Coaching shuffle among biggest stories of year
One of the great appeals of high school sports is to follow the ebb and flow of great young players.
Just as two-time Metro Football Player of the Year Najee Harris finished his senior season at Antioch in 2016, the star of Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland running back Austin Jones began to rise. Jones is now rated the sixth-best running back nationally by 247Sports from the Class of 2019.
We saw the passing of the baton this decade from Mitty’s Aaron Gordon to O’Dowd’s Ivan Rabb, just like Miramonte-Orinda’s Sabrina Ionescu handed it to 2017-18 Metro Girls Basketball Player of the Year Haley Jones.
Unfortunately, we’re seeing a similar shuffling of talent in prep coaching circles, especially football.
With dwindling rosters because of parental concerns over head injuries, economic realities and a wider discrepancy among the top and bottom teams, the demands and pressures upon football coaches rise each season.
The result has been staggering since late December. Upward of 40 head varsity football coaches either have stepped down or have been let go. Most have stepped down voluntarily.
Among the bigger names to leave: Matt Sweeney (Pleasanton-Foothill), Kevin Hartwig (Freedom-Oakley), Keith Burns (Mitty), Danny Sullivan (Palo Alto), Mark Newton (Menlo School-Atherton), Stephen Stanfel (San Marin-Novato) and Terry Hendrix (Fremont-Oakland).
“I put my heart and soul into that place,” said Hendrix, a Fremont graduate, who stepped down last week after seven seasons. “We couldn’t come to a reasonable agreement with compensation. It’s a hard pill to swallow. I guess it’s time for a change.”
Two established coaches, Andrew Cotter (Moreau Catholic-Hayward) and Ricky Rodriguez (Encinal-Alameda), switched jobs to take open posts at Freedom and James Logan Union City, respectively. Those were positive changes.
And two prominent Serra assistants — offensive coordinator Steve Lo (St. John Bosco Bellflower) and defensive coordinator Chris Vasseur (Clovis) — are leaving as well.
The high cost of living here was at the root of their departures, though Vasseur will be reunited with former Gilroy coach Rich Hammond.
“I’m happy for both of them, but man, they’ll be missed,” Serra coach Patrick Walsh said.
Though largely under the radar, the football coaching carousel is one of the biggest Metro stories from the 2017-18 school year. Here are 10 others:
Queen Tierra: Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland senior Tierra Robinson-Jones highlighted a remarkable day locally at the 100th CIF State Track and Field finals in Clovis by becoming the fourth girl and first from Northern California to win the 200-meter and 400 in the same meet. She also ran a leg on O’Dowd’s fifth-place 400 relay team.
In all, 33 medals were captured by Metro athletes, including other golds by Liam Anderson (Redwood-Larkspur, 1,600), Malcolm Clemons (St. Mary’s, long jump), Max Glasser (Marin Catholic, 400) and Jason Gomez (Westmont Campbell, 800).
Baseball elite: The WCAL was rated one of the 10 best leagues nationally recently by MaxPreps, and five of the teams — Valley Christian, Serra, Bellarmine, Mitty and St. Francis — were ranked among the state’s Top 20 by CalHiSports during a three-week span in April. Valley Christian and St. Francis won Central Coast Section crowns. Valley Christian (29-3-1) and De La Salle-Concord (26-4) finished 1-2 in the final MaxPreps national computer rankings and tied at the top of the final Chronicle rankings. De La Salle, winner of 21 of its final 22, won its third straight North Coast Section Division 1 title (its fifth in seven years) and outscored four NCS foes 42-3, beating the last three opponents by the mercy rule.
Finishing with a flurry: One of the Bay Area’s most dominating softball pitchers, Amador Valley-Pleasanton senior Danielle Williams, left her mark by not allowing a run in four NCS D1 games, leading the Dons (23-5-1) to the title. The Northwestern-bound left-hander struck out 58 in 28 innings while allowing seven hits.
Northern California wildfires: A footnote to the catastrophic wildfires that struck the North Bay in October was their effect 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.
Play through the burn: A great rallying and healing point for those affected by the Tubbs Fire — the most destructive wildfire in the history of California — were from sports teams at Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa, which had half of its school destroyed by the fire. The football team, led by head coach Paul Cronin, persevered to the NCS D3 title game, losing arguably the most exciting game of the season 59-56 to Marin Catholic-Kentfield. The girls basketball team also lost an NCS title game, but was selected as one of the top eight teams in Northern California by being selected to the Open Division. In March, the Newman girls soccer team captured the Northern California D3 title.
CCS football success: Three CCS squads — Serra (2-AA), St. Francis (2-A) and Milpitas (4-A) — won state titles and Half Moon Bay finished a 14-1 season 550 miles from home, losing 44-42 to Steele Canyon-Spring Valley in a 3-A title game. Serra won its first outright WCAL title in 48 years and ran through the playoffs without WCAL Player of the Year Atonio Mafi (knee injury). Isiah Kendrick led the offense with 345 rushing yards and six touchdowns in the final two games.
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. After Mission won the state D3 boys basketball title in 2017, the Galileo football squad won a state D 6-A crown, and Lincoln and Lowell claimed Northern California titles in girls volleyball (D3) and girls basketball (D5), respectively.
Pinewood stunner: For the second time in three years, tiny Pinewood-Los Altos Hills shocked the No. 1 girls basketball team in the country, this time Mitty 78-67 in the NorCal Open Division finals March 17 at Santa Clara University. Mitty had won 29 straight games, including a 76-62 win over Pinewood two weeks earlier in the CCS title game. Pinewood fought back from a 16-point third-quarter deficit behind Stanford-bound Hannah Jump and Brianna Claros, who combined for 44 points. Like all six other Metro basketball teams that won NorCal titles, Pinewood (27-3) lost in a state final the next week, marking the first time in 31 years a Metro team hadn’t won a state crown.
De La Salle football: Though it extended its unbeaten streak against Northern California opponents to 289 games over 26 years, De La Salle was handled easily in the state Open Division title game by a Southern Section power, this time 52-21 to Mater Dei-Santa Ana. DLS fumbled eight times, losing four and gave up a pick-six.
More state champions: McClymonds-Oakland won its second straight football state championship, this time 42-12 over Golden West-Visalia in the 5-AA final. … Mitty’s girls volleyball team (37-6) won its statebest 14th state crown with a three-game Open Division sweep over Mater Dei. … Michigan State-bound wrestler Peyton Omania, of De La Salle, won a state crown (145 pounds), the only local to do so. … Individual state cross-country champions were Rylee Bowen (Sonoma Academy, D5 girls), Liam Anderson (Redwood, D3 boys) and Gillian Wagner (Redwood, D3 girls). Team champions were University boys (D5), St. Francis boys (D2) and Campolindo girls (D3). … Juniors Zoie Hartman (Monte Vista-Danville, 200-yard individual medley and 100 breaststroke) and Miranda Heckman (Granada-Livermore, 200 and 500 freestyle) each won two state swim titles in Clovis on May 19. Other champions included Northgate Walnut Creek senior Alexei Sancov (200 free), Foothill junior Jonah Cooper (100 back), Amador Valley senior Chris Jhong (200 individual medley) and San Ramon Valley senior Spencer Daily (50 free).