The California Coaches Association (CCA) honored two Alameda high school coaches at the State Coach of the Year Awards ceremony June 11 at the Sandpiper Community Center in Redwood City.

St. Joseph Notre Dame (SJND) head basketball coach Don Lippi was inducted into the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame for the Class of 2020 — the 2020 awards was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lippi has been coaching basketball in California for more than 42 years at St. Ignatius High of San Francisco, St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo; Skyline High of Oakland and SJND. His distinguished coaching career includes 23 league championships, 18 section championships, seven NorCal Championships, and four state championships, while accumulating more than 910 wins.

“Lippi has positively influenced thousands of students and student-athletes through his classrooms as well as the basketball court,” wrote the CCA at the time of Lippi’s Hall of Dame announcement on April 7, 2020.

Alameda High School assistant football coach Stephen Yamasaki received the Jim Brownfield Mentor Award.

“The Jim Brownfield Mentor Award is intended to recognize someone who has given support to interscholastic athletics and the coaching profession,” the CCA wrote in a press release. “It may encompass any sport, aspect, or phase of athletics providing it is an outstanding contribution of a positive and significant supportive effort worthy of special recognition.”

Brownfield was a legendary football and track coach at John Muir High in Pasadena.

The CCA began in 1957. The organization provides a professional organization uniting all coaches in California, dedicated to maintaining the highest possible standards for athletic competition and coaching conditions in California. Every June, the CCA honors coaches that have made a significant impact on their campus, community, and student-athletes.