West Valley College

John Vlahos began his tenure as Associate Vice Chancellor, Intercollegiate Athletics 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.

The 2023-24 season epitomizes the department's athletic success under Vlahos. The 2023-24 Vikings captured seven Coast titles (baseball, men's basketball, men's soccer, men's water polo, women's swim, women's volleyball, women's water polo). At the state level, men's basketball posted an unprecedented 33-0 3C2A state championship campaign after earning its 3rd consecutive state championship tournament berth. WVC had two 3rd-place finishes (baseball, women's water polo) and a state runner-up (men's water polo). Men's water polo and women's water polo, won their 5th and 6th straight Coast and NorCal titles, respectively, and volleyball and women's swimming won their 3rd consecutive Coast championships. The softball team finished 2nd in the rugged Coast, while baseball returned to the state championship tournament for the first time since 2008 and thrilled capacity crowds at the new Valhalla Park with the state's best offense and improbable comeback playoff victories.

State men's basketball tournament MVP Elijah Mahi, now at Santa Clara University, was named the state's 2024 Male Athlete of the Year, a first for WVC athletics. West Valley placed 10th (out of 112 teams) in the 2023-24 NATYCAA Cup, emblematic of post-conference success. Tennis player Lindsay Lee, who matriculated to UCLA, received the prestigous Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award, a national junior college honor. West Valley hosted the 3C2A beach volleyball and softball championships and earned state-wide coaching association praise for running exemplary tournaments.

Under Vlahos, two Viking student athletes, Adam Fenyvesi and Janelle McAfee, gave the Valedictorian address at their respective commencement ceremonies. McAfee was named the 3C2A 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 ITA All-Academic Team four times since 2020. 14 Vikings earned 4.0 GPAs in 2023.

Athletically, the Vikings have won 34 Coast Conference championships since 2014, including six in 2021-22, five in 2022-23 and seven in 2023-24. The men’s water polo team has won five NorCal championships and was the state runner-up in 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023. 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 four consecutive NorCal championships. In 2021, women's water polo became the second NorCal team ever to win the 3C2A state championship. Former 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 3C2A 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 titles 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 Poras were Coast and NorCal champions and, like Henderson and Sekona, finished second in the 3C2A State Championship tournament. The beach team, in 2023, sent a program-record three teams to the 3C2A 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 in 2014 and, in 2019, 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 3C2A Men’s and Women’s Water Polo State Championships, the 2024 3C2A Softball State Championship and the 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024 3C2A Beach Volleyball State Championship. Additionally, West Valley athletic facilities have served as a practice site for numerous national teams, as well as NCAA women's soccer College Cup squads. Viking Field hosted the 2022, 2023 and 2024 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. Valhalla Park, the gem of the 3C2A, opened to vociferous Viking baseball fans in 2024. 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, water polo and the gymnasium. The gymnasium floor and interior has been redone and updated. 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 3C2A Scholar Athlete of the Year. 

Vlahos and his son, Matthew, reside in Los Gatos.