COALINGA – Coalinga College Associate Dean of Athletics Joe Hash has announced the addition of women's basketball as an intercollegiate sport. The Falcons women's basketball team is set to take flight for the upcoming 2026-27 season. Also announced was the selection of Isaac Castro as the team's inaugural head coach to launch the program.
Women's basketball will be the seventh sport offered at the college, joining baseball, men's basketball, football, rodeo, softball, and women's volleyball.
According to Hash, the college has been working on adding women's sports to the athletic program for a few years now.
"Women's basketball rose to the top of the list for a number of reasons," Hash said. "The college has a men's basketball program and a gymnasium suitable for both programs as well as existing infrastructure to support both. Coalinga was the only Central Valley Conference member with men's basketball that did not have a women's team. Now, the teams will be able to play conference doubleheaders and travel to conference games together, reducing travel costs.
"The popularity of women's basketball continues to grow throughout the region and the nation," he added. "There are successful high school programs in our local recruiting area and throughout the Central Valley."
Hash stated the goals of the women's basketball program are to "initiate and maintain a program to meet the needs of the local community, the college, the college district, and the conference."
He hopes to produce a successful, competitive, and high-quality program that also meets the mission of the college. Hash envisions recruiting prospective student-athletes to the program at a level that will sustain it in the future as well as to better serve women at the college and in the local area with more athletic opportunities.
"We look forward to the women's basketball program being the beginning of a number of women's sports programs added to the college's sport offerings in the future," Hash said.
Castro, the Falcons' new head coach, shares a similar vision for the program and is excited for this new opportunity.
"What an opportunity to be chosen to share my creativity and vision for developing student-athletes!" said Castro. "I'm filled with joy to be a part of such a unique and rare opportunity that I feel prepared and excited for."
Castro comes to Coalinga after coaching at a pair of Central Valley Conference colleges.
For the past two seasons (2024-25, 2025-26), he was head coach of the women's basketball team at Porterville College. Prior to PC, Castro played a key part of a very successful College of the Sequoias coaching staff.
Castro joined the staff at Sequoias in April of 2017 and over the next six seasons, he helped lead the Giants to three Central Valley Conference championships, playoff appearances in all five full seasons, as well as three trips to the state championships.
Over those six seasons, COS compiled an impressive 127-33 overall record, including 8-0 during a limited COVID season in 2020-21. The Giants dominated Central Valley Conference play with a 51-9 mark, finishing no lower than second place.
Before heading to Sequoias, Castro was the varsity girl's basketball head coach at El Diamante High School in Visalia from 2007-2017.
Hash was thrilled to add Castro to the Falcon Family and looks forward to the future of the program under his guidance.
"Isaac's roots and his basketball network are firmly in the Central Valley," said Hash. "He helped build the foundation of a successful program at College of the Sequoias as an assistant and was beginning to do the same as the head coach at Porterville College."
Castro is ready to get started and begin the process of launching the program.
"My top priority is developing relationships; within our campus, with our recruits and our community," he said. "The second priority is to start winning right now; recruiting the best people and athletes to participate in our program, establishing a culture and space for women's basketball players to call home.
"We want Coalinga College women's basketball to be a garden of opportunity where athletes graduate and play at the next level, are ready to take on challenges and win in life."
Castro, who is deep in his faith, is thankful to many that helped him get to this point in his career.
"God seems to know what he is doing in my life," he said. "I am so grateful for that. I am going to keep trusting Him and the gardens He gives me to glow up.
"My wife is such a valuable asset to me and our children, I could never thank her enough for how much she is and does. Our coaching staff is so bought in and locked into what needs to be done; I am grateful to them and their families.
"Finally, I want to thank our President Dr. Carla Tweed and my Athletic Director Joe Hash. Thank you for trusting us with the unique and rare opportunity to develop the first ever women's basketball program."
Off the court, Castro is a licensed marriage and family therapist with his own private practice. He earned his master's degree in counseling psychology from National University and his bachelor's degree in social sciences from Washington State University. He is a California community college product, having received his associate's degree from College of the Sequoias.