Harvard-Westlake's Melissa Hearlihy talks evolution of women's basketball, high school athletics on Southern Section Sitdown

Melissa Hearlihy has the second-most girls basketball victories in California after starting in 1985

Melissa Hearlihy has seen all the California greats before they become basketball icons.

Cheryl Miller, Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, and most recently, Juju Watkins, who is still working her way toward iconic status, but has been leaving no doubt she's well on her way.

"I'll never forget watching Cheryl Miller jumping up to grab the goal, pulling herself up and sitting on the rim so the media could take photos," Hearlihy said on the latest episode of the Southern Section Sitdown.

Hearlihy has been a varsity girls basketball coach since 1985. She started at Bishop Alemany in Mission Hills before taking over at Studio City Harvard-Westlake in 2000. The longtime coach has amassed more than 800 wins in her career, putting her at second all-time in California behind Mater Dei's Kevin Kiernan.

On EPISODE 8 of the Southern Section Sitdown, Hearlihy talks about the development of the women's game, the landscape of high school athletics, and how she's had to adapt to coaching in 2023.

Hearlihy touched on the 'business side' of high school athletics.

"It is business," she said. "When you talk about parents trying to get the next level paid for ... university costs up to $100,000 a year - that's a lot of money."

The college goal creates a vacuum that leads the community aspect of high school athletics behind, a piece Hearlihy misses.

"I miss the community aspect," she said. "The kids wanting to play for a school and being proud to put on a jersey for the name on the front opposed to the back. It makes it difficult as an educator, back in the day we all worked at the school, we all taught classes, we were all part of the community"

"I think that whole scenario has gone away," she added.

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