ST. MONICA — The changes for St. Monica basketball just keep coming.
Less than two weeks after former assistant John Skinner was named girls’ basketball head coach — taking over for Therese Charkut, who resigned in May to focus on her duties as director of admissions — the boys’ team also welcomed a new leader: Khi-Min Jung, an assistant at Santa Monica High School last season. Jung’s hiring was announced Tuesday, St. Monica Athletic Director Rick Bruce said.
“He brings a good amount of experience,” Bruce said of Jung, who was the interim head coach at Hawthorne High School during the 2007-08 season before serving as an assistant with the Samohi boys’ basketball team the last two years, helping lead the Vikings to the final of the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. “We were looking for someone with varsity experience. He came very highly recommended.”
Jung, who could not be reached for comment by presstime, succeeds Tony Depa, who had been the Mariners’ head coach for the past five years. Depa resigned in June for personal reasons, Bruce said.
“Basically, I felt that I did all that I could do there,” Depa said. “I’m very thankful to St. Monica. In 2004 I was a 27-year-old basketball coach from Louisiana … . St. Monica was the one school giving me the opportunity to coach.”
After inheriting a team that went 9-12 during the 2004-05 season, Depa led the Mariners to an overall record of 81-55 over five seasons. His last campaign at St. Monica proved to be his most successful, as the team won its first Camino Real League title in 20 years.
“Tony was very consistent in the way he worked with his kids,” Bruce said. “The school benefited a great deal from the passion he brought to the team.”
Depa, who was also a geometry teacher at St. Monica, said he is “exploring other opportunities as to what I do for my day job.” He is currently being considered for the head coaching position for the boys’ basketball team at McKinley High School in Baton Rouge, La.
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