ANDY GROUND RETURNS TO SADDLEBACK

Saddleback College has announced that Andy Ground will return to the college as the head coach of the men’s basketball program.
Ground played at Saddleback during the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons under Coach Bill Brummel before earning a scholarship to play at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. He later played professionally in Lima, Peru, and in Bonn, Germany.

He returned to Southern California where he spent seven seasons as the varsity boys coach at Tustin High School, compiling a 154-49 record with three league titles and post-season playoff appearances in each of those seven seasons. Five of his teams reached the CIF quarterfinal round.

Ground came to Saddleback as an assistant coach in 1999 and proved to be an outstanding recruiter in addition to his coaching duties. He spent seven seasons as an assistant coach before being named co-head coach for the 2006-07 season. In those eight seasons he helped guide the Gauchos to a 215-51 overall record, five Orange Empire Conference titles, and two conference runner-up finishes. Saddleback participated in the post-season in each of those years, reaching the state tournament semifinals five times and winning the college’s first-ever state title for men’s basketball in 2001-02.

He left the program prior to the 2007-08 season and was hired as an assistant coach at Irvine Valley College, helping the Lasers to a 27-5 overall record and a runner-up finish in the Orange Empire Conference.

Ground replaces Brummel who retired this season after 27 years as Saddleback’s head coach and a 569-278 overall record. Brummel also spent four years as an assistant coach under Bill Mulligan (1976-80) before taking over as head coach for the 1980-81 season.

Assistant Coach Nick Booker First Year at Saddleback

Bio coming

Assistant Coach Ralph Lawson First Year at Saddleback

Bio coming