Jake Diehl is Coach of the Year for boys sports for 2024-25 high school season
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MIDDLETOWN >> The 2024-25 basketball season was everything it could be for the Middletown Mustangs and head coach Jake Diehl, the Lake County Sports Coach of the Year for boys sports.
Under Diehl’s direction, Middletown had a season to remember on several counts.
- The Mustangs won 24 games, a single-season school record.
- The Mustangs won three playoff games, a school record.
- The Mustangs had their best finish ever in the North Coast Section playoffs, placing third in Division 4.
- The Mustangs hosted five straight home playoff games during a wild postseason run that saw them go 3-2 overall, including a 3-0 record in the sectional playoffs against Division 2 opponents who were dropped down into the Division 4 field.
- The Mustangs advanced to the NorCal playoffs for the first time in school history, dropping a hard-fought first-round contest to Weed.
Led by a core group of seniors and some very talented underclassmen, Middletown also earned a share of the North Central League I championship, including a league playoff win over St. Helena, the other NCL I co-champion, to secure the league’s automatic berth in the sectional playoffs.
“It was a special group of young men,” Diehl said. “They were hard workers, dedicated, focused. They were tenacious, they showed that several times. There were times when the fans thought it was done, and we came back and prevailed.”
Best of all, according to Diehl, both players, coaches and fans had a lot of fun.
“I felt pretty solid and secure with the team we had,” Diehl added. “Our seniors were impact players.”
Diehl said his right-hand man, assistant coach Nick Hough, also played a huge role in the team’s success.
“I absolutely would not have been able to do all of this with without Nick’s help,” Diehl said.
Though Middletown lost two key members of the 2024-25 squad to graduation – seniors Bodhi Moore and Anthony Bowerman, both All-Leaguers – the bulk of the team’s players return next season, including All-Leaguers Jon Hawkins, Harrison Brown and Jasiah Pike – Diehl said next season’s squad has the potential to be just as good or even better thanks to talent in the Middletown pipeline as well as the improvement of younger players on the 2024-25 team.
“We’re 3-1 so far in summer league and have shown a lot of promise,” Diehl said. “Our only loss was to Analy and Jon wasn’t there.”
Diehl is the second Middletown boys basketball coach to earn Coach of the Year honors in the last four seasons. G.J. Rockwell was honored following the 2021-22 campaign.
