Reality sets in after tough, emotional state final
MISSION VIEJO >> Patrick Walsh paused for several seconds as he thought about how to respond. Standing on the Saddleback College field late Saturday night, the Serra coach was asked if he wanted to bring his team to the Open Division state championship game again next season.
Walsh's Padres had just lost to St. John Bosco-bellflower 45-0, an anticipated outcome even though Serra had won all 13 of its previous games this season and had a resume that included road victories over De La Salle and Folsom.
Bosco and its Trinity League rival, Mater Deisanta Ana, are not De La Salle and Folsom.
The Southern California superpowers have raised high school football to a level over the past six years that nobody in the state has come close to matching.
Last year, Mater Dei routed Serra, 44-7, in the Open title game.
Saturday, Bosco led by 35 at halftime and added 10 more points in the third quarter before the final period was played with a running clock.
When Walsh finished pausing, the longtime coach said, “I like playing in a competitive world where it's competitive. I said before this game, I do not feel that our coaching staff and our players could get into any better position than we are spiritually or emotionally than we were for this game. We were 13-0. We had overcome things. We believed. Our fans believed.
“And we lost by 45 points. Do I want to be back here again next year against a team like this? I mean, truthfully, I want to be in a game where we're underdogs potentially and it's hard to win. But it seems at this point doing this two years in a row now it's almost like we have no chance.”
Walsh understands what some people, notably those who make similar comments about having to play the likes of Serra and De La Salle, are thinking.
“I get it,” he said.
Walsh has been on the winning side of many blowouts.
In the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs this season, Serra led Salinas 50-7 at halftime, and the entire second half was played with a running clock.
Salinas was a good public school team.
When Walsh starred as a running back for De La Salle three decades ago, his senior class started the Concord school's national-record 151game
winning streak.
De La Salle won many games against overmatched opponents.
Walsh is not a hypocrite on the topic.
“I have openly stated that I am OK with publics and privates being in separate championships,” Walsh said Saturday, repeating what he told the Bay Area News Group last year. “It seems like I haven't been on that side. But I agree with that statement. What I am saying about Bosco people say about Serra and De La Salle and St. Francis.
“There is a solution. It's just people have to put their heads together and come up with a solution. If there's a private school champion and a public school champion,
there's more apples being compared to apples, I guess.”
But that still wouldn't solve the Bosco and Mater Dei dilemma.
They're private schools, too, but on a national level.
“They went private-private or something,” Walsh said, laughing. “We'd have to have another category.”
Walsh, who is friends with Bosco coach Jason Negro, was asked whether the Open Division state championship game was a good thing.
“It's a good thing for two teams,” Walsh said. “Whoever represents the North is going to be behind the eightball. There is no doubt about it. I think a lot of the Southern California teams would feel the same way. I don't want this to come across as sour grapes or they're doing anything wrong because they're not. I love coach Negro. But the reality of the situation is it seems as if Mater Dei and Bosco are just built differently than the rest of us.
“At some level, it's not really comparing apples to apples. When they play each other, it's comparing apples to apples. Maybe if they play IMG Academy or St. Frances of Baltimore, that's comparing apples to apples. Maybe there's some rule if you have 50 D-1 guys on your team, you play each other for the national championship or something like that.”
Near the end of a 12-minute postgame session with reporters, Walsh circled back to an earlier question that caused him to pause.
“You asked me if I want to be here next year, it's like I want to be the best we can be,” he said. “Whatever system they throw us in, I have no control over. I have no control over who we play once we get to the CCS and CIF.”
In Walsh's playing days, there were no California Interscholastic Federation regional and state championships in football. The season ended at the sectional level. He had no complaints. “When I used to play, man, I'll tell you what. The rain was coming down in the Oakland Coliseum in 1992 and we won the North Coast Section title and that was good enough for us,” Walsh said. “I have mixed emotions on the whole thing, to be honest with you, because it's a lot of football and these are just kids. Finals are coming up. I have been doing this for a long time and I know people's dreams and goals are to win the biggest, biggest, biggest prize. For us, it's not really been the goal here at Serra. Our goal has always been to build an amazing culture of love and gratitude.
“And we did that. In my book, we're state champs.”
Quick-hitters: State championship rewind
• Teams in the Bay Area News Group's coverage area went 1-7 in state finals, including 0-7 over the weekend.
• Pinole Valley captured the only state title among BANG teams, beating Mendota 34-21 in the 7-AA championship game on Dec. 3.
• Five of the seven losses were by single digits.
• De La Salle dropped to 7-8 in state championship games, with losses in its past five.
• Serra is 1-4 in state title games.
• With its 28-27 loss to Laguna Hills in the 3-A final at San Jose City College, Bellarmine fell to 0-4 in state finals.