Change is coming atop the Baler girls’ basketball team.
After four seasons with two Central Coast Championships and a
pair of Tri-County Athletic League championships, head coach David
Kaplansky is moving on.
Kaplansky’s stint as head coach ended Feb. 26 after the team was
eliminated in the CCS playoff quarterfinals to Gunn. The loss ended
a successful four-year run that resulted in the team’s first
section championship.
Change is coming atop the Baler girls’ basketball team.
After four seasons with two Central Coast Championships and a pair of Tri-County Athletic League championships, head coach David Kaplansky is moving on.
Kaplansky’s stint as head coach ended Feb. 26 after the team was eliminated in the CCS playoff quarterfinals to Gunn. The loss ended a successful four-year run that resulted in the team’s first section championship.
Before he was hired in 2007, Kaplansky spent four years from 2001 to 2005 as the boys’ basketball coach, averaging 18 wins per season. Kaplansky was a 1994 graduate from San Benito High.
After graduation, he was a walk-on player for the San Diego State University basketball team, before earning a scholarship his senior year. The past six years he has been a physical education teacher at Spring Grove Elementary School.
Kaplansky was hired before the 2007-08 season, and the team was coming off a dismal 8-15 record the previous year. It marked the first time since 1997 that the Balers failed to miss the CCS playoffs.
But Kaplansky quickly changed the culture.
As a first year girls’ head coach, Kaplansky led the Balers to a 24-6 overall record – and eventually the CCS championship.
Overall, Kaplansky finished with an 87-25 record and a 39-9 record inside the TCAL.
An online job posting for the girls’ basketball coach confirmed Kaplansky’s departure.
Calls to Athletic Director Todd Thatcher were not returned before press time.
