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.