Outstanding El Camino College Coaches Score Major Career Achievements
Two El Camino College coaches were recently recognized for major professional achievements, highlights of stellar careers guiding outstanding student-athletes. Jessica Rapoza recorded her 250th win as El Camino’s head softball coach, and beach volleyball head coach Le Valley Pattison was inducted into the California Community College Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Jessica Rapoza recorded her 250th win as the Warrior softball head coach after a recent victory over Pasadena City College. The three-time Coach of the Year award winner is in her ninth season as El Camino’s head coach and also has 135 wins in five seasons prior to that at Santa Ana College. In her eight seasons with the Warriors, the team has made the playoffs every year that was completed. Since she joined ECC in 2015, she has led the team to a 105-37-1 South Coast Conference record – a .734 winning percentage. The Warriors have won the conference title in four of the last eight years and have accounted for four of the program’s five conference titles. In 2018, the team advanced to the CCCAA State Championships for the first time in program history. The Warriors finished tied for fifth place in the state after going 1-2 at the CCCAA State Championships. Rapoza has guided many student-athletes to further their education and collegiate softball careers at NCAA Division I, II, III and NAIA institutions.
El Camino’s current beach volleyball head coach and former women’s volleyball coach Le Valley Pattison was inducted into the 3C2A Hall of Fame in March. The El Camino alumna is the only person to ever win a state title as a student-athlete (Tournament MVP of the 1983 ECC volleyball team) and as head coach (back-to-back state titles at ECC in 2007 and 2008). Pattison is in her eighth season as head coach of the beach volleyball team, a position she’s held since the inception of the program in 2016. She previously coached women’s indoor volleyball for 26 years, leading the team to 16 conference championships and joining the 400-win club in 2014. Overall, Pattison has a career record of 404-125, and has been named South Coast Conference Coach of the Year 14 times. In 2012, she was awarded the Lifetime Coaching Achievement award from the CCCAA and in 2019-20 was SCC Women’s Sports Coach of the Year. In 1997 Pattison was inducted into the El Camino College Athletic Hall of Fame and was the AVCA Regional Coach of the Year in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
For more information about El Camino College’s athletic programs, view www.eccwarriors.com.