In 1983, Joe Peron was a point guard on the last state men's basketball finalist at Pasadena City College. The team lost the state championship game to Cerritos College in triple overtime. Peron has been winning ever since.

Forty years later, Peron cemented his legacy as a Lancer. In guiding the women's basketball team past East Los Angeles, 76-58, on Friday night, he became the PCC's all-time coaching wins leader in any sport, men or women, notching victory #563 in his extraordinary head coaching career. He also won at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium in front of some of his former assistant coaches and alumni as all participated in an impromptu ceremony celebrating his achievement at center court shortly after the final buzzer. 

Peron is in his 26th season in directing women's basketball, and 32nd year as part of the college's athletics program (30 as a coach, two as a student-athlete). He first served as a men's assistant coach to PCC Hall of Fame head coach George Terzian from 1994-1996 before taking over the women's program as head coach in 1996-1997. 

He passed Hall of Fame softball coach Sandi Iverson (562 wins, 1979-2006) on the all-time wins list on Wednesday. 

"There have been some really good coaches at PCC, from Skip Robinson being the first African-American to win a state championship here to Jerry Tarkanian, to Lori Jepsen, to Sandi Iverson, to George Terzian," said a thankful Peron. "I learned something from all of them about what it takes to run a winning program. It's great to be part of the rich history and tradition of coaches at PCC."

Jepsen (women's volleyball), Iverson, and Terzian all are the college's coaching wins leaders in their respective sports. Robinson, who coached two state titles in men's track and field in 1978 and 1984, was athletic director in Peron's first 11 years on the job and was in attendance at Friday's win. Peron followed Robinson's footsteps in becoming not only the first African-American coach to win a state title in women's sports here, but the first championship of any PCC women's sport when the Lancers won in 2009. 

As for the game itself, the Lancers improved their chances of being seeded in the Southern California Regional Playoffs by winning their regular season finale. PCC upped its record to 15-13 overall and finished in a tie for second place in the South Coast Conference North Division at 4-4. 

On Sophomore Night, the team honored 2-year lettermen in Maiya Villanueva, Naomi Turner, Emily Trinh, Tatiana Ayala, transfer Tena Ikidi, and team manager Destiny Pierre, who works on the basketball table during home contests, in a pre-game ceremony.

Villanueva, a point guard, was inspired to score her season-high of 25 points, making five 3-pointers, while adding seven assists. She now has 616 points in her career to make her one of 30 players to pass the 600-point plateau.

Ikidi, the team's starting center-forward, added 12 points, 14 rebounds, and matched her season high in blocks with seven. Ikidi is the state leader in total rebounds with 437 and is just nine boards short of breaking the PCC single-season record for rebounds of 445 set by Biljana Bosanac in 1992-93. Ironically, Bosanac, a conference MVP, is part of the 2023 PCC Hall of Fame Induction class. 

Turner, a forward, chipped in 12 points, 10 rebounds and five assists while Trinh, also a forward, tallied nine points. Freshman guard Bryannae Robinson totaled 12 points and eight rebounds, and frosh guard Haylie Sagarra had a sound, all-around game by collecting four points, seven asssists, six rebounds and a team-high five steals.

Ayala, a center who started the finale, had two points and seven boards. Another center, freshman Italee Montana grabbed two rebounds and blocked a shot.

ELAC was paced by Gabrielle Quintana, who scored 31 points (12 of 13 from the free throw line) and had 11 rebounds.

PCC led by as much as 27 points at one point in third quarter and controlled things throughout in winning its fourth in the last five contests. 

Check our official Twitter site @PCCAthletics for an announcement on seedings for the SoCal Regionals by Monday.

COACH JOE PERON FILE

2009 CCCAA State Crown
3 State Championship Final Appearances, 2004, 2005, 2009
7 Consecutive Appearances in the State Championship Tournament, 2004-2010
6 South Coast Conference Titles, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007
12 SCC Most Valuable Players
23 Appearances in the SoCal Regional Playoffs
3 seasons of 30-plus victories, 1998-99, 2006-07, 2008-09
8 seasons of 25 or more wins
14 seasons of 20 or more wins

Joe Peron talks to the 2007-2008 Lancers during one of his state championship tourney appearances