Santa Clara Hosts High School Ballers

This season’s best Bay Area high schools played basketball at the Leavey Center in regional championship games

Santa Clara’s Leavey Center hosted the Central Coast Section Open Division Championships, local high school basketball regional section championship game, on Feb. 24. The section is composed of public and private high schools from San Francisco down to Salinas, and top teams get an opportunity to play on a bigger stage. 

Santa Clara has students hailing from the competing schools, and many students attended the game to cheer on their alma maters. 

While it’s rare to see high school teams play in D1 college arenas, Santa Clara and Stanford University have both hosted the games in recent years. In addition to this opportunity, teams competing in the section championships advance to the state tournament. 

CCS Open Division Men’s Final

The Central Coast Section Open Division championship game saw #7 seed Sacred Heart Cathedral Fightin’ Irish against #4 Serra Padres. The game came after both teams upset league powerhouses Archbishop Riordan and Archbishop Mitty to earn their way to the Leavey Center. Known for hustling, aggression and tough defense, these teams hit a hot streak at the perfect time.

Sacred Heart Cathedral took the title, earning their second Open Division Championship in school history by defeating Serra 64-59. This win illustrated a tremendous turnaround from their 4-16 record last season and demonstrated the hard work of players like Fedrick Pernell and Michael Manfreda, who spend hours in the gym each week on top of typical high school work like SAT prep or AP Biology. 

In college, athletes are focused mainly on their scholarship sport. High school teams, on the other hand, feature many two- or three-sport athletes, and a few football stars stole the show. Fresno State football signee R.L. Miller and Oregon football signee Jerry Mixon were integral to Sacred Heart Cathedral’s success, and for Serra it was Seamus Gilmartin, signed to play football at Harvard. 

Though these two teams haven’t been as well-known as prominent competitors in Bay Area high school basketball, they carried themselves like they had competed at the championship level before. 

“Our culture stems from the players, from the parents, from the crowd,” said Sacred Heart Cathedral head coach Caesar Smith after the game. “We are the northernmost team in the CCS. The fans drove an hour down to see us. Everybody played their part.”

Both teams advanced to the California Interscholastic Federation State tournament.

RL Miller vs Ryan Pettis. Credit to Ethan Kassel of the San Francisco Standard

CCS Open Division Women’s Final

For the ninth straight season, the #3 seed Pinewood Panthers faced the #1 seed Archbishop Mitty Monarchs in the women’s open division championship game, with legendary coaches Doc Scheppler and Sue Phillips going head to head yet again.

Both teams are known for giving rise to prominent college basketball talent, as the Panthers produced Stanford’s Hannah Jump and the Monarchs helped make Haley Jones of Stanford and Ashley Hiraki a Santa Clara Bronco. 

Mitty trounced the competition in pool play to advance to the championship game, winning  three playoff games with a whopping combined 175 points.

Pinewood, ravaged by injuries throughout the course of the season, ran out of steam as they faced off against 25-2 Mitty, who pressured them from the jump. 

Mitty was led by freshman phenom Mckenna Woliczko, who had 16 points and 5 rebounds in the opening half. Woliczko, who has received offers from UCLA, Arizona and Stanford, amongst other high-caliber universities, continued to prove herself as a player to keep an eye out for.

Mckenna Woliczko vs Ava Uhrich. Credit to Ethan Kassel and the San Francisco Standard

The Panthers put up a fight, powered by Jolyn Ding and Alex Facelo, but the Monarchs continued to dominate as Naismith Trophy Underclassmen Watchlist forward Morgan Cheli and first team All-West Catholic Athletic League guard Elle Hanson sealed the team’s win.  Two of the best programs in the section went at it, but it was Mitty who had Pinewood’s number in this chapter of their rivalry. 

Mitty would go on to win 74-51 over Pinewood, winning their second straight open division crown and their eighth in the last eleven seasons. Both teams advanced to the state championship tournament on Mar. 1.