10 stories to remember from 2017
Metro high school sports in 2017 offered it all: triumph, tragedy, loss and inspiration. Here are 10 of the more memorable moments and story lines:
AAA breakout: The Academic Athletic Association — the only league in the San Francisco Section — often is maligned for not being able to compete with other parts of the Bay Area. The AAA answered the call in emphatic terms with state titles in boys basketball (Mission, Division 3) and football (Galileo, Division 6-A) and a Northern California crown in girls volleyball (Lincoln, D3).
Northern California wildfires wreak havoc: A small footnote to the catastrophic wildfires that struck the North Bay in October was the effect they had on Bay Area high school sports. The North Bay and Sonoma County leagues largely canceled play for up to three weeks. On the weekend of Oct. 13, 43 of 56 scheduled football games were either canceled or postponed because of poor air quality.
Cardinal Newman football, symbol of perseverance: A great rallying and healing point for those affected by the Tubbs Fire — the most destructive wildfire in the history of California — was the football team at Cardinal Newman, which had half of its school destroyed by the fire. The Cardinals, led by head coach Paul Cronin, reached the North Coast Section Division 3 title game, losing arguably the most exciting game of the season, 59-56 to Marin Catholic-Kentfield. The only game more thrilling was the week before, Newman’s 29-28 win over Rancho Cotate-Rohnert Park. The rivals had split two earlier games, including a 41-28 Cotate win Oct. 23, a Monday night game scheduled with the idea of getting the communities back to some sense of normalcy after the wildfires.
About 100 Newman students, faculty and coaches — and five varsity players — lost homes in the fire. Marin Catholic raised nearly $25,000 for its counterparts’ recovery before the title game. Despite winning, Marin Catholic head coach Mazi Moayed said: “It’s a great win, but a bittersweet one considering all that community has been through.”
Going into the game, Newman running back Tanner Mendoza said: “If we can win a championship, it will be nice icing on the cake. But either way, what we all went through together and the way we came together, and the love surrounding this team, it’s going to be irreplaceable in my eyes.”
Serra success: The Padres, led by 16-year head coach Patrick Walsh, started 1-2 but went on a 12-game win streak, shattering school and West Catholic Athletic League offensive records en route to the league’s first state title, a 38-14 Division 2-AA victory over the highest-scoring team in the state, Cajon-San Bernardino. Serra won its first outright WCAL crown in 48 years, was the first team to win 10 straight games over WCAL foes, including two over Division 2-A champion St. Francis, and set a school record for points with a 76-43 regional-final win at Tulare Union-Tulare (Fresno County). Serra breezed in the playoffs despite a bevy of season-ending injuries, including to WCAL Player of the Year Atonio Mafi, a 6-foot-3, 360-pound two-way lineman who is headed to UCLA. Isiah Kendrick led the offense with 345 rushing yards and six touchdowns in the final two games.
CCS success: Besides Serra, St. Francis (2-A) and Milpitas (4-A) won state football championships and Half Moon Bay finished off a 14-1 season 550 miles from home, losing 44-42 to Steele Canyon-Spring Valley in the Division 3-A title game. St. Francis rebounded from two losses to Serra to beat Grace Brethren-Simi Valley 22-13 and Milpitas, also following a section-title loss to Salinas, beat Southwest-El Centro 45-41.
Double Mack: McClymonds-Oakland won its second straight state football title, this one with an easy 42-12 Division 5-AA triumph over Golden West-Visalia at Visalia Community Stadium. Jamar Julien rushed 13 times for 210 yards and two touchdowns. Oakland Athletic League Co-Player of the Year Charles Alberty returned a fumble 70 yards for a score, had an interception and caught two TD passes. Mack (14-0) outscored opponents 618-105. Mitty girls denied, anointed: Mitty’s girls basketball team, No. 1 nationally according to the MaxPreps computer rankings, had only three free throws in the final 5:42 to lose 44-40 to second-ranked Clovis West in the Open Division state-title game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento in March. Mitty (28-3) led 37-30 after a bucket by Haley Jones (10 points, 11 rebounds), but the Monarchs wouldn’t make a field goal the rest of the way.
Eight months later, Mitty’s volleyball team (37-6) would win its state-best 14th state crown, with a three-game Open Division sweep of Mater DeiSanta Ana behind big matches from Nicole Liddle (16 kills) and Makaela Tanaka (31 assists). De La Salle dumped: For the second straight year, a national power breezed past De La Salle-Concord to win the Open Division state football crown. This season, mythical national champion Mater Dei prevailed 52-21 at Sacramento State. Gatorade National Player of the Year and USC-signee JT Daniels accounted for five touchdowns for Mater Dei, but the Spartans didn’t help themselves by committing five turnovers — one a pick-6 — and fumbling eight times.
Clutch state champs: Lincoln senior Obi Amaechi (shot put) and Pittsburg senior Iffy Joyner (discus) became the first Bay Area female and male to win throwing events at the same CIF State Meet. Amaechi unleashed a career-best 47 feet, 5¼ inches on her final attempt and Joyner went past 200 feet for the first time with a winning throw of 203-8 on his next-to-last effort.
St. Mary’s-Berkeley senior and Cal-bound Sanjay Kettles won the boys long jump at 24-3¾ on his final attempt. It set the tone for a terrific Bay Area showing with 30 medals, including golds from California-San Ramon junior Alyssa Brewer (800, 2:07.07), Heritage-Brentwood junior Jeff Charvet (800, 1:51.07) and the Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland girls 1,600 relay team (3:46.33).
Lost but not forgotten: Within three weeks of the final prep events of the spring came the deaths of three prominent figures: Jim Liggett, 76, the state’s winningest softball coach from Carlmont-Belmont; former Riordan and Stanford football and track athlete and scholar Tyrone McGraw, 29, and longtime El Cerrito football coach and community leader George Austin.
On Tuesday, Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland lost its president, Stephen Phelps, 73, following two heart attacks. Phelps spent more than 30 years at St. Ignatius as a coach, teacher, community leader and referee. In 12 years at O’Dowd, he was credited with improving and expanding the school in all areas, including all athletics.