Robby Wierzba returns to his alma mater to take over Terra Nova boys’ basketball program

“My main emphasis this year was to kind of change the culture around the gym … and it does really feel new, and the kids express this to me,” Wierzba said. “We really focus on bench energy and things like this, and just having each other’s backs, and they’re really buying into that — just the whole family culture.”

After graduating from Terra Nova, Wierzba spent one redshirt season at Skyline College before transferring to University of the Philippines, where he played for four years. After graduating, he played two seasons in the Philippine Basketball Association D-league with the Derulo Accelero Oilers.

Since his return to the Bay Area in 2015, Wierzba has established himself as a high school and AAU club basketball coach. The 33-year-old transitions to Terra Nova from Riordan, where he served as the boys’ freshman head coach during the spring season of 2020-21. He previously ran the freshman team at Westmoor from 2016-20.

While at Westmoor, Wierzba kept a close watch on the coaching job at Terra Nova, he said. Milch was entrenched there for 10 years, coaching his three sons, Jared, Josh and Justin, in that time. Wierzba, though, was adamant about communicating with Terra Nova’s athletics administration he was serious about applying as the varsity program’s next head coach when the job eventually became available.

“’When this opens, I want this job — I want to come back home,’” Wierzba said of his insistence to the school he should be considered to succeed Milch. “’And that’s exactly what happened. When the job became open, they reached out. And it was just a perfect marriage in my opinion.”

The writing was on the wall last season would be Milch’s last at Terra Nova, as his younger son Justin — a former All-Peninsula Athletic League guard who is now a freshman at Skyline — graduated in the spring.

“I’m retired and I love it,” Milch said. “Just enjoying the extra time and now I get to go watch games.”

Prior to taking over at Terra Nova for Wierzba’s former coach, Gabe Rosenthal, in 2010-11, Milch previously coached at Lowell-San Francisco (junior-varsity assistant), Half Moon Bay and the College of Notre Dame.

“[Wierzba] knows the landscape and has roots in Pacifica, so he’ll continue what we’ve done, and what Gabe did prior to when I got there,” Milch said.

But the game is played differently now than it was when Rosenthal coached at Terra Nova, Wierzba said.

Wierzba played in just one Central Coast Section playoff game during his high school career, a 2004-05 loss in the first round of the Division III tournament his junior season. He was a prolific scorer, though, ranking among the PAL’s scoring leaders as a senior.

“The thing was basically trying to get the ball to me all the time … all the players were really focused on that one person,” Wierzba said. “And now we’re just focused on finding the next man, the open man.”

Terra Nova’s player personnel includes guards Dominic Tuiasosopo and Gio Thompson, forward Dominic Gordon and center Miguel Valdez, along with Riordan transfers Anthony Wierzba (Robby Wierzba’s nephew) and Jermaine Camasura.

Robby Wierzba has consistently coached club basketball since his return from the Philippines. This past summer, he started his own AAU team, Norcal United, based in Daly City and Pacifica. The club currently features five teams.

His landing at Terra Nova this season, though, was unexpected, he said.

“It came as a surprise,” Wierzba said. “I thought I was going to be at Riordan again and I was happy to be there … so it was a surprise, and I was very happy.”

The only other first-year boys’ basketball head coach in the PAL this season is Woodside’s Ramon Meachum. At Aragon, Hosea Patton returns this season after a one-year sabbatical.

Second-year PAL coaches who debuted in the shortened 2020-21 spring season are: South City’s Isaiah Igafo; El Camino’s Bo Egipto; Oceana’s Dan Johnston; Capuchino’s Mike Brown; Mills’ Andrew Evangelista; and Hillsdale’s Arjuna Manning-Laisne.