Piccolotti is tabbed as new Terra Nova football coach

Piccolotti will replace Tim Adams, who spent the last five years as head coach after taking over for the legendary Bill Gray, who retired following the 2013 season. Adams was on the Terra Nova coaching staff for 11 years before the school decided not to renew his contract for the 2019 season.

Piccolotti was one of 10 applicants for the position.

Piccolotti, 47, is a member of arguably the most prolific sports family in Pacifica history as several members of the Piccolotti clan have starred at both Oceana and Terra Nova. Jason Piccolotti starred as quarterback at Oceana, before going on to lead City College of San Francisco to the 1994 junior college national championship before finishing his college career at University of South Dakota.

He is third on City College of San Francisco single-season passing record, having thrown for 2,624 yards and 31 touchdowns in 1994. He went on to play and coach for the minor league football team Pacifica Islanders and served as a Terra Nova junior varsity head coach as recently as 2016.

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As many games and matches as I’ve covered over the years, it still boggles my mind that it is during baseball season that I see the craziest things.

It seems every year I witness something during a county baseball game that leads me say, “Now I’ve seen it all,” only to see something new the following season.

I have been involved in two baseball games in my career that were hampered by rain. The first occurred so long ago I can’t even remember when it was. What I do remember was it was at San Mateo High School, with the Bearcats hosting Terra Nova. The game probably should have never started as it was already drizzling when the first pitch was thrown. A couple innings later, it was a downpour and was only called after a Terra Nova batter took a swing and saw the bat go flying out of his hands, prompting the home plate umpire to call the game.

Last Thursday, I experienced my second rain-affected game when Sequoia traveled to Aragon. But it was also the first one to only be delayed and then completed. Most of the time, the game is simply cancelled and then rescheduled for a later date.

The game started under threatening skies and in the bottom of the third, with Aragon leading 4-2, the rain finally came. The home plate umpire, as the rain started coming down harder, said to Aragon manager Lenny Souza that maybe the game should be delayed for a bit.

At that point, the skies opened up. It finally let up about 20 minutes later and the next 20 minutes was spent in discussion with Souza, Sequoia manager Corey Uhalde and the umpires, trying to determine if it would be feasible to continue the game. Weather reports were checked and Souza spent time walking around the infield, trying to determine if it was worth it to try and complete the game, despite standing in water on the base paths.

It was finally decided that the game would go on. The thinking was, all the Dons needed was to get through the top of the fourth inning for the game to be considered official.

The Dons scrambled to get the field prepped as quickly as possible — which included a shop vacuum to suck up some of the standing water along the third-base line and the home plate area, along with the spreading of water-absorbing material to soak up the rest of the water. Home plate was wiped off and the game resumed.

There would be no more rain the rest of the game as the Dons went on to post the 5-2 victory.

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