Darren Averitt, "Coach D"

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Born and raised in Southern California, Coach Darren played travel ball and at Thousand Oaks High School.  He attended California Lutheran University (previously, California Lutheran College) and the University of California at Santa Barbara. He played a year at CLC and then transferred to UCSB. After several foot injuries,  he focused on earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1989. 

His coaching career started in 2002 at the Monrovia YMCA, coaching his two kids. Later, he branched out to assist/coach other older teams. After meeting other competitive coaches, he developed and organized the original AAU Santa Anita YMCA Mountaineers in 2005. A few years later, he moved the organization to non-profit status as the Monrovia Mountaineers until 2014. 

While running the Mountaineers, he began coaching freshman basketball at Monrovia High School.  From there, local schools and teams would retain him to advise and teach defensive philosophies and techniques. Often, he would design organizations defenses for the upcoming seasons.

In the 2012-13 season, he joined Cathedral High School coaching staff to co-coach the freshman and JV teams. Later that year, he provided the advanced scouting and filming for the Phantoms Varsity Quarterfinal run in the Southern Section CIF playoffs. He later joined the Cathedral Varsity staff for the following 2013-14 season as an assistant coach, advanced scouting, and film for a team nominated to the inaugural CIF Open Division, and Quarterfinal State Championship run. 

After two seasons with the Phantoms, Coach Averitt committed to rebuilding the Blair High School Vikings before the 2018-19 season. With one junior, six sophomores, and three freshmen with no varsity experience, they gutted out a tough first year learning to become competitive. However, his Vikings improved substantially in his second season and became the team no one wanted to face. Eight of ten games were decided in the last two minutes. During both seasons, Coach Averitt’s players received nominations to the All Rio Hondo League teams.

Coach Averitt currently lives in the  San Gabriel Valley with his supportive wife, Laurie. His daughter, Emily, is currently attending grad school. His son, Brandon, began his collegiate basketball career at UTEP in Texas but plays presently guard for SUNY Canton University in New York.