Donzell Hayes Hired to Coach Palisades High Boys Basketball

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Asked what his expectations are for next season, new Palisades High boys basketball coach Donzell Hayes didn’t mince words.

“To be No. 1 in league and in the City,” he said. “That should always be the goal. You may not always reach it, but you should always set the bar high.”

When he received a call Monday morning that he’d been hired to head the Dolphins’ program it was merely a confirmation of what Hayes felt all along.

“When last season ended I let administration know I planned to keep working with the boys until they tell me otherwise, so I kind of expected them to keep me on,” Hayes said. “I told them I thought continuity was the best thing for the program.”

Hayes is ecstatic to become just the fourth head coach at his alma mater and got a taste of what it’s like last season when he served as interim head coach after Vejas Anaya stepped away for health reasons in November.

A 1996 Pali High graduate, Hayes started playing basketball at Paul Revere Middle School and went on to play under former Dolphins coach James Paleno. He recalls going 24-3 his senior season when Palisades lost to Crenshaw in double overtime in the City semifinals.

“The camaraderie we had on that team was special, it was like a brotherhood — and that’s the way I want my players to feel.”

Hayes was Anaya’s assistant for two years, with the team posting a 33-26 overall record, and led the varsity to a 12-17 mark last winter—the Dolphins’ first losing season since a 13-14 finish in 2005-06.     

“I just want to enjoy the process and the first order of business will be forming a coaching staff,” Hayes said. “We have 48 players in the program and I want to put them in the best positions to be successful. I also want them to be active in the community — that goes right along with winning.”

Hayes is hopeful one of his assistants will be Kris Johnson, who was the Dolphins’ associate coach last season. His son Will, a 6-foot-1 guard, graduated in June after leading the Dolphins in scoring and winning the Post Cup Award as the school’s outstanding senior athlete.

“I’m not 100 percent sure, but I’m leaning towards returning,” said Johnson, who assists Hayes and NBA skills trainer Olin Simplis in running the OutWork Basketball Academy on Saturday afternoons at the Pali High gym.

“Donzell is now officially the head coach and he will pick his own staff,” said Russ Howard, Pali High’s Assistant Principal in Charge of Athletics. “We had three great candidates, including Donzell.”

Another candidate was former Pali High player Edward Estavan, who had served on Paleno’s coaching staff.

Following stints at Cal State Los Angeles and Saddleback College, Hayes went to Southwestern Oklahoma State, where he set six school records for assists and steals. His 11 years of coaching experience include being an assistant coach at Ventura College and three seasons at Saint Joseph the Worker Junior High in the San Fernando Valley.

“Coaching is what I’m built for,” Hayes said. “I ran the spring league at Crenshaw High and  we’ve been offered to join five fall leagues. We have conditioning every Monday and Wednesday and we’ll have tryouts roughly around the third week of school.”

Palisades finished fifth out of seven teams in the Western League last season, but Hayes is confident the Dolphins can compete for the title—even against the likes of perennial powers Westchester and Fairfax—because they have seven seniors returning.   

“We were 45 seconds away from the [Division I] semifinals last season, so I know we can do it,” he said. “We have a lot of guys who have been playing together for a long time. Hamilton went to the finals last year and it’s because they had 10 seniors who developed a strong chemistry. We have the potential to do that. Every year is a learning experience, but I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing since I got here.”