PAL soccer change-up for 2024-25

Ocean Division play will begin after the holidays.

On the boys’ side, there are seven Bay teams and nine Ocean Division squads. While the Bay opened league play Wednesday, the Ocean Division will already be playing their fourth games Thursday.

The girls’ Lake Division was initially set up to ensure competitive games for the five schools that had the least amount of soccer success. No one enjoyed seeing those teams blown out every game and the reasoning worked, as the girls’ Lake Division developed into a competitive division among those teams.

“When we first started this, a lot of this was about concern for the Lake and how do we make sure they’re playing in a place where they can develop?” said Sequoia head coach Melissa Schmidt. She is also the school’s athletic director and one of the leaders of PAL girls’ soccer.

The problem, however, evolved and it started to impact the Ocean Division, mostly. It has been clear since the implementation of the Lake Division in 2021 that there were seven, and sometimes eight teams, that could compete in the Bay.

The problem was, there could be only six teams in the top division and when realignment discussions would be had at the end of the season, that last-place Bay Division team that was sent down to the Ocean, would invariably wreck shop in the Ocean and then get promoted back to the Bay.

From 2021 to 2025, the Ocean Division champions have been Aragon, Carlmont, Aragon, Aragon and Carlmont, last season. In those five seasons, the Dons and Scots went a combined 28-0-2, playing in lopsided matches nearly every time.

Schmidt said at the last postseason meeting, the other Ocean Division teams put there foot down and basically said the way things were set up wasn’t fair.

“Terra Nova was very vocal (in the meeting),” Schmidt said. The Tigers had finished third last year and second the year before that.

“They weren’t saying they should come up (to the Bay),” Schmidt continued. “But it was, ‘We never even get to compete for a league championship.’”

On the surface, it doesn’t seem like that big a deal. But when teams get only a few non-league games to evaluate before jumping into league play, it can throw a wrench into a coach’s scheduling and development.

“It is weird,” Schmidt said. “I was supposed to play Woodside [Tuesday] night. I rescheduled it. There is no way I’m playing Woodside third game of the season.”

Schmidt said all teams will be juggling league and non-league games throughout the season. And while the PAL will not schedule three PAL division games a week — which is what would be required if the started in January — that does not preclude teams from scheduling a third, non-league game, during the week.

This is one of those weeks for Schmidt and her team. Despite rescheduling the game against Woodside that was originally meant for Tuesday, the Ravens, instead, play two non-league games sandwiched around a Bay Division game Thursday against Hillsdale.

The Ravens lost 2-1 to Menlo Tuesday and will host Las Lomas-Walnut Creek Saturday.

And it will be that way all season for PAL teams.

“Before the last week of the regular season, I’m going to throw in a non-league game against Santa Clara,” Schmidt said.

But that wasn’t the only reason to scrap the girls’ Lake Division. With Oceana leaving the PAL at the end of the school year, the PAL would have to go back to two divisions anyway because a league (or division) in CCS has to have at least five teams to actually be a league/division.

“With Oceana leaving, there is no other good option (but to go back to Bay/Ocean),” Schmidt said.

For the boys, eliminating the Lake Division was to be in alignment with the girls, said Paul Snow, former Menlo-Atherton head soccer coach and current M-A co-athletic director. He chaired the boys’ postseason meeting last year and said while there were some coaches who wanted to keep things the way they were, ultimately most agreed this was the sensible thing to do.

“The coaches were kind of split, but they thought, overall, it was a good idea,” Snow said.

Schmidt said it had more to do with the fact that there was more competitive equity in the three divisions than the girls had. While the teams that comprised the boys’ Lake Division had their fair share of struggles, the gap between them and those in the Ocean, and the gap between the Ocean and Bay, was much less than what was happening on the girls’ side.

“The boys didn’t have to (eliminate the Lake Division). But they did,” Schmidt said. “There is more parity across the boys. You’ll see Ocean Division teams take down Bay teams. You won’t see that (often) on the girls’ side.”

***

So close.

Burlingame shooting guard Jean-Luc Uharriet came up one 3-pointer short of tying the school single-game record during the Panthers’ 75-54 win over Hillsdale in the first round of the 48th annual Burlingame Lions Club Invitational tournament Tuesday night.

Uharriet, a senior, knocked a pair of 3s in both the first and second quarters to have four at halftime. When he hit two more in the third period, I asked around what the single-game school record was.

No one could answer. The common thought was former star Drew Shiller (those were his No. 1 basketball and baseball and No. 16 football jersey hanging up in the school’s old gym. They haven’t been placed in the new facility yet.

But for some reason, I had a thought that maybe it might be somebody else.

Meanwhile, Uharriet drained two more in the fourth, giving him two in each quarter, to finish with eight on the night as he lit up the Knights to the tune of 30 points.

So after racing back to the office, filing my story, putting the newspaper to bed and getting home around 11:30 p.m., I did some research.

Turns out both hunches were right. Shiller went 9 for 14 from behind the arc, a 64% shooting clip, during a 72-66 win over Woodside Jan. 5, 2005. It was matched in 2013 by Connor Haupt during a Burlingame 70-39 win over San Mateo Feb. 8, 2013.

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.