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Palo Alto senior golfers Madison Pineda and Marina Mata could have had the rare opportunity to not only help defend the Vikings state championship from last season but to also enjoy a chance to become four-time Central Coast Section champions.
That can’t happen now, unless the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Board of Managers reverses it decision to exclude its members from participating in the CCS playoffs. They meet Friday afternoon.
With virtually the entire team returning, Paly golf coach Doyle Knight would have loved to have seen what the group could accomplish.
“We averaged team scores of 5-over par and were improving by a stroke every time out,” Knight said of the fall season. “My two seniors have been putting in a lot of time and effort and were playing better than ever. I feel bad they don’t get a chance to defend that title.”
Pineda said she was happy to have had a season and became excited when the CCS received approval to host a boys and girls championship in Monterey County.
“Not being able to play … it’s difficult,” Pineda said. I know girls from a lot of schools and the one time we can all play together is at the CCS tournament.
“It’s definitely a little bit frustrated,” she said. “Especially when there will be a CCS and others will have the opportunity. It’s not like we did anything wrong.”
Knight said no one ever asked his opinion about competing in the CCS tournament.
“I’m pretty sure they didn’t ask for any coaches feedback,” Knight said. “This is a big deal. There are golf tournaments being played throughout the United States and we can’t have even a league tournament?”
The Palo Alto boys are currently in their season and the SCVAL is recognized as one of the stronger leagues in the CCS. Seniors Drew Kim, Jasper Wang and Anthony Ha already missed out last season because of the shutdown.
“And now they’re going to lose this season too?” Knight said. “This is our time to step up and give some normalcy to the season. Every team in our league is good enough to compete in CCS …. Cupertino, Lynbrook, Saratoga, those are great teams.”
The Palo Alto girls went undefeated and the boys have won five of their first seven dual matches.
“These guys want to compete,” Knight said. “It’s what they do. They want to play at the varsity level. It’s not just golf, all sports programs are affected. Not to have one of the strongest leagues represented at the CCS? What does that say?
“I feel for (Palo Alto swimming coach) Danny Dye,” Knight said. “He’s got a great team and he goes above and beyond for his teams. He puts his heart and soul into it.”
The girls won the state title by eight strokes, firing a combined 377 over 18 holes at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach on November 19, 2021.
Katherine Sung was Paly’s top golfer with a round of 73. Sydney Sung was fifth with a round of 77.
Lauren Sung, Bridget O’Keefe and Priya Bakshi were all in-between, one of the most consistent rounds a team can have in one day. All five golfers finished among the top 23.
A Los Altos golfer finished 17th and a Los Gatos golfer was 47th. Mata, who did not figure in the scoring, finished 49th in the individual tournament.
Paly placed third in the Northern California tournament with a score of 377.
“Years from now, I know I’m going to be wondering how this group might have done after winning the CCS title three years running,” Knight said.
I feel so badly for these fantastic student athletes. I am hopeful that the SCVAL BOM will reverse its position and permit those eligible teams and individuals that qualify participate in CCS.
Unfortunately, regardless of their decision, the Girls Golf and Girls Tennis teams and Swimming and Diving teams will not be permitted to participate in CCS since their schedules were outside of the CCS calendar window. According to CCS Commissioner Grissom, SCVAL was “warned multiple times about this issue…and they made that decision…knowing what the repercussions would be if they chose to do so. This was solely a decision by the SCVAL.”
Some will suggest that this was done by the SCVAL BOM with the best intentions and maybe it was. However, by moving the start date for these season’s date back by 3 weeks as was proposed to the BOM or fully to season 2 these sports as well as 17 other sports would have been eligible for CCS. This proposal was presented to the BOM by a parent in early Feb and the proposal was dismissed out of hand.
Had the BOM followed public disclosure requirements and sought public input they could have achieved their stated goal of permitting as many athletes play as possible and staying within their governing bodies (CCS) calendar.
I hope that the SCVAL BOM will do the right thing at their 5/14 meeting and move to let the kids play. Then I hope they meet with the Girls Tennis, Girls Golf, and Swimming and Diving team’s student athletes to explain why they couldn’t find a way to keep them eligible, but could keep Boys Tennis and Boys Golf eligible.
Highly unlikely SCVAL will approve playoffs for Boys Golf and Boys Tennis and preclude Girls Golf and Girls Tennis. It sets them up for another lawsuit for violation of Title IX, which is why they are saying no to playoffs all around.
One would think that given the situation everyone has been facing, CCS would allow SCVAL to enter their teams into the playoffs. It would not be difficult to seed teams based on their performance, so that’s not an issue. Nothing will be perfect. Are we still at the point where some sports still cannot compete more than one county away? If so, that eliminates a lot of CCS competition. Santa Clara County teams would not be able to compete against SF county and San Mateo schools could not compete against the southern counties. That would make setting up competitions difficult and water down any meaning of CCS Champion.
Either way, SCVAL and CCS should get together and find a way to let the students play as many post-season games as possible, ideally in a fully functioning playoff.
If Don Austin or any PAUSD administrators try to take any credit for any changes made by SCVAL, they should be ashamed of themselves. Embarrassing enough the way they’ve already handled the situation by voting against playoffs and then asking for SCVAL to reconsider.