2016 Festival Honoree - Sherland Chensam

Sherland Chensam is Named Festival Honoree of the 2016 Mar Vista Community Fall Festival

The Planning Committee for the Mar Vista Community Fall Festival is very pleased to announce that Sherland Chensam has been selected as the 2016 Festival Honoree.   

Ms. Chensam, better known to multitudes of Mar Vista residents as "Coach", has acted as a volunteer head coach of both girls and boys basketball teams at Mar Vista for over twenty years.  Coaching pee wee, juniors, minors, and majors teams, she has had an indelible influence on thousands of our children over the years, instilling in them the values of hard work, of believing in yourself, trusting your teammates, committing oneself to goals and finding the strength to achieve those goals, and teaching them life skills both on and off the basketball court. 

Coach Chensam was born  in Belize, Central America. Raised in Belize as the youngest of 11 children, she finally migrated to California, where she started her family. She married George Chensam and has three beautiful girls, Sherilee, Sherisse, and Sherilynne Chensam, all of whom have played on the basketball courts of Mar Vista.

Coach Chensam's success has been highlighted by the many Mar Vista All-star teams that she has taken to regional and City Championship tournaments.  One of  her most memorable moments  came in 2014, when she led the Mar Vista Co-ed Boys Juniors to win the Valley Region championship, and the same year she took  a team of  Mar Vista girls to the Staples Center to play on the L.A. Sparks court for the  inaugural tournament sponsored by the L.A. Sparks, called "Get Spark", and remarkably, the Mar Vista team won that championship as well!

In 2015 Coach Chensam achieved additional recognition outside our community by being named the Head Coach of the Girls Basketball team at Hamilton High School in West Los Angeles. 

The Mar Vista community is truly blessed to have Coach Chensam as a leader and mentor of our children.  Her achievements are remarkable, but her selection as Honoree also serves to highlight the many other coaches in our Mar Vista community who dedicate so much of their lives to training our kids in the many sports we pursue, and most importantly training our kids in learning how to be strong and good people.