Nor Cal shows its strength on CIF bowl stage

And it really wasn’t close. Nor Cal, which is generally considered to be all schools north of Fresno, dominated this year’s state bowl games, winning 10, while So Cal schools won only four. Granted, So Cal juggernaut Mater Dei won the Open Division crown, which comes with the “Best team in the state” title.

But other than that, it was Nor Cal by a landslide and the greater Bay Area was well represented. In addition to Menlo-Atherton’s Division 3-AA championship, Wilcox — which lost to the Bears in the Central Coast Section Open Division I finals — silenced a ton of critics by beating Kaiser, 41-27, in the state Division 3-A.

M-A and Wilcox become just the second and third public school CCS teams to win a state title, joining Palo Alto, which won in 2010.

Liberty-Brentwood, out in Delta country, won at D1-A, Oakland’s McClymonds won its third straight state title, taking the D4-A crown, while Lincoln-San Francisco took the D6-A football state title.

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A San Diego-area television sports anchor got a little bit confused about exactly what Menlo-Atherton High School is.

In a video posted on social media, the TV guy opened an interview with the head coach and one of his players from the Lincoln High School team that was to face the Bears in the Division 3-AA state championship game.

It became obvious early on that he got Menlo-Atherton and Menlo School, which is in Atherton, confused. He incorrectly stated that it cost $42,000 to attend M-A and that the student body is less than 800.

M-A is actually one of the largest public schools in CCS with nearly 2,400 students and is free to attend.

He did get a couple things correct: the Bears do perform the haka before games and yes, Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham met at Menlo-Atherton.

Even I didn’t know about that last one.

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In other football related news, Mike Dozier and his staff will not be returning to coach the Mills High School program for a fourth season. Dozier said he was told following his postseason meeting with athletic director Tim Keller that the school was “going in a different direction.”

Dozier was also told he could reapply for the opening.

In his three seasons with the Vikings, Dozier led them to a Peninsula Athletic League Lake Division record of 3-12 and 11-18 overall, including 1-4 and 3-6 this past season. When he took over the program prior to the 2016 season, the Vikings had lost 10 straight Lake Division games. The last time Mills posted a winning record was 2013, when Mike Krieger led the Vikings to a 3-2 mark in league play and 7-3 overall.

Dozier said he plans on coaching somewhere locally next season and said he has already received calls about his services.

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KCEA 89.1 FM is back and program director John Mylod is looking to start up the station’s student sports coverage for the new year.

For 19 years, Mylod was the radio voice of PAL sports, broadcasting more than 600 games and hosting the weekly “Inside the PAL” show. The station has been off the air the last two years as new facilities were built at the Sequoia Union High School District offices. Mylod is looking for high school students for several positions, including: engineer, producer, editor, host, anchor, interviewer and radio play-by-play announcers. Mylod and the radio staff handle all the training.

“I’m excited to bring back live sports coverage, but I need the kids to make it happen,” Mylod said in an email.

If you’re interested to get more information, Mylod can be emailed at John@advocates4athletes.com.

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South San Francisco High golfer Catherine Batang committed to play golf at Menlo College, the school announced Monday.

Batang has been one of the top female golfers in the PAL and Northern California for the last couple years. She has captained the Warriors’ team the last three seasons. This past summer, she qualified for the U.S. Girls’ Junior Open.

Batang is also executive student body president for South City, an honors student and two-time member of the school’s mock trial team.

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