Tim Tucker has been named the new varsity boys basketball coach at Maranatha on the same day he resigned the same title at Pasadena after 19 successful seasons.
The move comes a day after Tim Godley resigned as coach at Maranatha after five seasons. Tucker told his Pasadena team yesterday, then made it official by signing the paperwork at Maranatha on Tuesday afternoon.
“From a Bulldog to a Minuteman,” Tucker said of the address change. “It was probably the toughest decision that I’ve ever made as a coach. What it came down to is that I needed a change because I needed to be rejuvenated. I needed to be excited again and I was starting to get not as excited going to Pasadena High School because I was doing the same with different players.
“And the other side of it is that the offer Maranatha made to me was just too good to pass up.”
Tucker, a 1978 graduate of Pasadena, won two CIF championships as a player. As a coach, he led the Bulldogs to 15 league championship, including nine consecutive, and two CIF championships. Tucker has been named the Star-News Coach of the Year five times.
Because of its success, Pasadena was moved into the CIF Southern Section super division 1-AA, where some of the Southland’s top heavyweight programs play. The Bulldogs did not enjoy their usual deep postseason run, losing to Loyola in the second round of the playoffs.
Tucker is hopeful his longtime assistant coach Tony Brooks will be promoted to head coach at Pasadena, thus making for a smooth transition. Pasadena athletic director Kevin Mills sounded like he was on the same page, but wouldn’t get into specifics.
“Stay tuned,” Mills said. “I have some thoughts, but I don’t want to put them out there just yet. I want to run it by the powers-that-be. But I have a thought that could make it a smooth transition.”
Tucker played for legendary former Bulldogs coach George Terzian and certainly carried on the legacy of success as a coach. His Pasadena teams not only dominated the local landscape, but they consistently proved capable of beating some of the Southland’s best programs, too.
“There was some shock, a lot of disappointment and a lot questions about where the program was headed,” Tucker said about the reaction of his players at Pasadena when given the news.
“The tradition will continue on.”
Shifting from a large public school like Pasadena to a small Christian private school in Maranatha won’t be easy, but Tucker is already laying out plans to turn his new program into something special.
“Tim (Godley) had done a good job here and built a good foundation to help me not have to start from scratch,” Tucker said. “They’re a winning program. I don’t feel like I have a long way to go here to get it done. I think that you’ll see some things happen in our program, starting this summer.
“We’re going to do some of the same things we did at Pasadena. We’re not going to play an easy schedule. We’re going to play the teams that Pasadena played. This is the direction they want to go. They want to compete and I welcome the opportunity to make that happen.”
Tucker lives in Altadena and is owner and CEO of Bourne Inc., which is a non-profit company that provides residential group homes for at-risk children.
