be very competitive, stating that, "the goal is to come into the conference and take first". She believes Palomar and Mt. San Jacinto to continue to be top level teams in conference after tying for first last season, but that does not diminish the talent from the rest of the conference. SBVC plays Palomar at home on January 20th and Mt. San Jacinto at home on February 15th, which also is sophomore night. In addition, SBVC plays a notable non-conference home-at-home series against former Foothill Conference rival Chaffey (dates to be determined).
Written by Chase LuQue
Information, Photos & Story provided by SBVC Sports Information.