Son of longtime California high school boys basketball coach hired at Lakeland

By MARK NELKE 

Sports editor 

The De Fabiis name is legendary at Colony High in Ontario, Calif. 

But Caleb De Fabiis wanted something else. 

The family bought a home in Twin Lakes Village a few years ago, and has spent summers in North Idaho since. 

So when the head basketball coaching job at Lakeland High opened up last month, De Fabiis jumped at the opportunity. 

He interviewed for the position on Aug. 9, was offered the Hawks job a couple hours later, and immediately accepted — pending approval by the Lakeland School Board. 

“It’s always been on my list to get out of California,” said De Fabiis, 27. “When I raise a family someday, I want to raise them in somewhere other than California. This opportunity popped up, and it was too good to pass up.”

De Fabiis replaces Tony Hanna, who resigned in July after three seasons to move to Florida with his wife, Post Falls volleyball coach Willow Hanna, and family. 

Four interviewed for his position. 

“I’m super excited about having Caleb be a part of our basketball program,” Lakeland athletic director Matt Neff said. “He grew up in a gym — it’s just in his DNA. Good player in high school, played at the college level, coached in a basketball-rich environment down there in California. 

“He knows what really good basketball looks like, and I think he’s going to do a good job of getting kids up here excited about playing it at a higher level.” 

Caleb’s father, Jerry De Fabiis, started the basketball program at Colony in 2002, and totaled 530 victories and three CIF Southern Section championships in his 23 years total as a head coach. 

Caleb played for his dad at Colony, then played at Azusa Pacific. After college, he returned to Colony for one season as the boys varsity individual development coach, then four years as Jerry’s varsity assistant. 

Jerry De Fabiis coached three seasons at Ontario High, then coached for 20 years at Colony. 

When Jerry resigned in 2023 to become CIF Southern Section assistant commissioner, Caleb took over as head coach at Colony (a school of roughly 2,100 students in grades 9-12), guiding a largely freshman- and sophomore-laden team to a 9-17 record. 

"He taught me everything I know,” Caleb said.  

As for what Caleb De Fabiis learned from his father ... 

“Not only developing kids on the court, but getting them ready to go into the real world. Trying to implement life lessons in everything we do on the court ... there’s so much more than just basketball,” Caleb said. “I still use a lot of the same tactics that he used. I like to let my players play a little bit more, but at the same time my dad let his players play, too ... We share a lot of the same ideas when it comes to the game.” 

Lakeland finished 9-12 last season, after going to state in 2023. The Hawks have qualified for state four times in the last 10 seasons, after not going to state since 2004. 

"Our philosophy as a family, we really hung our hat on the defensive end,” Caleb De Fabiis said. “We feel like the best offense is no offense. We like to press, we like to dictate tempo, we like to pressure the ball. If we can turn teams over, and create fast-break points, that’s better than any offense that we can call, but that’s not going to happen every time. So being able to play at different speeds, and slow the game down and being able to execute in the half court is definitely a big part of that, but we definitely want to speed the game up and turn teams over to create extra possessions as much as we can.” 

Caleb De Fabiis said it was tough to leave Colony — he said his dad and mom cut the ribbon when they broke ground on the school. 

De Fabiis is finishing up his duties at Colony, which run through the end of the month, then will move to Idaho, where he’ll be a para-professional at Lakeland, working with special education children. 

“I think it going to be a good change,” Caleb said. “It’s tough. My dad opened the school, basically. He was the only coach until I took over. I bleed Colony; it’s in my blood, and it was a tough decision for sure. Leaving this place, it wasn’t an easy decision, but how Matt and Jimmy spoke about their campus, the culture that they’ve been building there. The family aspect ... It’s something I’m really looking forward to being a part of. I can’t wait.” 

Caleb’s older brother, Luke, lives in Idaho, working on completing his teaching credential. Caleb said Luke, who was a student manager at UC Santa Barbara, will be one of his assistant coaches at Lakeland. 

(Small-world note: while summering up here, Luke has played golf with Tony Hanna, and Caleb has played with Tony’s son, Brady.) 

“We had some great applicants, but I would tell you, there was no doubt who the next head basketball coach at Lakeland High School was going to be, once the process was over,” Neff said. “He’s a basketball coach through and through, and the passion he’s going to bring is going to be contagious.”