JOHN O'NEILL
Head Men's Basketball Coach
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He was associate head coach under Virgil Watson, now the head coach at Los Angeles Valley Community College, during Palomar's conference championship 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons. O'Neill came to Palomar as an assistant under Watson after compiling a 343-208 record in 20 seasons on the high school level. O'Neill's teams at Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista compiled a 218-129 record, advanced to the CIF-San Diego Section quarterfinals or better every season, played in the CIF championship game four times. The Longhorns advanced to the semifinals three other times. O'Neill received his B.S. degree from Pepperdine University. He began his basketball head coaching career in the CIF-Southern section. O'Neill was head coach at South Torrance High School for one season and was head coach at Bonita High School for seven seasons. He coached Rancho Buena Vista to San Diego Section Division I championships in both 1994-95 and 1996-97. O'Neill's most successful team record was compiled by his 1997-98 squad, which went 27-3, but lost in the section semi-finals. He finished his tenure at RBV with five straight 20-win seasons and five consecutive Palomar League titles. O'Neill lives in Vista with his wife Erin, and the couple's daughter Cahill, who attended Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) and Palomar and is completing work on her Bachelor's degree at California State University San Marcos. John and Erin O'Neill's son, Casey, played basketball at Rancho Buena Vista High, graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and is an English language instructor in South Korea. PHOTO ABOVE RIGHT: By Hugh Cox John Hotaling Associate Head Coach
Hotaling originally arrived at Palomar as a red-shirt in 2003-04, O'Neill's second season as Palomar's head coach, out of Mission Bay High School. At Mission Bay, he played basketball (as a guard) and baseball (as a pitcher for Dennis Pugh, now the head coach at Cal State San Marcos). He played for the Comets in 2004-05 and 2005-06, when he was team captain and an all-PCAC selection for a team that won the conference championship. He received a full scholarship to NAIA Division I Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, MO. Hotaling layed two years for the Hornets while majoring in Criminal Justice. Hotaling received his Bachelor's degree from California State University San Marcos. Dima Artamonov Associate Head Coach
Artamatov started his coachng career in Anaheim with the Anaheim Arsenal of the NBA Devlopment League. He was head of scouting and was an assistant coach for the Arsenal. While an assistant, he worked on the player development side. Several Arsenal players, including Marcin Gortat and Jawad Williams, went on to the NBA. Gortat, who was assigned to the D League team by the Orlando Magic, was recalled by Orlando in December 2007 and helped the Magic to the NBA finals. He currently plays for the Phoenix Suns. Williams went on to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Artamatov also had a scouting stint with the Denver Nuggets. Atarmatov also conducts individual workouts for players at the pro, college and high school levels. He is a graduate of San Diego State University and received his Master's degree from the University of San Francisco. Michael Lewis Assistant Coach
Lewis previously was an assistant coach at Palomar under Andy Gilmour when the Comets' 1987-88 team advanced to the state community college Final Eight, Palomar's first trip to the state finals since the 1962-63 season. When Gilmour stepped down, Lewis spent one season as an assistant on Richard Johnson's Palomar staff before leaving to coach at Poway High School's an assistant for one season. He spent the next 17 seasons as an assistant at Southwestern College under John Cosentino. Lewis played collegiately for Washington State University from 1975-1977, and later helped coach the Cougars' junior varsity team from 1978-80. After one year teaching on the high school level in Vancouver, WA, he returned to Washington State, from where he he earned a Master's degree. While studying for his Master's, Lewis served as the university's strength coach. During the summer, Lewis coaches and assists with the planning of the Michael Jordan Flight School Basketball Camp in Santa Barbara. Lewis instrucks boys and girls of all ages and has the opportunity to interact with current and former NBA players as well as NBA coaches. He also has coached at the LeBron James Kings Academy basketball camp in Akron, OH and La Jolla. Lewis previously worked the Cougar Cage Camp at Washington State, which at the time was the larges co-educational basketball camp in the nation. ----- Volunteer Assistant Coach: Uros Vukovich / Basketball Operations Assistant: Charlie Landers Copyright © 2012-13 Palomar Community College. All rights reserved. Questions about this web site? contact Tom Saxe |
John
O'Neill, who was Palomar's No. 1 assistant coach
for three seasons, took over as head coach at the beginning of
the 2002-2003 season and guided the Comets to their third
Pacific Coast Athletic Conference championship in four
years. In 2005-06, he coached Palomar to its fourth conference
title in six seasons.
John
Dima
Artamatov, the Comets' other Associate Head Coach, is in his first season
on the Palomar staff, after spending the last three seasons as
Associate; Head Coach under Doug Weber at Grossmont College.
Michael Lewis returned to Palomar
last season to begin his second stint on the Comets' coaching staff.