Add ‘trophy presenter’ to the resume

That being said, there are times when I will use a certain funny story or line from a coach or player picked up on the sideline that I will include in a story — or here, in the Sports Lounge.

After nearly 20 years writing and reporting for the Daily Journal — the last newspaper standing covering your community from the great newspaper wars of the mid-oughts — I feel I’ve developed enough of a relationship with coaches, school administrators and parents/fans to know what I can and can not, or should not, report.

All of which leads me to Tuesday afternoon when I was asked to present the West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division championship “trophy” to the Notre Dame-Belmont girls’ soccer team after the Tigers beat Woodside Priory to clinch the crown with one game left in the regular season.

NDB athletic director Jason Levine said there is an official WBAL “perpetual” trophy that is presented to the new champion each year at the WBAL athletic directors’ postseason meeting — but that takes away the fun of sharing a trophy with teammates, friends and family. So NDB head coach Paul McCallion went out and had an “unofficial” trophy made specifically for the occasion.

Twice in my career have I been asked to serve in a role other than a reporter during my two-plus decades as a sports writer. The first came nearly 25 years ago when I was asked to be the announcer for the Hayward Area Athletic League softball tournament championship game. I wasn’t asked to do play-by-play, analyze the game or anything like that. Just the basic introduction of players and positions, who was coming to the plate and the totals at the end of each inning — runs, hits and errors.

I seem to remember one of the teams involved was Arroyo High School of San Lorenzo, which was one of the strongest programs in the East Bay at the time and which ties nicely into the trophy presentation Tuesday.

Current Notre Dame-Belmont head coach Paul McCallion was the Arroyo girls’ soccer head coach in the mid-1990s, which is where I first met him and have since reconnected once he took over the Tigers’ program four years ago. Which led him to ask me to present the “trophy” to the team.

Sure, why not?

Some would see pre-making a championship trophy a bit of a bold move, but it was really a calculated risk on McCallion’s part. He knew his team needed just one point over its final two games to earn the division championship. The Tigers hadn’t lost to WBAL competition this season and Woodside Priory came into the game with a league mark of 2-5-2.

It’s a good thing the Tigers got past the Panthers Tuesday, because waiting for them on Friday is a second-place Menlo team that saw its reign atop the WBAL Foothill Division come to an end and will definitely be looking to deal NDB is first loss since a 3-2 loss to Mission Oak-Tulare in the Garces Tournament in Kern County Dec. 14.

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The Central Coast Section Division III girls’ basketball bracket is going to have a decidedly Peninsula Athletic League flair to it when the tournament starts next Friday.

Burlingame, Capuchino, Jefferson, Mills, South City and Westmoor are the PAL teams that will take up six of the 16 slots in the bracket.

“There is a crazy amount of (PAL) girls’ teams in Division III,” said Paul Carion, South City head coach and the PAL North Division’s representative to CCS.

Not only do PAL teams make up more than a third of the Division III entrants, two of them — Capuchino and Mills — could conceivably be top-3 seeds. According the MaxPreps.com, the Vikings and Mustangs are ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, in Division III. Only Sacred Heart Cathedral, Aptos and top-ranked St. Ignatius are ranked higher.

There is a good chance both SI and SHC get moved into the Open Division, leaving just Aptos left to vie for the top seed in the DIII bracket. If the Mariners get moved into the Open as well, that will leave Mills and Cap battling for the No. 1 seed.

Which could be decided when the rival meet Friday night in San Bruno.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.