Soaring Eagle's Trost earns two Coach of the Year awards

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Juan Diego Catholic High School boys basketball coach Drew Trost is the 2018 4A Utah High School Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year.

DRAPER — Juan Diego Catholic High School boys basketball coach Drew Trost has been named 4A Utah High School Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year. He was also named Region 11 Coach of the Year by his fellow coaches.  

Trost has compiled a 101-30 record in his five years at Juan Diego. This year, his team went 22-6, earning a state finals berth for the third time in a row, as well as a fourth consecutive region championship. His teams have won 22 games each of the last two seasons.

In the 4A, the 16 coaches vote for the coach they think did a good job with their team that year, said Matt Barnes, president of the coaches association.

A team does not necessarily need to have won the state championship for the coach to receive the award, he said.

“To be chosen by your peers is pretty cool; I feel really good about it,” Trost said of the award.

Juan Diego Athletic Director Chris Long said Trost’s award is long overdue.

“Even before he came to Juan Diego, when at Bishop Noll in Indiana, and then at Juan Diego, he has been one of the most successful basketball coaches of the last 10 years,” he said. “Not only as a basketball coach but as member of administration team, Drew is a valuable member of the Juan Diego community.”

Trost grew up in the Holladay area and attended Intermountain Christian School. He then attended Calumet College of St. Joseph, where he played basketball. He later transferred and graduated from Valparaiso University, then went on to obtain a master’s degree in school administration from Indiana University.

Afterward, Trost stayed in the area and for eight years was the head coach and a math teacher at Bishop Noll Institute, a Catholic high school in Hammond, Ind. During  that time, he was named Indiana High School Coach of the Year twice. In his last four years at Bishop Noll, his teams won 85 games.

During that time Juan Diego Principal Dr. Galey Colosimo started calling Trost to come to coach at the Soaring Eagle team, Trost said. In 2013, after former coach Brandon Sluga stepped down, “the time was finally right,” and he made the move, he said.

Juan Diego is making progress toward building one of the best basketball programs in the state, Trost said. He praised the hard work of his players, the support of the administration and the efforts of his assistant coaches, particularly Ron Preece and Joe Colosimo.

In the future, Long hopes for “more of the same” from Trost’s program.

“It goes beyond winning basketball games or sporting events,” Long said. “Drew’s program, and all the other successful programs at Juan Diego, provides something more. When these kids come back to the school for a 10-year reunion or beyond, I want them to look back on their time in those programs and be able to say, ‘I’m glad I did that. It was a good thing for me as a high school student.’”

Along with the Coach of the Year honor, Trost was chosen to coach the 4A state all-star team, which included two Juan Diego players, Matt Kitzman and Jason Ricketts. During halftime of the March 23 game against the 3A all-stars held at Olympus High, Trost was presented with the Coach of the Year plaque.

Trost’s two daughters attend St. John the Baptist Elementary School, and he said it’s great to be a part of the Juan Diego family and to have his children on the Skaggs Catholic Center campus.