Yes, even Coach Lad of DLS one year said Skyline was the hardest team he played, that was back when they had Atari Callen. Beam's teams were legit
Galileo Lions Take 6A Title
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Think that was a bit father back then the Callens era? Leon was mid 90’s Atari later 90’s.
Skyline beat DLS earlier 80’s, around 84 ish? Nonetheless I always enjoyed going to Skylne ganes. Well prepared and coached with some great players in that era.
It was when Atari played, I had went to that game, Skyline didn't win but it was DLS closest game that year. I still talked with Bean when go over to Laney. He's the AD & HC there.
You’re right they did meet again in that era! Beam got his win against Lad and DLS in the 80’s (not many coaches get to make that claim).
After World War II, the AAA was very strong. In the 1950s, Polytechnic was a beast under Coach Milt Axt. SI had a couple of terrific teams just prior to its entrance into the new WCAL.
Nobody was! Lol. You won a sectional title and called it a day. The state bowl game is only 11 or so years old.
Listen, I Iove my city but one of the best things that ever happened to me is not being allowed to attend high school in San Francisco. Was there talent in the city? Certainly. Theres a saying that goes hard work beats lazy talent. Kids in the City league get sold short by a commissioner and schools looking for a short cut. How many of the City schools have updated weight rooms or weight programs? Strength and Conditioning Coaches? BFS classes? That's all foreign to the AAA.
For the love of my city I hope the AAA gets their shit together but it wont happen. We all heard Don Collins when Mission won last year sell the City League as overlooked rather than underfunded.
I get that.
Im talking about the the last 15-20 years. As football has evolved the AAA has remained in the stone age and its sad.
It's not that football hasn't evolved in the AAA, it's that the demographics and the cost of living in the city over the years, as well as more affordable homes in the likes of Antioch, Brentwood, Pittsburg, Oakley, Fairfield, Sacramento areas. At one time the AAA was really good in all sports.. I played in the AAA and would play and beat teams that are now powerhouses. My mom moved to the away because of the home prices were more attractive and could get more for the money. I was 3 sport letter All-City athlete.. At one time Balboa was the No. 1 team in the bay area in football.. It's not that they're stuck in the stone age. I know I lived it and was part of it. Different areas go through it as it goes in cycles over the years. http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...-S-F-s-ethnic-diversity-dwindling-6222673.php
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I bet after you disembarked from the Victory ship it was nice to go see some football!
If ALL SF High Schools played in one section......it would be interesting but not sure how the leagues would break out.
Several BCL schools actually are in the AAA for fencing since the BCL doesn't have fencing. So there is precedent for BCL schools to play. ICA dropped out of the WBAL and joined the AAA. ICA being an inner city private school actually fits well with the AAA.
But the private schools, with a lot of kids from outside of SF would be a lot different than most city schools. Would have have the AAA (for public schools) and a separate league for just the privates? How would the section champions be determined?
League One: All AAA schools
League Two: SI, SHC, Riordan, Bay, Urban, Lick, Stuart Hall University, Convent (Women) and Mercy (Women)
The private school boys basketball would be interesting. Girls basketball would be mismatched as SI / SHC are generally good.
Several BCL schools actually are in the AAA for fencing since the BCL doesn't have fencing. So there is precedent for BCL schools to play. ICA dropped out of the WBAL and joined the AAA. ICA being an inner city private school actually fits well with the AAA.
But the private schools, with a lot of kids from outside of SF would be a lot different than most city schools. Would have have the AAA (for public schools) and a separate league for just the privates? How would the section champions be determined?
League One: All AAA schools
League Two: SI, SHC, Riordan, Bay, Urban, Lick, Stuart Hall University, Convent (Women) and Mercy (Women)
The private school boys basketball would be interesting. Girls basketball would be mismatched as SI / SHC are generally good.
Again, I get it and kudos to you.
The AAA has issues bigger than that though. The demographics havent only changed in SF. They've affected the entire peninsula. Yet certain programs with strong leadership have continued to play good ball and its not as if there is rent control im the Central Coast Section.
Since the WCAL was formed in 1967 and lured both SI and (a bit later) SH out of the AAA, a long, slow decline of SF public school athletics began. The closure of powerhouse Polytechnic six years later didn't help. Then, as if that wasn't enough, small, pricey private schools like University, Urban, Lick Wilmerding, Stuart Hall and a few others began to pay more attention to their athletic programs. Football is one thing. But the AAA's total set of athletic offerings for boys and girls is far more limited than public school leagues to the south in the Central Coast Section. It's been an insidious and painful deterioration over time. However, it would be wrong to state, categorically, that the AAA has not made some progress in recent years. It has. There are some positive pockets. League-wide, though, those isolated cases of improvement are few and far-between.
What do you mean "basic"? The AAA offers what seems to be a pretty standard set of sports:
Boys: Basketball, Football, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball, Golf, Swimming, Track & Field / Cross Country, Baseball
Girls: Basketball, Tennis, Softball, Soccer, Golf, Swimming, Track and Field, Cross Country.
In fact, Fencing is a sport not offered by any leagues in the area and thus several BCL teams are in the AAA. The AAA started offering Flag Football for girls and I think Washington High introduced Lacrosse.
One thing I noted is that in a LOT of sports, there are only varsity teams and no Frosh / Soph / JV teams.
Unless I'm missing something, the AAA has just about what everyone else has in terms of public schools.
The AAA schools are far from consistent in their total sports offerings. For one thing, aquatics (swimming, water polo, diving) are simply MIA. Lower-level teams, frosh-soph etc., are in-and-out, depending on the school, the sport and the year. And that includes the large schools. We're talking about the total sports packages at AAA schools. One reasonable example: Washington, a large school, lists a total of 13 varsity sports for boys and girls on its MaxPreps site; San Mateo, a smaller school 20 miles south in the PAL, lists 23.
In fairness to the AAA, it has more challenges than many of the suburban schools. We understand that. For that matter, RIordan, for one, has struggled at times to offer a total WCAL sports package. It's not easy to compete with schools, public and private/parochial, to the south. SHC, which is coed, knows that as well. Interestingly, you can make a pretty strong case that, for SHC and SI, both coed for a generation or so, their girls' athletic programs are actually stronger overall than the boys'. That can be a selling point for both of them. It's a marketing tool for female athletes who may find AAA schools lacking in their chosen sports.
In 1947, Sacred Heart was rated #1 in Nor Cal. Their only two losses were to Polytechnic.
MaxPreps is hardly the authoritative source for all sports. Here's a list of teams at all AAA schools:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7qzbda632p3z5r/HighSchoolCoaches.pdf?dl=0
28 Sports (Varsity / JV / Frosh Soph) for Washington.
There is inconsistency because the small schools in the AAA either don't have interest or the money to fund the sports. My alma mater Wallenberg (at 650 students) has very solid participation even if it doesn't have Football.
The other factor is that football is only played at the larger schools that have football fields. The AAA consists of a lot of smaller schools these days and they are located at buildings that used to be middle schools. McAteer closed and was replaced by the Academy of Art which doesn't field football so that was a loss there.
Now wait a minute! While I was tracking old football scores, I came across a lot of Poly games. The only schools that gave them trouble were the out of section schools like the Bakersfield Drillers.
The Irish beat them once in a 1924 playoff game (actually a tie-breaker) and a huge upset in 1942. For the last 13 years of the series, Sacred Heart was 9-3-1 against them before moving to the WCAL.
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