What a crazy six months it’s been for high school sports. To go from, literally, no hope at the turn of the New Year to now in the final week of a hectic playoff season is something I could not have fathomed happening. The fact every sport was played and playoffs held in all but three sports (football, cross country, girls’ volleyball) has to be one of the biggest achievements in modern high school sports — given the circumstances.
If there is one school athletic program that has taken advantage of the pandemic-plagued season, it’s Sacred Heart Prep. The Gators have already won four Central Coast Section titles — boys’ soccer, basketball and lacrosse, and girls’ team swimming — and will go for a fifth Thursday when the SHP girls’ lacrosse team hosts Mitty for the inaugural CCS championship tournament. The top-seeded Gators will be the heavy favorite against the fourth-seeded Monarchs.
The amazing thing is, the Gators could have had even more CCS trophies to add to the school’s overflowing trophy case. The Gators had three of the best teams in Season 1 and only CCS canceling championship tournaments prevented the Gators from adding to their championship haul in 2021.
The SHP boys’ water polo team might have been the best in school history — which is saying a lot. They would have been the prohibitive favorite to win its 13th CCS title in as many years. The Gators were 13-0 on the season, playing against a mostly West Catholic Athletic League schedule, along with a sprinkle of Nor Cal powers such as Menlo School, Campolindo and Miramonte.
SHP outscored the competition 201-65, scored 20 goals twice and had 10 or more goals 12 out of 13 games this season. Head coach Brian Kreutzkamp lamented his team was unable to play the Southern California power schools he usually schedules to give his team a true test of how good it really was.
Instead, they are left to think what could have been.
The Gators girls’ polo team was equally as good and while maybe not as big a favorite to win CCS as the SHP boys’ team, they certainly would have been strong contenders to claim their 12th section title in 14 seasons. The Gators were 8-2, with losses coming to St. Francis, as well as Nor Cal power Miramonte. Those losses, however, came without arguably the best player in the CCS, Eleanor Facey, missing the last half of the season because of injury.
Additionally, the Gators football team had one of their best teams in the last few years going 5-1 against mostly Bay Division opponents. The only blemish was a 15-7 defeat at the hands of Menlo-Atherton. Avoiding the Open Division, the Gators certainly would have been a contender for a CCS football championship as well.
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You can hate on private schools all you want and there are certainly some private schools that put winning above everything else. But what makes the SHP athletic program so good is smart and talented athletes, combined with a stable, long-tenured coaching staffs provide the continuity necessary for any high school program to be successful.
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The CCS released its Honor Coach list for the 2020-21 athletic calendar and a couple of local coaches made the cut: Westmoor boys’ basketball coach Herb Yaptinchay and SHP boys’ soccer coach Armando Del Rio.
Yaptinchay worked under Serra head coach Chuck Rapp for several seasons before taking over the Westmoor job prior to the 2009-10 season. Over the last 12 years, Yaptinchay has compiled an overall record of 134-154. In PAL play, he is 67-58 and his teams made the CCS playoffs eight times in 11 seasons.
Yaptinchay is one of the PAL’s league representatives and is highly attuned to the world of CCS basketball. He is one of the most respected coaches in the PAL and has helped turn the Rams into a solid basketball program.
Del Rio has spent the last 11 seasons leading the Gators, winning seven West Bay Athletic League titles and a pair of CCS crowns — including the program’s first outright championship this season.
In 11 seasons, Del Rio has an overall record of 130-34-25 and a WBAL mark of 87-11-17.
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