Now in her third season on the coaching staff is Gay Castaneda, who has 15 years of high school coaching history. From 2001-05, Castaneda coached the girl’s volleyball teams at Santa Fe High, as well as the boy’s team from 2002-06. With the girl’s team, she led them to the CIF Playoffs from 2002-05 and reached the quarterfinals twice. In 2003, they captured the Del Rio League championship. On the boy’s side, they won the league title in 2004 and reached the CIF quarterfinals. The qualified for the post-season from 2003-06.

Her coaching assignments have also included stints at Saddleback High (2000) as the varsity boy’s volleyball assistant coach, Gahr High (1999) as the junior varsity girl’s head coach, and at Whitney High, where she started her career and coached three sports. From 1993-99, Castaneda served as the girl’s basketball head coach and led them to the CIF Playoffs in five of those seasons. She served as the softball coach from 1992-98 and guided them to the CIF Playoffs each season, while advancing to the CIF quarterfinals three times and won the Delphic League title in 1992. From 1991-98 she was the girl’s head volleyball coach and guided them to the CIF Playoffs in seven of those years, while they reached the state playoffs in 1995. They advanced to the CIF semi-finals in 1998. She spent 1999 as the boy’s volleyball head coach.

Castaneda was a three-sport athlete at Whitney High, earning all-league honors in volleyball for three seasons and also played basketball and softball. She then played one year of volleyball at Cypress College before moving on to Cal State Fullerton, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology, as well as a teaching credential. She then moved on to Cal Poly Pomona, where she earned an administrative credential.

Castaneda is also a math teacher at Santa Fe High and is graduated in December, 2009 with her Master’s degree in Physical Education. She is single and lives in Long Beach.