Serra High School Names New Head Lacrosse Coach

Serra High School has named Ryan Bolanos as its new head lacrosse coach.

Bolanos has spent years as a lacrosse player and coach, most recently as the head coach at Burlingame High School, where in two seasons he doubled the amount of players on his roster.

Bolanos grew up in Southern California, where he played lacrosse in high school all four years. He attended college in San Jose City College, where he graduated with AA degrees in business administration and social and behavioral sciences in 2017. He also coached the Vikings, a club team, before heading to Burlingame, where he coached for two seasons.

His love of coaching spawned when he said he realized that there was no opportunity to continue to play.

"Coaching was a great outlet and it nurtured my love of competition," he said.

Now with eight years of high school coaching experience, Bolanos said he has developed a love of building a program and working with student-athletes to develop and thrive.

"My coaching philosophy follows an acronym called PRIDE - P is for perseverance, R is for respect, I is for intent to improve, D is for discipline and E is for effort. These are sort of the bylaws for players to be successful on my team," Bolanos said. "I have a philosophy to never give up, even when things get tough."

He said he is very excited about coaching at Serra, not only because of its play in the WCAL but also because of the values students at the school hold.

"I love a challenge and I love competition - there is no higher level than the league that Serra is in and I am so excited to coach at this level. I have also heard such wonderful things about the players on the team, so I am excited to work with each of them."

Serra Athletic Director Justin Ferdinand said his team is thrilled to welcome Bolanos to the Padre community.

"Ryan's passion and commitment to developing athletes aligns with the mission of Serra High School and our athletics department. We look forward to his great work with our talented student-athletes," Ferdinand said.

When Bolanos is not coaching lacrosse, he works with middle school students at Monroe Middle School in the Campbell Union School District, where he focuses his attention on Positive Behavioral Interventions Support.

"My job is to help redirect kids to make positive choices, get good grades, avoid discipline and take care of themselves emotionally and physically," he said.

He said that his work in positive behavior and support transcends onto the lacrosse field, as he said, "it's the same end goal - to help these students or athletes find success and help them grow to their full potential."

When Bolanos is not coaching or working, he enjoys watching and playing sports in his free time. He also loves to travel, and spent time in Greece, Barcelona and Amsterdam this summer.