The surname Saia has been linked with Marin Catholic basketball for nearly a quarter-century now. For the first time in a very long time this winter, it seems, neither Mike Saia nor his daughters will be coaching basketball at the Kentfield private school.

Mike Saia, the Wildcats boys varsity basketball coach for the past 15 years, let the Marin Catholic administration know in January that he planned to retire after the 2024-25 season, but he didn’t want to make the announcement public until after the playoffs. Saia said he wanted the focus to remain on the Marin Catholic girls quest for the CIF Division III State championship.

“I’m proud of coaching at Marin Catholic and what the kids did there,” said Saia, who racked up a 269-180 record during his career at the helm of the Wildcats boys basketball program. The Wildcats went 16-16 overall this past season and reached the North Coast Section D-II semifinals. “It was never about the number of wins. It was about respect for the game and passing that on.”

Saia continued, “I enjoyed seeing my players develop. They’d come in as skinny freshmen and develop into successful starting players as seniors, or maybe even go on to the college level. Watching Joey (Calcaterra) in the NCAAs at Houston to win the national championship for UConn, and then the success he’s having now. But it’s also about the guys who made great strides but didn’t get their names in the paper.”

Saia, 64, admits the “basketball gene” will likely never go away and the Marin Catholic community can expect to still see him hanging around the gym, as a referee, as a fan, or to help with the annual Bambauer Tournament … unless he’s on a ski vacation.

“I’d like to see the snow,” Saia said of his plans for retirement. “When I was playing in high school, we never left for ski week, so I might want to see some snow.”

“I’ve been fortunate to have some great people to work for and some great people to work with,” Saia said. “I felt their support for all 15 years I was there. I was fortunate Adam Callan was hired as athletics director when I was hired. We’ve been joined at the hip for 15 years.”

Saia laid the foundation for his family’s basketball legacy hustling around the courts in Marin County and starring as a player with Sir Francis Drake High (now Archie Williams High) before becoming a referee.

His eldest daughter Ashley was a freshman at Marin Catholic in 2002, and his daughter Melanie joined the Wildcat family two years later. After watching them play for another legendary coach, Rick DeMartini, Mike Saia applied for the vacant boys basketball coaching position with the Wildcats in 2010, waiting until after his daughters graduated high school. Melanie graduated in 2008, while Ashley graduated in 2006, and later returned to coach the Marin Catholic girls varsity basketball program before retiring at the end of the 2023-34 season.

“Part of being there at MC as a parent, I knew the culture,” Saia said. “I had the experience of Rick DeMartini and how he handled the girls program. When I interviewed for the job as boys coach, I thought I could emulate what he did, having that experience.”

DeMartini coached the Marin Catholic girls to the state title in 2002 and was an assistant on Kayden Korst’s staff as the Wildcats won their second state title this season. DeMartini has always had a knack for spotting talent — in athletes and coaches, it seems.

“When Mike took over, he was going to see the job was done a certain way,” DeMartini said. “He taught the game right. He respected the way the game was supposed to be played. As a referee he always respected the way the game was supposed to be played. As a coach, he demanded his kids should be serious about what’s going on. He asked a lot of his players, but he never asked something they couldn’t do.”

Head coach Mike Saia’s first team in 2010 sported some pretty impressive talent — although not all of them would pursue basketball in college — Mike Padovese, Jordan Roggenbuck, Dominic Stazulo, Scott Lippstreu, J-von Lewis, Ryan Farney, David Ahern, Connor Renk, Pat Conroy, and Jared Goff.

The Wildcats went 20-12 overall, 11-5 in league, and reached the CIF NorCal D-IV Regionals that first year.

On the bench to help Saia in his inaugural season were assistant coaches Jeff Sickler and Dave Craig. Sickler went on to a successful career with Vintage High, and was an assistant coach in the 2011-12 men’s basketball season with Dominican University. Craig and Saia are retiring together

“Jeff Sickler told me I was always going to remember my first team,” Saia said. “After some reflection, that’s one place I did go is reflecting on that first team, how fun and how new it was, and how much I learned.”

Saia recalls, “That first year, the game and the decision making went real fast. As an official as you climb in levels, you have to figure how to slow game down. The only way to do that is with experience. The more you slow the game down, you make better decisions, make the right adjustments. That first year, the game was moving really fast. But I learned to slow it down and I became a better coach every year.”

Saia’s teams finished above .500 overall every year, except three, and made the North Coast Section playoffs every year but one, in addition to the 2020-21 season when the postseason was canceled due to COVID. The Wildcats with Saia reached the NorCal D-IV semifinals three times (2012-13, 2014-15, 2022-23).

“For over 40 years since my wife has known me, I’ve been either playing college basketball, officiating (CYO) basketball, or coaching high school basketball,” Saia said. “When we had that break during the COVID pandemic, I thought I’d probably retire from coaching before I retired from my full-time job. I just kept going along. I never had a hard number of 15 years in mind.”

When word started to leak out about his retirement plans, Saia’s phone started ringing with calls from his former players to congratulate him on the job he’s done.

“I’d never call coaching a job. It’s a passion,” Saia said. “If it’s not a 12-month a year thing, I’m probably thinking about it 12 months a year. It’s fun. I enjoyed the opposing coaches and the MCALs and the players. I feel a responsibility to all the freshman, JV and varsity players and the coaching staff. We had a great coaching staff over all those years.”