Corona Centennial's Josh Giles is SBLive's California high school boys basketball coach of the year
Corona Centennial boys basketball coach Josh Giles guided the Huskies to a 33-1 season and Open Division championships at the Section and State level. For that, he has been named SBLive's California boys basketball coach of the year. The award is given out annually by SBLive.
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For the second time in three seasons, Josh Giles has earned a Coach of the Year honor from SBLive.
In 2020, we named Giles SBLive’s Southern Section Coach of the Year. The 2019-20 Corona Centennial team had lost three impact transfers in the offseason and still played in the Southern Section and State Open Division playoffs that year. Here’s a bit of what we wrote in 2020:
“We thought that the transfer exodus would hurt the Huskies, but it quickly became clear that that wasn't the case. Corona Centennial immediately bought into Giles' aggressive man to man defense and they were the most vocal team in Southern California, constantly talking about whether to help on defense or where the open man was on offense. It wore teams down and led the Huskies to a 27-5 record.”
“Corona Centennial won the Platinum Division at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas in December beating Mater Dei and Bishop Gorman along the way. They then won the King Cotton Classic in Arkansas later that month before posting a perfect 10-0 record in the Big VIII League.”
This offseason, Giles had to deal with another departure when star 2023 guard Kylan Boswell, a 2021 SBLive California first team All-State selection, transferred to Arizona Compass Prep.
Even though the Huskies were coming off a Southern Section Open Division championship, on paper, Corona Centennial was weakened by the Boswell transfer heading into this season and Sierra Canyon, the team the Huskies beat in the 2021 championship game, had gotten better with transfers of their own.
But once again, Giles managed to vastly exceed expectations. Corona Centennial had a historic season losing only once, a November 75-70 defeat to Texas power Duncanville. The Huskies rattled off 30 wins in a row from Nov. 27 to March 12 winning league, Section and state championships along the way.
On March 8, Corona Centennial faced off against Sierra Canyon in the CIF State Open Division regional championship game and the Huskies won in a blow out 83-59.
"We've picked a really good time to play really well, right?" Giles said after the game. "But it's all facets. We're defending. We're rebounding. We're making shots. Being smart. With three minutes to go we handled their pressure and kind of took the air out of the ball a little bit. It was really good."
Giles' Corona Centennial team played at an exceptionally high level culminating in a 59-50 state championship win over Modesto Christian this season. And he did it after losing one of the team’s best players from last year. For that, he’s been named SBLive California’s boys basketball Coach of the Year.
