Bio

After helping guide Palomar to two Pacific Coast Conference champions in three seasons as associate head coach under Virgil Watson (1999-2000 and 2001-2002), John O’Neill has produced four more championship teams since being elevated to head coach at the beginning of the 2002-2003 campaign.

O’Neill’s first Palomar team won the college’s third conference title in four years, and since then Palomar has tacked on titles in 2005-2006 (Pacific Coast Conference) and 2012-2013 Pacific Coast Athletic Conference and the PCAC North Division (2014-2015).

His best team was the 2012-2013 squad that advanced to the California Community College Athletic Association Sweet 16, before being stopped two games short of a trip to the State Final Four when the Comets dropped a heartbreaker to eventual state champion Chaffey on the Panthers’ floor.

O’Neill arrived at Palomar as the No. 1 assistant to Watson, who is now head coach at Los Angeles Valley College.

He compiled a 343-208 record in 20 seasons on the high school level. Arriving from the CIF Southern Section, he landed at Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista in 1987-1988 as the new school’s first head coach.

O’Neill’s starting point guard on Rancho Buena Vista’s first teams was future Major League baseball player and current Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

O’Neill compiled a 218-129 record at RBV and advanced to the CIF-San Diego Section quarterfinals or better every season, played in the CIF championship game four times and advanced to the semifinals three other times.  

O’Neill received his B.S. degree from Pepperdine University, and began his head coaching career at South Torrance High School for one season, followed by six seasons at Bonita High School.

He coached Rancho Buena Vista to San Diego Section Division I championships in both 1994-95 and 1996-97. O’Neill’s most successful win-loss record was compiled by his 1997-98 squad which went 27-3 but lost in the section semifinals.

He finished his tenure at RBV with five straight 20-win seasons and five consecutive Palomar League titles.

O’Neill and his wife Erin live in Vista and have two grown children, daughter Cahill and son Casey, who played basketball at Rancho Buena Vista, graduated from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and is an English teacher in South Korea.