MARIO TRUTANIC JR. NAMED HEAD WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACH
Coach Trutanic has over 26 years of coaching experience at the high school, club, and college levels.
MARIO TRUTANIC, JR
Coach Trutanic has over 26 years of coaching experience at the high school, club, and college levels. He has coached at Division 1, 2, 3, and JC levels at the college. Most recently, Coach Mario was the Head Women's Basketball Coach at Saddleback College, where he resurrected a program ravaged by COVID-19. During the 2023-24 season, he led the team to its most wins since the 2016-17 season.
During the 2021-22 season, Trutanic served as an assistant coach at the University of Redlands, where he helped lead the Bulldogs to the SCIAC Championship and a top-25 National Ranking. He also developed and coached Alyssa Downs, Hannah Jerrier, Angelique Roque, and Chyanne Pagkawlinawan, who were all selected to the All-SCIAC team. Hannah Jerrier was also selected as Defensive Player of the Year in the SCIAC Conference.
As an assistant coach at Palomar College during 2016-17, he helped lead the team to the PCAC Conference Championship and the Final Four in the CCCAA State Tournament.
From 2011-16, Trutanic was an assistant coach at California State University Northridge (CSUN), where he helped orchestrate the greatest turnarounds in Division 1 history in 2011-12. During his tenure at CSUN, he was part of two NCAA tournament appearances and a WNIT appearance. The 2014-15 team set a school record for wins. He has the honor of coaching and developing several players to all-conference recognition in the Big West, including Jasmine Erving, Violet Alama, Tessa Boagini, Camille Mahlknecht, and Channon Fluker.
Coach Trutanic takes tremendous pride in developing players on and off the court. He has coached and developed several players who have played professionally and collegiately. His players have gone on to play at the following colleges/universities: Brown, Boston College, Columbia, Wisconsin, Cal, UC Davis, Cal Poly Pomona, Westmont, Whitman, Seattle, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State LA, Yale, Redlands, APU, UCSD, Weber State, USC, Hawaii, PLNU, and others.
Trutanic has coached at Santa Monica College, San Francisco State University, Long Beach State University, Mission Hills High School, Francis Parker High School, Carlsbad High School, Oaks Christian High School, South Torrance High School, St. Bernards High School, Crossroads High School, and Marymount High School.
Russell Luce the Athletic Director on the hire: " Mario is an established leader of Women's basketball. We are excited to turn our proagem over to him! I can not wait to work with Mario to build our program into a power in the ACCAC."
A graduate of Antioch University with a BA in Liberal Studies, Trutanic earned his Master's Degree in Sports Management from the University of San Francisco. He is also currently pursuing a PhD in Sports Management from USSA.
Coach Mario is married and has two kids, and his family recently moved to the North Phoenix area.