Michael Fenison enters his fifth year as Head Coach of the Mt. SAC Men’s Basketball Team, having taken the reins in March 2020 as the program’s 13th head coach. An alumnus of Mt. SAC and former Mountie player under legendary coach Gene Victor, Fenison’s return marked a full-circle moment in a decades-long career in coaching and athletics leadership.

In the 2024–2025 season, Coach Fenison led the Mounties to an impressive 25–5 record and a second-place finish in the highly competitive South Coast Conference. The previous year, during the 2023–2024 campaign, he guided Mt. SAC to a stellar 25–4 record, a South Coast Conference North Division Championship, and earned the prestigious Coach of the Year honor. That season also saw the emergence of standout players under his leadership, including South Coast Conference Player of the Year Nick Hopkins and All-Conference selection CJ Fisher.

Fenison made an immediate impact in his first full season at the helm. In 2021–2022, he led the Mounties to a 19–8 overall record and a 6–2 mark in conference play, securing a second-place finish in the SCC North Division. The team earned a berth in the 3C2A Men’s Basketball Playoffs, advancing to the second round as the #15 seed.

No stranger to Mt. SAC Athletics, Fenison is deeply rooted in the program. In addition to playing for the Mounties, he served as an assistant coach over 30 years ago under Hall of Fame coach Ralph Osterkamp and helped establish the Mt. SAC Athletics Hall of Fame.

Before returning to Mt. SAC, Fenison spent six seasons as an assistant coach at College of the Canyons, contributing to the program’s consistent success. His most notable tenure came at El Camino College, where over 12 years he served as head coach, assistant coach, and eventually interim athletics director. As head coach, he engineered a dramatic program turnaround—taking the Warriors from a 3–28 record in his first season to a 20–11 season in 2008 and a 3C2A regional playoff appearance, their first 20-win season since 1990.

As interim athletics director at El Camino, Fenison oversaw 21 intercollegiate athletic programs and launched an Academic Athletes Achievement program, aimed at improving academic performance, retention, and transfer success for student-athletes.

Fenison’s coaching résumé also includes assistant roles at Loyola Marymount University, CSU Los Angeles, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly Pomona, Azusa Pacific University, and Chaffey College. As a player, he began his career at Mt. SAC before transferring to Azusa Pacific, where he continued competing at the collegiate level.

In addition to his coaching career, Fenison has dedicated over 20 years as a licensed respiratory therapist at Centinela Medical Center in Inglewood, where he played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic—administering life-saving care including ventilator management, arterial blood gas testing, and critical breathing treatments.

A committed advocate for athletes and healthcare professionals, Fenison has served on the executive boards of several organizations, including the California Community Colleges Men’s Basketball Coaches Association, the El Camino College Faculty Federation, and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). He is a former executive board member of SEIU-UHW and a current member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

updated  06/30/25