9/10/2008 3:59:32 PM
TURLOCK — John Saintignon, an experienced and successful basketball coach at various levels — and three-time All-American — has joined the California State University, Stanislaus men’s basketball coaching staff as Keith Larsen’s top assistant.
Saintignon coached in high school, college and professional basketball in Arizona, California, Oregon and Mexico. Most recently, Saintignon was the associate head coach and director of player development for the Culiacan Caballeros of the top league in the Mexican Professional Basketball League (LNBP). As a first-year franchise, the Caballeros went to the LNBP playoffs.
Prior to coaching professionally, Saintignon was the Director of Basketball Operations and Assistant Coach at Oregon State from 2005 to 2007.
“In my 30 years of coaching I’ve never been around a more complete coach that has coached at every level all around the world,” Warriors head coach Keith Larsen said. “He just brings so much knowledge and experience. We are incredible lucky to have him on our staff.”
Before landing in Corvallis, Saintignon was a teacher and head coach at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Ariz. His previous high school coaching experience included being the head coach at Canyon del Oro High School in Tucson, Ariz. (2001-04); Bonita Vista High School in Chula Vista, Calif. (1995-01); and Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach, Calif. (1992-95).
Saintignon led his team at Canyon del Oro to the state tournament twice and was named the Coach of the Year in 2001-02. At Bonita Vista, he was also named the league’s coach of the year after leading his team to a sectional championship in 1999. During his time at Bonita Vista, his team won more than 100 games and qualified for the state playoffs each of his six years as Head Coach.. At Mar Vista, Saintignon earned Coach of the Year honors by taking his team to the league championship in 1994-95. Saintignon team’s reached the state playoffs three times.
“He is a great evaluator of talent and has been in so many systems that he will be able to take our system and work with our student-athletes,” Larsen said. “He has a lot of in-depth knowledge in breaking it all down.”
Saintignon’s basketball coaching experience includes instructional camps including the Superstar Invitational, the Michael Jordan Flight School and the Five-Star Basketball Camps in Pittsburgh, Pa. He was a speaker at the opening ceremony for the Pan-American Games in May 2003 in the Dominican Republic and has been honored to speak in Italy for European coaches and has helped develop players since 2006.
Saintignon graduated from UC San Diego in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He played one season at UC San Diego and three seasons at UC Santa Cruz. In 1985-86, he was the leading scorer in the country as he led all three NCAA Divisions with a 32.1 scoring average. He earned All-Conference and All-American candidate honors all three of his years at UC Santa Cruz as he scored more than 2,450 points in his career. He went on to play professionally in Spain and Mexico for four seasons.
A native of Tucson, Ariz., Saintignon graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School where he was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. Saintignon has been married for 11 years to Angelica and they are proud of their sons, Vicente (9) and Sebastian (6).