First-year high school softball coaches don't usually win league championships in San Mateo County. But it can be done. Donna Tolero at Terra Nova High proved it.

Tolero took over the reins this spring of a Terra Nova program that hadn't had a winning season since 2001. But when it was all finished, Terra Nova had won a Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division championship and qualified for the Central Coast Section playoffs for the first time in seven years.

For Terra Nova's success, Donna Tolero is our County Coach of the Year.

It wasn't that Tolero was totally new to Terra Nova softball. A former All-North Peninsula League player who graduated in 1988, she had played for Terra Nova in the days when the Tigers were constantly challenging for a title.

"I knew what it was like when Terra Nova softball was a very good program," said Tolero, a former second baseman who was known as Donna Newland in her playing days. "I wanted to bring it back to where it had been.''

Tolero did the preparation. She coached for local youth softball programs for six years and apprenticed under Mercy High coach Jim Henderson for five seasons. She coached in the local Little League baseball program with her four sons and coached on summer Amateur Softball League youth travel teams. Last spring she felt ready.

"I wanted to have a fun program in which the girls would learn a little self-discipline and learn some life lessons as well as teach the technical parts of the game,'' said Tolero, who also gives private pitching lessons.

"Besides, with so many guys in my house, I wanted to have a chance to get in some 'girls time,'" she said with a laugh.

Terra Nova softball was considered a complete program this year. For the first time in years, the Tigers played a real preseason schedule. Terra Nova competed in tournaments and compiled points toward CCS postseason play regardless of whether they had won the league title. The Tigers were well-prepared and were rewarded by being moved to the Bay Division, the upper league in the Peninsula Athletic League.

"I'd like to credit Jim Henderson for helping me learn the ins-and-outs of high school softball," Tolero said. "And I got some great help from assistant coaches Chuck Michaelson and Kimberly Kirkpatrick. They all helped to get us off to a great start at Terra Nova."