There was never a doubt that Scott Wiard was going to be a basketball coach.

As soon as he graduated from Bishop Amat High School in 2009 he was on the sidelines helping, assisting and studying his dad and Amat head coach Richard Wiard, who was in the middle of a girls basketball dynasty that might never be matched in the San Gabriel Valley, unless of course it is Scott Wiard himself, who matches or surpasses him someday.

But that would be asking a lot.

Richard Wiard won five CIF Southern Section divisional titles, two state championships and finished with 520 career victories during an 18-year-career at Bishop Amat that ended after the 2014 season. Richard Wiard was the SGV’s John Wooden of girls basketball, winning the Tribune coach of the year award six times.

However, what Scott Wiard has done at just 32 years of age — and six years as a head coach — is mighty impressive, too.

When La Salle (28-3) takes on Hart (28-3) in the CIF-SS Division 2AA championship game Saturday at Mira Costa High School at 4 p.m., the Lancers will be aiming for their second straight sectional championship. The Lancers won the Division 3AA title last year, plus the CIF Division III Southern California Regional championship and reached the state finals, where they lost to Oakland Tech.

If La Salle wins Saturday, it would be quite an accomplishment.

Since the CIF-SS went to competitive equity divisions in 2017, which places teams in divisions based on the previous two season’s results, winning consecutive titles outside of the Open Division has almost become a thing of the past.

Why? Because when you win, you move up a division or several divisions, making it difficult to sustain championship success.

Only Rolling Hills Prep and Beverly Hills accomplished the feat at the beginning of the competitive equity era, winning in 2017 and ‘18. Since then, no team outside of the Open Division has won two straight section titles.

This is what makes La Salle and Scott Wiard’s season so impressive. The Lancers were also moved to the ultra-competitive Del Rey League, where they split two league games with Bishop Montgomery, a team in this year’s Open Division of the playoffs, and St. Paul, who competed in Division 1.

Scott Wiard knows what a big opportunity this is because La Salle is headed on a path that will catapult it to Division 1 next season, where it will likely be on the Open Division watch list as well.

Scott Wiard never imagined his teams would climb the ladder so quickly after he took over La Salle before the 2019-20 season. In his first year he turned a seven-win team the year prior into a 26-game winner that reached the Division 4AA semifinals.

“With this playoff system, you can climb real fast,” Scott Wiard said. “But I’m not going to look ahead and think about (where this will send our program). I’m focused on Saturday and trying to get a championship. That’s a concern for another day.”

Father amazed and proud

This is already Scott Wiard’s third championship appearance. He spent his first two years as a coach at Duarte, where in his first season he led the Falcons to the Division 4AA championship game against St. Paul, losing a heartbreaker 45-44. Richard Wiard has been Scott’s assistant at Duarte and La Salle, and he now marvels at what his son is doing.

“I hope he realizes how unbelievable this is,” Richard Wiard said of his son’s success. “You can coach another 25 years and never win a championship again. There are coaches who have been at it 10, 20 years or longer who never won a championship, so you can’t take it for granted.

“But at the same time, I’m so proud of him as a parent, it’s fun to watch. You can’t do this without having an unbelievable work ethic, and he has that.”

Scott was a teenager when he started working with his father at Bishop Amat. He watched and learned what made his father great and separated him from the rest.

Richard Wiard was fanatical about preparation and studying his opponents. Richard would start studying every team in their division during the middle of the season. He would go to games, sit high in the stands and take video of possible opponents he might meet in the playoffs. When his Amat teams eventually met up with those teams, Richard always felt his teams had the advantage of being more prepared.

And they were.

“What I learned from my dad, building a program was much more than the X’s and O’s, though that is very important also,” Scott Wiard said. “We watch a lot of film together. We believe in being prepared. I don’t know any other way to do it.

“Our philosophies are similar in that way. And he’s very good about providing suggestions, but when I don’t listen, he doesn’t complain, which makes him an excellent assistant coach.”

Yes, Richard see’s a lot of things in Scott that made him so successful, but he also makes clear that Scott is his own man who is far ahead of where he was in terms of seeing the entire picture.

“I would like to think when I coached we didn’t take any shortcuts, and Scott is that way too,” Richard Wiard said. “He’s very demanding of himself and his players and it takes a lot of team sacrifice to have seasons like this.

“But he also knows these are high-school kids and that you have to make sure you’re having fun and building a bond. They were playing ultimate Frisbee at practice this week. High school is more than just basketball and books, it’s about making friends and seeing the big picture. He’s gets that and is more mature at his age than I was in that regard.”

Scott Wiard says the natural comparisons to his dad were never a burden or a pressure and that their time together is priceless.

“It’s not pressure, my mom and dad have been incredibly supportive, and that makes it a fun ride,” Scott said. “I enjoy every day I get to coach with him. I mean, who wouldn’t want an assistant coach with his resume.”