Photo by Michelle Turner
Staff Report
Dunn has welcomed several new coaches as the private school in Los Olivos prepares to move into the Tri-County Athletic Association.
The TCAA is a 12-team association split into two leagues: the Tri-Valley League and the Frontier League.
The Dunn baseball team will play this spring in the Tri-Valley League. The rest of Dunn’s teams will play in the TCAA starting in the 2020-21 school year. The TCAA is composed of Cate School, La Reina, Laguna Blanca, Providence, Santa Clara, Thacher, Villanova Prep, Bishop Diego, Foothill Tech, Grace Brethren, and St. Bonaventure.
“We are excited to move our athletic program into such a competitive league. We have been a long-time member of the Condor League, but we feel that the TCAA is a better fit for Dunn athletics today,” said Dunn Athletic Director Tim Weir.
Dunn is also making some coaching changes this year.
“We are looking for coaches that will embrace the core values of our school,” said Weir. “We are also bringing back track and field. It makes perfect sense based on the student-athletes we currently have at Dunn. Track and field is a natural fit for many of our athletes as they come out of their winter sports.”
The boys soccer coach is Ivan Becerra, who played for UCSB and in 2004 was a member of the team that competed in the NCAA College Cup Final. After UCSB he played professionally from 2005-2010. He coached with the Santa Barbara Soccer Club from 2011-2018 and has directed summer camps with One Soccer School for over a decade.
In 2016, Becerra launched a local soccer academy, IB1ON1, which focuses on fundamental skill development for youth players. He holds a Class C license from USA Soccer and is the strength and conditioning coach at Dunn during the fall.
Former Dunn Varsity Soccer Coach Mark Geriak, a former CIF Coach of the Year and head coach of two of Dunn’s CIF Championship teams (2015, 2017), will be assisting Becerra.
The new girls soccer coach is Freddy Randall, who served last season as an assistant coach on Dunn’s Condor League Championship team.
A native of Boston, Randall attended Buckingham Browne and Nichols School. He played for the Massachusetts State Olympic Youth Development team and the Massachusetts Premier Soccer Club. At the collegiate level, Randall played for Colby College, where he was named to multiple All-Academic teams for the New England Small College Athletic Conference.
Randall fulfills several key roles at Dunn in addition to coaching. He is also the Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Outdoor Education.
The other new girls soccer coach is assistant Fifi Baiden. A native of Ghana, Baiden joined Dunn School in 2007 from the Right to Dream Academy.
After graduating from Dunn, he played collegiately for UCSB ad was drafted by the Columbus Crew in 2014, but his professional career was cut short due to injury. He returned to Santa Barbara and has been a coach for the Santa Barbara Soccer Club for the past five years.
Besides coaching, Baiden oversees his foundation, Fifi Soccer Foundation, which supports academics and athletics in Ghana. He recently wrote a book, “The Hope You Can Have,” and is pursuing a master’s degree from Pepperdine University in Social Entrepreneurship and Change.
Glen Evans will lead the baseball team. Evans has been an assistant coach at Dunn under David Lawrence for the past five seasons. This year he takes over as the head coach as Lawrence moves into the role of assistant.
Throughout his 29-year coaching career, Evans coached 10 players who have gone on to play Major League Baseball, including 2015 National League MVP Bryce Harper. Fifty of his players have moved up to play at the collegiate level.
Some of Evans’ coaching accomplishments have included five American Legion Nevada State Championships, one American Legion Western District Championship, three Nevada High School State Championships and the 2003 Junior College National Championship.
