John Vlahos
John Vlahos began his tenure as Athletics Director at West Valley College in January 2014. Vlahos has been able to build on the rich tradition of Viking athletics, focusing on academic excellence, athletic competitiveness, community engagement, and capital improvements.
Under Vlahos, two Viking student athletes, Adam Fenyvesi and Janelle McAfee, gave the Valedictorian address at their respective commencement ceremonies. McAfee was named the CCCAA Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2018. Several student athletes have been recognized as Academic All Americans at the state and national level. The tennis team, under Vlahos hire Lauren Hickey, has been named an Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team three straight years, from 2020-2022. 14 Vikings earned 4.0 GPAs in 2023.
Athletically, the Vikings have won 27 Coast Conference championships since 2014, including six in 2021-22 and five in 2022-23. The men’s water polo team has won four NorCal championships and was the state runner-up in 2017, 2021 and 2022. The women’s water polo team won its first Coast championship in school history in 2018 and has repeated as undefeated Coast champions every year since. In 2019, women's water polo won the first of three consecutive NorCal championships. In 2021, women's water polo became the second NorCal team ever to win the CCCAA state championship. Coach Erika Vargas, also a Vlahos hire, became the first woman to ever win a water polo state championship. The 2021-22 Coast championship teams, in addition to women's water polo, were men's water polo, men's and women's swimming, and volleyball and basketball, which both finished as state runners-up.
In 2022-23, men's basketball returned to the CCCAA state championship tournament, as did men's water polo, which finished as state runner-up, and women's water polo, which finished third. The 2023 softball team finished second in the ultra-competitive Coast and spent multiple weeks ranked in the CCCFCA state top five. Viking volleyball and women's swimming won their second consecutive Coast title in 2022-23, while tennis captured the Coast with a perfect 12-0 mark. Men's swimmer Alec Mortensen, in 2023, added to West Valley's rich swimming heritage under Vlahos with state championships in the 200 Free and 200 IM.
Beach volleyball won its first Coast championship in 2018 led by the pairs team of Mapu Sekona and Kaylin Henderson, who won the NorCal title and finished second at the state tournament. 2022 beach pair Katie Kishton and Flor Porras were Coast and NorCal champions and, like Henderson and Sekona, finished second in the CCCAA State Championship tournament. The beach team, in 2023, sent a program-record three teams to the CCCAA State Pairs Championship, held at West Valley for the third time since 2017. Porras, teaming with Kiana Manson this time, finished fifth.
In 2020, the basketball team won its first conference championship in over a decade under first-year coach Danny Yoshikawa (in his second stint leading Viking basketball) and then followed that up with an undefeated 2022 Coast title and state runner-up finish. Sayeh Faridnia was a three-time state champion in swimming from 2017-18, and Dominique Yoder won a state title in the 100-yard breaststroke at the 2017 state championships. Marie Lucquet added to the WVC swimming legacy with a 2022 state championship in the 400IM.
Under Vlahos’s leadership, West Valley College has hired six full-time coaches, a full-time embedded Athletics Counselor, two full-time Athletics Trainers, and a Sports Information Director. The Vikings established the beach volleyball program and reinstated women’s tennis after a 30-year hiatus. West Valley College launched a new Presto Sports website in 2017, entered into an apparel partnership with adidas, and has hosted high-profile events such as the 2018 CCCAA Men’s and Women’s Water Polo State Championships and the 2017, 2018 and 2023 CCCAA Beach Volleyball State Championship. Additionally, West Valley athletic facilities have served as a practice site for numerous national teams, as well as the NCAA College Cup. Viking Field hosted the 2022 and 2023 CCS Softball Championships and, most recently, served as the practice site for the University of Florida Gators as they prepared for the NCAA softball regional at Stanford.
Vlahos has overseen numerous capital improvements since 2014. One of the country's most spectacular softball facilities, Viking Field, had its grand opening in spring 2022. A total renovation of the beach volleyball facility now makes it one of the best in the country. The tennis courts have been completely resurfaced. New Nevco scoreboards have been installed at baseball, soccer, beach volleyball and the gymnasium. The gymnasium floor and interior has been redone and updated. The complete renovation of West Valley's baseball field, Valhalla, began at the end of the 2021-2022 season and is slated to reopen for the spring 2024 season. Planning will soon begin for a new Wellness Complex funded by the recent passage of bond Measure W.
Vlahos came to West Valley College in 1997 as an assistant football coach and, from 2002-2008, he served as the head football coach. His 2003 team won the Golden Gate Conference championship. In 2007, one of his football players, Ziad Al-Helew, was the CCCAA Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Vlahos and his son, Matthew, reside in Los Gatos.