Casa lacrosse coach takes over at SSU

After leading Petaluma lacrosse to CIF status and Casa Grande High School to prominence in Bay Area competition, Ben Hewitt is moving up to coach the Sonoma State University men’s program.

Hewitt replaces Panchito Ojeda, who is stepping down after nine years at SSU to devote full time to growing his private lacrosse development program, 101Lacrosse.

Hewitt has coached Casa Grande High School lacrosse since 2008, taking the Gauchos from a club program to this year’s team that won the Vine Valley Athletic League championship and 23 straight games, not losing until the final seconds of the North Coast Section semifinals when they were beaten by Redwood, 11-10.

Before coming to Casa Grande, Hewitt was assistant coach at McNeil High School in Texas and later head coach at McCallum High in Texas and at San Rafael High after moving to California. He has also coached area club teams and conducted numerous lacrosse camps for young players.

He will be joined at Sonoma State by his assistant coach at Casa Grande, Kyle Smith, who will be defensive coordinator for the Seawolves.

Hewitt was a leader in the effort to get lacrosse recognized as an official California Interscholastic Federation sport.

He said the opening at SSU came at the right time for him at this stage in his career.

“The timing just seemed right,” he said. “I’ve been coaching high school 18 years, and I’ve always wanted the challenge of coaching at the next level.”

And it will be a challenge as Sonoma State takes on the likes of Cal, Stanford, Minnesota and Southern Methodist.

Hewitt will be charged with continuing to grow a strong program built by Ojeda. Last season, the Seawolves defeated Stanford in overtime to reach the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League final four.

“It is definitely a program with a proven tradition,” the new coach observed.

At Casa Grande, Hewitt and Kevin Louchis at Petaluma, aided by a strong lacrosse youth program, made Sonoma’s South County the dominant area for North Bay high school lacrosse, with Petaluma winning in its final year in the North Bay League and Casa’s unbeaten Gauchos taking the first Vine Valley Athletic League championship.

Hewitt said the goal since Casa Grande has become a CIF-recognized sport is to win a North Coast Section championship. The Gauchos came close this season, reaching the semifinals before losing the heartbreaking game to Redwood.

Hewitt said the Gaucho season showed to other teams in the section that Casa Grande could compete against the best.

He also said that the sport continues to grow in the area, noting that both Napa and Vintage will field teams next season, making for a complete Vine Valley Athletic League field.

He also pointed out that both Petaluma and Casa Grande are sending players to D1 schools on scholarship, further enhancing the reputation of North Coast Section lacrosse.

Now, Hewitt has a different mission.

“The goal is to build Sonoma State into a championship level program,” he said. “We want to put ourselves into national a championship-level of competition.”