Tom Brady had early role models

Brady is no stranger to female athletics. He is well aware of competitive sports on the distaff side, going back to his childhood. He grew up on the Peninsula watching his three older sisters — Nancy, Julie and Maureen — excel as teen athletes at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo in the 1990s.

Their dominant 1991 softball team, one of the best ever produced in San Mateo County and the Central Coast Section at large, posted a glittering 32-1 record and was ranked No.1 in the state of California by several rating agencies. It was well-deserved.

An observant young Tommy was there to take in his sisters’ outstanding sporting exploits at that time. Apparently, that experience made a lasting impression on him.

Oh, and lest we be naive, his Aces’ investment is no doubt an opportunity to garner a profit at some point as well. The values of WNBA franchises have been soaring. Forbes has estimated that the Aces have a valuation of about $300 million as of the summer.

Here in the Bay Area, the published estimate for the Golden State Valkyries, an arm of the NBA Warriors and their umbrella corporation, is reported to be in the neighborhood of at least $500 million.

That figure reportedly represents the highest valuation for any U.S. women’s franchise in any sport. Ever.  

CAPUCHINO TO OBSERVE ITS 75th: In the years following World War II, San Mateo County could barely keep up with a population boom. One pressing need the county experienced during this surge: More public schools. A lot of them. Fast.

The first public high school to debut in the county five years after the war ended was Capuchino in San Bruno in 1950. It will celebrate its 75th birthday on Oct. 25 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

San Bruno got a second public high school, Crestmoor, a decade later. Then, surprisingly quickly, San Bruno student numbers began to crater as the baby boom ran out of steam. Projections had not fully anticipated such a fast and deep collapse. Both Capuchino and Crestmoor suffered significant pupil declines in the 1970s.

By 1980, San Bruno clearly did not need two comprehensive public secondary schools. Crestmoor was shut down. It lasted just 20 years. Only Capuchino remains.

Today, its enrollment has stabilized at about 1,100 pupils. Much of the old Crestmoor campus is now being developed into housing.  

THE  POPE VS. AN ALBINO GATOR: It was a delicate matter of celebrity priorities and something had to give. Local TV news outlets had a conundrum to deal with last week. Which prominent birthday to emphasize with their limited coverage segments? Would it be the pope’s 70th or an albino alligator’s 30th? You can probably guess which event got the most comprehensive treatment. Correct. The relatively rare gator got the bulk of the focus on the tube. The pope finished second to a mute reptile with a skin-tone anomaly paddling happily (we are led to believe) as a seemingly docile exhibit in a San Francisco aquarium.

BOB MILANO REMEMBERED: This month’s passing of Bob Milano, 85, the highly successful head baseball coach at UC Berkeley, brought back a memory of his 10-year tenure in that post at Burlingame High School more than a half-century ago. He was organized, prepared and always professional while handling Burlingame teens back in the day, a difficult period roiled by anti-Vietnam War activism, civil rights protests and other contentious issues. His influence on that program persisted even after he left for Cal early in the 1970s.

FERRY SERVICE IN JEOPARDY: An in-person gathering to discuss aspects of possibly scaling back, or even eliminating, Bay ferry service to and from South San Francisco due to distressingly low ridership will be held from 2:45-4:15 p.m. Thursday at the Oyster Point ferry terminal. The event will be part of a community survey designed to analyze the future of the financially-challenged SSF service by water-based transit officials.