After 18 years, Liberty’s all-time winningest basketball coach is officially stepping away.
Jon Heinz, who led Liberty school to five league titles and amassed 261 wins over his career as head coach, announced on X that he will no longer be coaching at the Brentwood school.
“I’ll be honest, it’s been very difficult to coach, teach and be the AD,” Heinz wrote in a statement posted to X. “With that being said, today I will be stepping away from Liberty basketball as a coach. Probably the most important thing to me is that I will be stepping away on my own terms.
“I feel like it’s the right time to take a mental break and to see where my life takes me.”
Two years ago, Heinz took over as Liberty’s athletic director while still holding coaching duties as the school’s basketball coach.
Heinz started his coaching career at Humboldt State University at 22. The 48-year-old coach was hired at Liberty in 2007, a year after the Lions went 2-24.
Over the course of his tenure, he built Liberty into a respectable program that has dominated the BVAL as of late. Liberty has not lost a BVAL game since the COVID-shortened 2021 season.
Heinz became the school’s all-time leader in career wins after Liberty defeated Mt. Diablo earlier this season, surpassing former longtime Liberty coach Jerry Miller who had 260 victories over his career.
Following the record-breaking win, Heinz promoted assistant coach Rich Morton to become the team’s head coach for the remainder of the season and took on the role as the team’s associate head coach.
Liberty finished this year 26-4 and was a North Coast Section Open Division team for the first time in program history. Given the No. 13 seed in the NorCal Division I playoffs, the Lions upset No. 4 Clovis West before falling to San Ramon Valley in the following round.
Heinz doesn’t anticipate a return to coaching any time soon.
“I cannot say my coaching career is over, however I have no further plans on coaching at this time,” Heinz wrote. “This endeavor has been a 24/7 job, 12 months a year for the past 26 years.”