UPDATED: Cal names Donovan boys basketball coach

California High has found its new  boys basketball coach — and it didn't have to go far to find him.

Bob Donovan, who served as the coach from 1983-1988 and in the 1989-1990 season, has been tabbed to take over the program Cal principal Mark Corti said Thursday.

"We went through an extensive interview process and had a great pool of candidates," Corti said. "He was an assistant coach on (former coach Cary Willson's) championship teams and never left coaching."

Donovan, an on-campus government teacher, knew he wanted to get back into coaching after spending time with a prison ministry in Vacaville. He briefly considered coaching a team of in-mates before deciding to pursue coaching more locally.

"I was doing the ministry work and thought to myself that basketball might be a way connect with young men," Donovan said. "At about the same time people on campus started telling me I should apply for the basketball job (at Cal)."

He was on the interview panel when Willson was hired before the 1999-2000 season and was originally planning on being on the interview panel this time around as well.

After consulting with his wife and few select others, Donovan decided to pursue the job instead. 

"I know I have no credibility in a lot of people's minds and I brought that up in the interview," Donovan said. "I was frank and up front with my answers (in the interviews). I felt that people on the panel had to look at me and say 'Where the heck have you been for 20 years?'"

He was assistant with Willson when Cal won back-to-back EBAL championships in the '01-02 and '02-03 seasons and later returned for another stint "a few years later." He also did scouting for Willson on several occasions over the past decade.

Donovan was the third coach in school history when he arrived in 1983. He was replaced by current San Ramon Valley girls basketball coach Hans de Lannoy, who preceded Willson.

He knows he has big shoes to fill. Willson is widely considered the most successful boys basketball coach in school history after claiming three EBAL titles and making the North Coast Section playoffs seven times in his 11 years as coach.

"I feel like he did such a good job and that it's still his program," Donovan said. "We share a lot of the same philosophies and talked about a role reversal being possible in future (with Willson, who remains a teacher at Cal, helping out at times),"

Donovan played at Salesian when it was part of the Catholic Athletic League and developed traits there that he'll use in the future.

"I believe in discipline," he said. "We better play hard and we better play with a certain level of intelligence. I'd like to think we'll be fundamentally sound ... for me the basketball court is just another classroom."

Cal went 16-11 last season and lost 59-57 to James Logan in the first round of the Division I NCS playoffs.