Mavericks enjoy record-setting season
Seven championships, multiple college signees underline St. John’s quality
One would think seven championships would be enough to win the Athletic Directors’ Cup, the symbol of sports excellence in the Southwest Preparatory Conference.
But the ultra-competitive, 19-school SPC is no ordinary league. While St. John’s claimed the most team titles, the Mavericks settled for second place in the co-ed standings.
Teams are awarded points based on their respective finishes in each sport, with the goal to have the lowest point tally. Kinkaid came in first during the 2015-16 school year to repeat as the Cup champion with 93 points, edging St. John’s with 97. Rounding out the top five were Dallas Greenhill with 129, Episcopal with 142 and Houston Christian with 178.
St. John’s director of athletics Vince Arduini was proud of the Mavericks’ student-athletes and coaches, who were SPC champions in boys and girls cross country, field hockey, wrestling, boys track and field, girls lacrosse and softball.
“It was a tremendous sports year for St. John’s,” said Arduini, who capped his fifth year at the school. “We won six titles during the 2012-13 season. Seven is the most championships we’ve won in a long time. We realize this doesn’t happen every year.”
Remarkably, St. John’s trophy haul could have been even bigger. The Mavericks were SPC runner-up in boys swimming and diving, boys soccer and girls tennis.
St. John’s also placed third in girls swimming and diving, girls golf and girls track and field; fourth in boys volleyball; fifth in football, girls soccer, boys lacrosse and boys tennis; seventh in boys basketball; and ninth in baseball.
But the Mavericks finished in the bottom half of the SPC in girls volleyball, girls basketball and boys golf.
Kinkaid, by contrast, won only two SPC titles (football, boys golf) but the Falcons were slightly more consistent, ranking in the top half in all but one sport.
“We struggled in a couple of sports, but all of our kids competed extremely hard,” Arduini said. “You have to give Kinkaid a lot of credit. They’ve got tremendous program. Actually, you can say that about the five Houston schools – Episcopal, Houston Christian, Kinkaid, John Cooper and us. They all do a fine job.”
Overall, St. John’s placed second in girls sports and third in boys sports.
While winning another Athletic Directors’ Cup would have been nice, Arduini took some consolation in the fact that a whopping 24 members of the recent senior class received the opportunity to play at the collegiate level next year. Among them are standouts such as Kelsey Bing (Stanford University, field hockey), Lindsey McKone (Northwestern University, lacrosse) and Anna Brooks Pacha (Georgetown University).
“A couple of them are going to some impressive schools, like Stanford, Columbia, Washington and Lee and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),” Arduini said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
But it’s hardly surprising, considering St. John’s reputation for academic excellence.
Having to replace so many senior standouts won’t be easy, but Arduini noted that St. John’s middle school teams secured eight Houston Junior Preparatory Conference championships, not to mention a city championship in wrestling.
“We’ve put a lot of emphasis on our middle school program,” Arduini said. “We feel like some of them could contribute as freshmen, in addition to the kids we have coming back. I don’t know if we’ll win as much as we did this year, but we expect to do well.”