The Peninsula Athletic League basketball tournaments are set, with the question being "Who will The Force be with in 2016?"
The boys’ side boasts Menlo-Atherton and Half Moon Bay, as well as potentially dangerous teams like Burlingame and Mills.
Wednesday night’s schedule played at the various higher-seeded schools is Sequoia at Half Moon Bay, Westmoor at Burlingame, Aragon vs. Jefferson at Westmoor High and South San Francisco at Menlo-Atherton.
Friday and Saturday the action moves to Mills High where an intriguing Burlingame vs. Half Moon Bay semifinal showdown possibly awaits. That would be at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
It would be entertaining to see Burlingame coach Pete Harames and Half Moon Bay’s Rich Forslund match wits, not to mention watching the galaxy of stars in Vinny Ferrari and Tyler Garlitos of Burlingame and Tommy Nuno, Austin Hilton and Jake Salinero for Half Moon Bay.
Half Moon Bay amazingly has never won the PAL tourney and Forslund sounded like he was directly speaking to his team when he said this after Friday night’s win against Terra Nova (his career 400th victory):
“The hurdle for me is to get the team to perform better when the spotlight is the brightest. I think that comes from learning to play in the moment. We go six weeks without really being in a tight game with a big crowd and it’s difficult to just flip the switch and perform. I don’t think (excelling) at that level comes from some external force, I think it comes from within.”
It’s not hard to imagine Burlingame winning this game (it has already beaten Serra), but an HMB win would potentially set up a Cougar rematch against Menlo-Atherton and Forslund’s former assistant coach (at Riordan) Mike Molieri.
We all know what fun this season’s non-league game between the Bears and Cougars was on the coast with the whole Star Wars theme. Molieri has had limited success against HMB over the years and refers to the black and orange as the “Evil Empire” and to Forslund as “Darth Vader.”
When the Bears ventured down highway 92 for the game in December, Forslund had a poster with a picture of Yoda on the wall with the diminutive Molieri plastered over it and a headline that read "Can you tell the difference?" When the lights dimmed for player introductions Forslund was waving a neon lightsaber – hilarious stuff until M-A mounted a big early lead and threatened to blow the Cougars out of their own gym. The evil ones rallied to win though and still own bragging rights over the Bears, though that could change by Saturday night. The title game is set for 7:45 p.m. at Mills.
Menlo-Atherton is the favorite on the girls’ side where four games also tip off Wednesday night at the gyms of the higher seeds.
Carlmont is at PAL-North champ Oceana, Half Moon Bay visits Hillsdale, Westmoor is at PAL-South champ M-A and Mills is at South San Francisco. HMB against Hillsdale looks like the best of that bunch with veteran Mike Ciardella now in his second year as the Hillsdale coach welcoming a Cougar team that has some talented players such as post Ally Longaker and point guard Addison Walling.
"We are going to need to play with energy and play together for all four quarters to continue on in the tournament," Longaker said."
It will be a surprise if M-A doesn’t win it all, but Oceana is worth the price of admission with bigs like Sala Langi, Nandi Eskridge and Kyana Wiley taking it to the hoop and Lilliputian guards Angel Dayrit, Keri La and Ariana Margate sniping away from outside. The girls title game is 6 p.m. Saturday at Mills.
ALMOST FAMOUS: In terms of famous athletic alumni, it's hard to beat Serra with such stars like Jim Fregosi, Lynn Swann, Barry Bonds and Tom Brady having worn the blue and gold. All are in the Serra Athletic Hall of Fame housed just outside the school's gym. Now there's a quiet movement afoot to enshrine the Padres' 1968 football team which seems like the no-brainer of no-brainers. The team went 9-1 overall, was unbeaten in the WCAL and top players Swann, the late Jesse Freitas Jr. and Tom Scott were all drafted by NFL teams. Swann and Scott of Edmonton Eskimos fame played on 9-10 Super Bowl/Grey Cup winning teams between them. The late Padre tight end Tom Caselli was offered a scholarship to Cal in three sports.
Serra and Alameda were ranked co-No. 1 in Northern California that year by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Padres met St. Francis led by quarterback Bob Klatt in a de facto league title game at San Mateo High and Serra won 45-27. The Lancers' coach at the time said Freitas "mesmerized" his players with his passes. Freitas had 356 yards passing in that game, 257 going to Scott. I'm biased since my older brother Jim was a starting O-lineman on this team, but if these guys aren't a shoo-in for the hall, they should shut it down.
BRAWN, BRAINS: The top CCS winter scholastic teams were named recently and five squads head the list. They were: Harker boys basketball (3.79 grade point average), Castilleja girls basketball (3.89), Lynbrook boys soccer (3.75), Castilleja girls soccer (3.85) and Bellarmine wrestling (3.56). The Bells are also skilled on the mat, tying Serra for the WCAL title.
JUNGLE GYMThe annual St. Ignatius at Serra “Jungle Game” is at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Recently at an SI game I met former Wildcats coach Bob Drucker, an exceedingly nice man. We reminisced about the late Wildcat statistician Doc (Robert) Jeffrey and his how trademark bow ties.
It was Drucker’s comment to a San Francisco Examiner reporter in 1977 – “We have to go down to Serra and it will be a jungle down there” -- that unwittingly started the Jungle Game tradition. Now the game comes complete with palm branches everywhere, netting and blokes dancing around in ape costumes. Too much fun.
LIKE FINE WINE:Keith Larsen's 60th birthday party was Saturday at his parents old home in San Bruno, not too far from the 2010 pipeline explosion. I stopped by and the celebrant was in his usual form, rolling out one funny story after another, most of them true.
It was nice to see former Crestmoor High baseball star Jim Beck, ex-Crestmoor track star Ray Watts and former Capuchino hoopster Don Dowling there, as well as several current Menlo School basketball players (Larsen is the Menlo coach). Crestmoor, where Larsen played hoops for Pete Pontacq, was a public high school in San Bruno that closed in 1980 amid some debate. It was best known for its crack wrestling teams and its colorful baseball star Stu Bringhurst. Paul Cayard, an America's Cup skipper, was also a Falcon.
John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@prep2prep.com and followed on Twitter @PrepCat
