Coach Bryan Gardere: A loyalist to the core
PIEDMONT, Calif. — All over the world, one thing that has been known to help any sports team is stability. One team that has enjoyed stability for almost 20 years is the Piedmont High School girls basketball team (the Highlanders).
The man who has made this possible is head coach Bryan Gardere. Ever since Gardere joined the Highlanders in 2002, he has remained loyal to the team, and this has, in turn, yielded many benefits to not just the girls basketball team but the entire Piedmont High School.
Since the Highlanders started playing basketball in the California Interscholastic Sports back in the 1978-79 season, there has never been a time they had a coach for more than three seasons until Gardere came.
As soon as he joined the Highlanders, he started the journey of making them one of the best girls basketball teams in California by inputting on the players the desire to win.
鈥淲e want to play basketball, and we want to win,鈥� Coach Gardere .
Gardere attended Kansas Wesleyan University and graduated in 2000 with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business administration. In the past 19 years, he has led the Highlanders to four North Coast titles, won two California Basketball titles, made four NorCal appearances with the Highlanders and won two of the titles.
But his most outstanding achievement since joining the Highlanders is not in the number of trophies he has helped them win, but in the number of players he has built.
In 2019, Jasmyne Huggins was named the WACC Co-Player of the Year and first team All WACC. Ashley Gao was named second team All WACC, while Megan Tang made All WACC honorable mention.
In the 2015-16 season, Ny鈥橠ayah Jackson, one of Gardere鈥檚 players, was named WACC Player of the Year, All CIF, All Bay Area and All-Metro Sydney Boxer Player of the Year.
And this list is endless. These are some of the many players who started as novices when they joined the Highlanders but left the Highlanders as some of the best playmakers in California.
You can鈥檛 complete the journey of Coach Gardere without mentioning the contribution of his long-time assistant, Kenny Evans. Evans has been assisting Gardere since the 2005-06 season. It would be correct to say that Evans played an essential role in Gardere鈥檚 achievements with the Highlanders.
However, despite all Coach Gardere has achieved with the Highlanders, he is still hungry for more. He wants to win more and beat any team standing in the team鈥檚 way and obstructing it from being the best.
鈥淚f we want to compete with whoever the best team on our schedule is, we know defensively we鈥檙e going to have to be better,鈥� Gardere . 鈥淲e鈥檙e not a big team, so we have to be a little more scrappy.鈥�
Coach Gardere has proven his loyalty to the Piedmont High School team by constantly standing with the Highlanders, winning trophies with them and helping them become their best in basketball for almost 20 years. Only a few can be like him, and because of that, he has our respect.
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