MEET THE COACHES
Yousof Etemadi
Varsity Head Coach
Yousof Etemadi enters his 5th year as a head coach in Orange County. In his first season as head coach of the Knights ('19-'20), he doubled the teams wins from the previous year. In his second season, he led the program to a 19-5 overall record, Crestview League Champions, and a Quarterfinal appearance in the CIF SS DIV3A Playoffs. Last Year in the '21-'22 Season, Coach Yo led the Knights to their best record in school history (31-4), a CIF State D2 State Final Appearance, a CIF State D2 SoCal Regional Championship, a CIF SS CIF Semifinal appearance, and another back to back Crestview League Title. He was also awarded the 2022 CIF State D2 Coach of the Year, and 2022 Orange County Coach of the Year. In 2023, he led the Knights to a 24-6 season, with a 1st Round Appearance in the CIF Div 1 Playoffs.
Prior to Foothill he was named the interim head coach to help the late Tim O'Brien at Northwood. He led the Timberwolves to a second place finish in the Pacific Coast League and a CIF Playoff appearance. He is in his 12th year coaching overall. Prior to Northwood, Coach Yousof Etemadi was an assistant coach at Foothill, Aliso Niguel and the AFG National Team. Coach Yo also coaches the Cali Rebels 17U Adidas Gauntlet team the last 5 years and has been coaching club basketball for the last 10 years.
Coach Yo is a local product, playing at Aliso Niguel High School, Saddleback College and then Cal Poly Pomona where he graduated with a B.A. in Graphic Design, and helped his team win a Division 2 West Regional Title. After Cal Poly, Coach Yo played overseas with his national team in Asia (Taiwan, Qatar, India, China and Bangladesh). Coach Yo has helped many Orange County players develop and move on to play college basketball. He believes in developing great basketball players and young men of high character. He is committed to helping them reach their maximum potential both on the court and in their daily life. Coach Yo is committed to leading the Foothill Knights to becoming one of the top public school programs in Orange County.
Chin Up, Mind Right and Play The Right Way! Let's Go Knights!
Jonathan Antolin
Varsity Associate
Head Coach
Jonathan Antolin enters his 10th year of coaching and 5th with Foothill High School. In the 2019-2020 season, Coach Antolin led the Freshmen team to a 20-7 overall record. In the 2020-2021 season, he led the JV team to a 16-6 overall record. In his 3rd Season, he led the JV team to a 17-4 overall record, 6-0 Undefeated League Record, a Crestview League Championship, and a La Habra Tournament Championship. He also assisted on the Varsity Level from 2020-2023. Coach Antolin will help lead the Knights as the Varsity Head Associate Coach for the 2023-2024 season.
Coach Antolin coached at his Alma Mater, Ayala HS and coached at all levels. He played for CIF Hall of Fame Coach Tom Gregory at Ayala High School in Chino Hills, CA where he helped the program win multiple league championships, multiple 20-win seasons, and made deep runs in the CIF Division 1 Playoffs. He currently coaches for the Cali Rebels Club Basketball Program, and coaches the 15U National Team. Coach Antolin has been coaching Club Basketball for the past 3 years.
Coach Antolin graduated with a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology from Cal State University Fullerton with an emphasis in Teaching Studies. During college, Coach Antolin pursued a teaching/coaching career and coached Freshmen and JV basketball at Ayala High School from 2003-2008. He took a hiatus from coaching to pursue a career working at Amazon.com in Dallas, TX. He recently moved back to Orange County and started ASMC Enterprise - an E-Commerce Sales & Consulting Company, and is excited to be back pursuing his passion for coaching basketball at Foothill High School.
Sarkis Kara
Varsity Assistant Coach
Sarkis Kara is in his 6th season coaching Foothill High School, his 5th as a Varsity Assistant. Coach Sarkis spent time on the 2018-2019 Santa Margarita Varsity staff. During his first season at SMCHS the team ended the season with a record of 25-11 with notable wins over highly ranked schools such as Rancho Christian, Coronado (Las Vegas), Bishop Gorman Las Vegas, Etiwanda, Damian, Orange Lutheran, Harvard Westlake and ultimately concluding the season with a CIF Southern Section Division 1 Championship over Chino Hills. Coach Sarkis was a key part of the Foothill's 2021-2022 CIF SoCal Regional Championship Team, as he led the defense for the Knights last season.
Coach Kara was a varsity player at Woodbridge High School in Irvine. His coaching experience stemmed as a Varsity assistant under Hall of Fame coach Tim O’Brien for four years at Northwood High where they reached two Div 2 CIF semi final games. Coach Kara then moved on to Foothill High School for the 2017-2018 season as the head Freshman coach where he led his group to a league title and 21-6 record.
Coach Kara has strong ties to grassroots basketball and runs one of the largest and most successful basketball clubs in Orange County. His club has helped to develop both ESPN ranked, top 100 national level talent year after year, and he has coached several national level youth teams. His efforts as a coach and mentor have worked to create sound, smart and talented high school basketball players. He graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 2006 with a BS in Criminal Justice.
Cliff Hsia
Varsity Assistant Coach
Cliff Hsia enters his 2nd year with Foothill High School. He supports the team with operations and statistics.
Coach Cliff was a 2-year high school varsity player on the ‘Iolani School basketball team in Honolulu, Hawaii. Cliff graduated cum laude from UCLA with a degree in International Economics and an East Asia Concentration. He was part of the inaugural group of Gates Millennium Scholarship recipients in 2000, which gave him a full-ride merit- and need-based scholarship for his years at UCLA. He also studied and worked in Japan and China for a total of over 5 years. After more than 15 years in various marketing and sales roles in technology companies including Alibaba and Cisco, Coach Cliff moved from the Bay Area to Orange County and has been pursuing his passion for real estate as an investor and a realtor.
Coach Cliff and his wife are parents of two daughters. They have traveled to over 25 countries on 4 continents together and look forward to visiting even more countries in the future. Some highlights of their family travel include 10 months in 10 countries, 5 weeks in Barcelona, Spain, 4 weeks in Nicaragua, and 3 months in Phuket, Thailand. Cliff wrote all about his family travel and lessons learned from their journey around the world for HuffPost and hosted the podcast Fascinating People, where he interviewed people from different backgrounds with amazing stories. He has mentored many high school and college students through various organizations over the years.
Caden Williams
JV Head Coach
Caden Williams enters his 3rd year coaching at Foothill High School. For the 2023-2024 season, Coach Caden will lead the JV Team.
Coach Caden is 28 years old, and was born in Long Beach, CA. He played 4 years of high school basketball and was a conference competitor at El Dorado HS. He played 2 years of college basketball at Fullerton Junior College, where he was a part of the 2018 State Tournament Runner-Up Team. He received a scholarship to play his last two years of college basketball at San Diego Christian, an NAIA program at one of the top NAIA conferences in the Nation, the GSAC (Gold State Athletic Conference).
He is currently attending CSUF finishing his degree in Kinesiology where he looks to start a career in Physical Therapy. Coach Caden is true competitor and beyond passionate for his love of the game of basketball. We are blessed to have Coach Caden on staff as he's done a phenomenal job with player development in his first year at Foothill HS!
Mike Marconi
JV Assistant Coach
Mike Marconi is entering his sixteenth season with the Foothill Knights Basketball Program. Coach Marconi brings valuable years of coaching and basketball experience to our basketball program. He has been involved for his first ten years with the Freshmen program, and spent 4 years as a lead assistant and six as head coach for the freshmen teams. Coach Marconi has five years of coaching experience at Holy Family Catholic School and Servite High School in addition to his time here with Foothill.
Coach Marconi has assisted on the JV team the last 3 years, and will continue with that role for the 2023-2024 season. Marconi was a key part of the 2021-2022 JV Team, as his experience was key to the groups championship season.
Coach Marconi is a graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in economics. He currently works for Orange Coast Title Company and resides in North Tustin with his wife and four children.
Gylan Dottin
Frosh Head Coach
Gylan Dottin enters his 5th year as a coach at Foothill HS. He brings with him 20 years of player development experience from all levels of basketball, high school, college, and professional. He played and graduated from the University of San Diego with a B.A. in Communications. He was a 4 year starter for the Toreros where he was WCC Freshman of the Year and two-time WCC 1st Team All-League. He had a 10-year professional basketball career playing in Europe (Holland, Belgium, Germany, Turkey, and Italy). He was invited to 5 NBA camps (Golden State, New Jersey, Denver, San Antonio, and the LA Clippers) over his basketball career.
After his playing career, he worked 14 years for Toyota Motor Sales, Inc. in the Lexus Division, but still had the bug to be around basketball. He returned to basketball coaching in the Adidas Circuit with Dream Vision AAU and training NBA Prospects. He is very passionate about giving back to kids, helping them with life lessons and enjoys developing them into young men.
Chase Cameron
Strength & Conditioning
Coach
Chase Cameron grew up locally in the Tustin/Foothill area before moving to Newport Beach where he played 3 years of Varsity basketball at Newport Harbor before playing for Coach Steve Spencer at Orange Coast College. He then transferred to Cal State Fullerton where he received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Kinesiology with an emphasis on Strength and Conditioning.
Post graduation he served roles in the private sector as both Coach and Performance Director at Velocity and ProSport in Costa Mesa, working with athletes of all ages and sports from youth to professional/olympian. Since leaving his Performance Director role to pursue his own business in athletic development, he has worked with multiple high schools including Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar, Fairmont Prep, and athletes in the MLB, MLL, NFL, UFC, MLS, AVP, World Champion Jiu Jitsu athletes, NCAA, among others.
Coach Chase's business is now directed full time to his passion, the development of basketball athletes. Chase Cameron Performance (CCP) will be focused strictly on the research and development of strength and performance for basketball athletes. With the strength of his network (Physical therapists, performance coaches, etc.), along with his 14 years of training experience and knowledge, his goal is to continue to educate himself to develop the best practices in developing strong and healthy basketball athletes.