Daily Journal Athletes of the Week: Woodside’s Mattheo LaCasia and Evan Usher

Woodside did exactly that Saturday at the CCS Top 8 Invite at Los Gatos High School, taking fourth place among the 43 teams in the boys’ varsity field. The Wildcats were one of just two public schools to finish in the top six; Bellarmine took first place, while host Los Gatos was second, followed by St. Ignatius, Woodside, St. Francis and Menlo School. Even more impressive, Woodside was traveling with an abbreviated roster of just seven athletes.

“I’m not exactly sure how the point system works, but considering we only had seven athletes, I’d say that’s pretty good,” Usher said. “I think that just shows how focused and dedicated we are.”

LaCasia and Usher have earned Daily Journal Athletes of the Week honors for their brilliant performances last week.

Both contributed to the surprising fourth-place finish at the CCS Top 8, with LaCasia blazing to a first-place time in the boys’ 400 meters of 47.22 seconds, the fastest time recorded by a CCS runner this season.

“I wouldn’t say it was my best race, especially at the end, I gave a little peak over my shoulder to see where the guy behind me was,” LaCasia said. “I feel like that was a big mistake. So, I feel like I could do better.”

LaCasia also took third place in the 200 in 21.65, finishing behind Piedmont Hills senior Joans Petty (21.50) and Hillsdale senior Sineth Andrabadu (21.51). And while Usher turned in a first-place finish in the discus with a throw of 164 feet even, and a second-place finish in shot put at 57-6 1/2, it was earlier in the week the Woodside senior enjoyed his best performance — not just of the week, but ever — last Wednesday, when he used his last throw in the discus pit to hit a 172-1, the best distance in CCS this season.

“The 172 honestly felt like a 165, so I was very surprised when I heard it,” Usher said. “I was like: ‘There’s no way!’”

LaCasia and Usher are both upstarts in the world of track.

Usher is known primarily as a three-year varsity football star at Woodside. He is the reigning PAL El Camino Division Offensive Player of the Year, and unofficially broke the Woodside record with 4,184 career rushing yards. During his first two years of high school, he played baseball in the spring, and only switched to track and field as a junior.

While Usher’s family comes from a track background — both his father Daniel, a Serra graduate, and his older brother Nathan were standout shot put and discus throwers — it was Woodside track coach Chris Pedrin who offered him some keen advice.

“‘I don’t know why you’re wasting your time with baseball,’” Pedrin said to Usher. “‘You can go somewhere with this.’”

After taking some time to convince his parents, Usher changed his spring sport after the summer of 2023.

“He gave away all his (baseball) stuff,” Pedrin said. “He was all in.”

LaCasia has been with the track team for even less time. A lifelong club soccer player as a standout striker, including four years with the Elite Youth Development Platform co-founding team Breakers FC out of Santa Cruz, LaCasia played one season of Woodside soccer in the winter. He then figured he’d try out his foot speed with the school’s track team.

“The reason I’m good at soccer is because I’m fast, so why not try track?” LaCasia said.

Why not? Indeed.

LaCasia’s performance in the 400 at the CCS Top 8 wasn’t only the section’s best time this season. It is the fastest 400 run in CCS competition since 2014, when Terra Nova’s Jeremy Wright ran a 47.01 at the CCS Finals. Interestingly, the all-time CCS record in the event was recorded at the Top 8 Invite in 1993, with North Salinas’ Calvin Harrison hitting a 46.23.

Due to the “big mistake” of his head turn down the stretch Saturday, LaCasia said he believes he can run the race faster. After taking that peek, though, he was astounded at how fast he was running.

“I didn’t see anything,” LaCasia said, “and that was a surprise.”

Usher had a surprise last week as well, this before he even started throwing at the PAL tri-meet, featuring Woodside, El Camino and host Burlingame. With Burlingame celebrating its Senior Night, the original 3:30 p.m. start time for the discus apparatus was moved up to 3 p.m. The reason? It was specifically to accommodate Usher as to not have his discus throws sailing through the Senior Night ceremony in the middle of the infield.

“That was pretty funny,” Usher said.

Even funnier was his performance in the shot put, where his winning throw of 53-9 wasn’t his best distance of the day. It was the longest distance they could record, however, as the shot put pit doesn’t extend any farther. At 54 feet is a storage shed, one Usher peppered with several of his throws.

“‘Didn’t you know we were coming?’” Pedrin said. “‘He’s throwing 60!’”

LaCasia and Usher now own four Woodside records between them. Both of LaCasia’s times at the CCS Top 8 were new program records. Usher holds the discus record for his throw at Burlingame, but set the program record in the shot put March 1 with a throw of 59-8. The previous record of 58-1 1/2 was held by current Woodside throws coach Rob Sulflohn, who set it in 1977.

“That was pretty fun, having that full-circle moment,” Usher said. “That’s what he explained it like.”

While Pedrin took just seven boys to the CCS Top 8 — juniors Martin O’Toole and Zander Pfeifer competed in pole vault, while LaCasia, seniors Isaiah Valencia and Carmel MendesGrassia, and junior Brody Gentner took eighth place in the boys’ 4x100 relay — Woodside actually has a flourishing track roster, with 140 athletes, boys and girls combined, currently in the program.

“Woodside used to have a really super strong track team for many years,” said Pedrin, a Woodside graduate, who returned to coach in 2018, “and then when they hired me back in 2018 it was a train wreck. It was like a PE class.”