Oling blazed his own trail

But that hasn’t always been the case, however, and longtime Peninsula soccer guru Guy Oling has a wild timeline that saw him play a couple years of professional soccer when it was infinitely harder compared to nowadays.

The longtime San Mateo Union High School District teacher, soccer coach and official — a man who has attended all but one World Cup tournament since 1982 — came up during a time without youth soccer. Heck, when he graduated Hillsdale, there was no high school team.

When the American Youth Soccer Association (AYSO) was formed, “I was too old for it,” said Oling, who recently returned from the holidays from his second home in Brazil to be part of the 50th anniversary of the Hillsdale High School soccer program, when Oling was the school’s first coach.

“Baseball was my thing back in the day.”

But most nearly every Christmas and summer, Oling would spend time with extended family in England, which is where he picked up the game of soccer.

“All my cousins introduced me to soccer,” Oling said. “I would train with their club teams in the summer.”

Oling must have been some kind of soccer savant and training in England was light years ahead of the United States. After graduating Hillsdale, he parlayed that experience into a walk-on role playing for Humboldt State, which itself was in the formative years of collegiate soccer.

He went on to play for both the Oakland Buccaneers of the American Soccer League and later played for the Oakland Stompers in the North American Soccer League, after turning down a tryout with the New York Cosmos.

“I had a good run,” Oling said.

***

A couple weeks ago, there was a story about the Arizona high school basketball player who scored 100 points in one game.

Now, there is a female hooper in Minnesota who surpassed the 5,000-point barrier in high school play. Maddyn Greenway, a senior at Providence Academy in Minneapolis, became the third player in Minnesota history to go over the 5,000-point mark during a 37-point performance Friday night.

There is a caveat, however. She has been playing high school basketball since she was in seventh grade, which gave her six years to reach the 5,000-point plateau. She scored nearly 1,600 points in her seventh and eighth grade season and has eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in each of her freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.

Not to pooh pooh the accomplishment, but those extra two years definitely put her over the top. Players in Minnesota are allowed to play high school sports in junior high, something that is not afforded to California athletes.

But Greenway is more than just a basketball phenom. The daughter of former NFL player Chad Greenway, who spent his entire 11-year career as a linebacker with the Minnesota Vikings, Maddyn Greenway is champion soccer player and hurdler.

In addition to four state basketball championships, Maddyn Greenway has also won a pair of Minnesota state soccer titles and captured the state championship in the 300 hurdles, as well.

***

After making his first cut this season on the PGA Tour, 2015 Serra graduate Isaiah Salinda finished in a tie for 30th place at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego over the weekend.

The 2019 Stanford graduate made the cut on the number Friday at 3-under, to play the weekend. He went 5-under over the final two days for a four-round total of 8-under, earning him a paycheck of more than $56,000.

***

The Menlo College men’s soccer is hosting an ID camp March 14 to give perspective recruits a taste of college soccer while getting a chance to show off their skills.

The camp runs from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and is open to athletes who are sophomores, juniors and seniors at the high school level, along with junior college and four-year transfer players. Cost is $75 per player.

Players will get a tour of the campus ahead of warmups and skills testing, culminating with 11 v 11 play. Not only does it provide recruits a chance to see how a college team operates, it also allows Menlo coaches to identify perspective recruits. More than 50% of the current men’s roster were identified through this camp.

For more information, go to Menloathletics.com.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.