CCS a go, but not all San Mateo County teams going

It will be interesting to see what the brackets will look like as a high school districts and leagues have made decisions regarding postseason play.

The 14-team Santa Clara Athletic League announced two days after the CCS decision that it would not send any teams to the CCS tournaments in any sport. The four schools in the Sequoia Union High School District — Carlmont, Sequoia, Menlo-Atherton and Woodside — followed the SCVAL’s lead and also won’t send its teams to the section playoffs.

The Peninsula Athletic League Board of Managers did not go that far. It still plans on sending teams to the baseball, softball, lacrosse and tennis playoffs, but it did vote not to send basketball or soccer teams to the postseason.

“When all of this started, our focus was on getting everybody out there (playing again),” said Steven Kryger, Menlo-Atherton co-athletic director. “For the longest, time we didn’t think we’d have CCS playoffs.”

Both the SUHSD and the PAL BOM had similar reasons for abandoning the playoffs. The biggest issue came down logistics. With campus athletic facilities over capacity with so many sports being played at the same time, coupled with the need to support the return of students to campus, end-of-the-year academic testing as well as graduation, many schools simply could not handle presenting so many events in such a short amount of time.

“I think there is a sense that administrators and [athletic directors] are pretty well spent at this point. We’re super excited and happy that everyone is able to play, but it’s been the most chaotic three months in … ever,” said Aragon AD Steve Sell. “The expectations of supervising and hosting (CCS) events, running graduation … (holding playoff games) even the week after graduation, managing CCS playoffs, it just did not seem people had the bandwidth to do it.”

That reasoning does not sit well with Steve Hoff, head coach of the Capuchino girls’ basketball team, which is poised to be arguably best girls’ basketball team in school history. With a core of players who have played together since elementary school and who, after attending a Capuchino game while still in middle school, decided to all come to the San Bruno school to win a CCS title, the news the PAL won’t be sending teams to the playoffs was a gut punch.

“I’m so p—ed off about it because it just doesn’t seem fair,” Hoff said.

After making the semifinals of the Division III tournament last season, Hoff and the Mustangs were looking to this season as a breakthrough year. With all the starters poised to play in college, 2021 was to be the year the Mustangs were serious contenders for the first CCS banner in girls’ basketball history.

“This year was kind of the year we were going to make that run. To be honest, I don’t think anyone could have stopped us. We return our top six scorers. … I’m not saying we run through everybody, but I think we have everything you need to be a CCS champ,” Hoff said. “I understand there are bigger things going on in the world. I respect that. But in these kids’ minds, there are a lot of important things going on in their world. In their world, you’re taking everything away from them.

“They’ve lost so much over the last year and a half or whatever, that if there’s a chance to give them something back, why wouldn’t we take a chance?”

The PAL, however, did not cut off access to all sports’ playoffs. The PAL still plans to send teams the playoffs of the traditional spring sports — baseball and softball being the two major ones, along with boys’ tennis and lacrosse.

“I think a lot of it was [the board of managers] wanted to make sure the sports who did not get the playoffs last season, to make sure that they get to play (this year),” Sell said. “Right, wrong or indifferent, that has been the thinking.”

In addition to his AD duties, M-A’s Kryger is also the school’s boys’ varsity lacrosse coach and his district’s decision to forgo playoffs impacts him directly. And he can understand parents and even players being upset with the decision.

“It wasn’t an easy decision. We had lots of conversations. We certainly understand there are some teams who could go (and have successful playoff runs),” Kryger said. “As a coach of a traditional spring sport, we have a really good team. We feel we can compete in CCS for a round or two and we’re not going either.

“We’re comfortable with the decision … but it didn’t come without angst and disappointment.”

Hoff said he would like to see individual schools given the option of sending teams to the playoffs, instead of entire districts or leagues deciding the fate of all schools.

“If there was no CCS (playoffs), there is nothing we can do. But other kids are going to get a chance to play in CCS. Why aren’t we? Why aren’t we getting the same opportunities other kids are getting?” Hoff said. “Right now, whoever voted to not let the winter sports go to CCS, to me, seems lazy and, to me, seems very selfish. That’s how I feel about it. Everyone deserves an opportunity or no one does. We’re picking and choosing.”

These decisions to forgo the CCS playoffs will have an impact on the CCS bracket themselves, leaving some 16-team brackets inevitably wanting for teams.

“What do the CCS playoffs look like? Not only are there fewer leagues and schools going, there may be fewer athletes going. You have kids playing club and high school sports and there are club obligations right after graduation. Once you commit to CCS, you have to go. There is so much uncertainty,” Sell said. “At this point, there are going to be some empty basketball brackets, for sure. … There are going to be some real skeleton brackets.”

Added Kryger: “You’re looking at going, potentially, a couple weeks after graduation. Now you have athletes who are no longer M-A students, playing sports for M-A.”

Hoff said he hopes his Capuchino girls’ basketball team can, eventually, fill one of those playoff spots.

“The ‘What now’ is … we’re going to fight. There should be no reason we shouldn’t be allowed in CCS,” Hoff said. “I had a meeting with the girls and told them they have to fight for what they want. You may not win the fight, but the point is to fight for it.”

Sell and Kryger point out that six months ago, the goal was simply to get the kids back on the field or court and that goal has been accomplished.

“There was a growing sense that we cannot do all of this,” Sell said. “Since the pandemic started, we just needed to have the kids out playing and with their peers. … I don’t think the people making these decisions forgot that the goal was to get the kids playing.

“If someone asked you in December of January, if schools played every sport, with the exception of a few, and there was no postseason play for a bulk of sports, would you take it? I guarantee they would say, ‘Absolutely.’”