St Joseph alameda season in limbo
- Thread starter Bigran44
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A concerned parent of a player. We stand behind coach Hipol. Good coaches don’t grow on trees.
So the team they play tonight, they beat 87-3 last month.. and they won 91-4 last week.. unfortunate scores for sure but was anyone at these games? I don't see him as the type to rub it in. Have to let the girls play at some point. I'm sure these games could have been 200 to 3 or 4 if they wanted it to be.
Will we be hearing from the school at some point?
Will we be hearing from the school at some point?
Poor scheduling for sure, that goes without saying. But I have witnessed games with scores like this when coaches didn't press the whole game, didn't trap, subbed liberally to the end of the bench, and didn't even fast break for much of the game. There was nothing for those coaches to do (besides let the other team score and/or not let their kids try at all on offense) in order to make a score look better.
So until I hear more of the story I'm not going to pass judgement on a score.
When you have a really good team with depth playing a bad team those are the types of scores you might end up with. The subs are often really good. Can you expect them to just quit playing?
I remember watching a SMS game about ten years ago when they had one of their elite, teams go into a pass the ball until the shot clock ran out for the entire fourth quarter and the final score was still compatible with the scores mentioned for SJ. You would actually have to be at the game and consider the circumstances to know if a team was piling on.
The problem is the scheduling, which sometimes because of a team being in a week league can not be helped. The difference between the top teams and the lower level team is more extreme in girls' high school basketball than in any other sport.
What is more demeaning. Playing a team hard or patronizing them by treating them like you would a child you were teaching a game? If you have a superior team you might consider not playing league games but that is not always logistically possible.
I remember watching a SMS game about ten years ago when they had one of their elite, teams go into a pass the ball until the shot clock ran out for the entire fourth quarter and the final score was still compatible with the scores mentioned for SJ. You would actually have to be at the game and consider the circumstances to know if a team was piling on.
The problem is the scheduling, which sometimes because of a team being in a week league can not be helped. The difference between the top teams and the lower level team is more extreme in girls' high school basketball than in any other sport.
What is more demeaning. Playing a team hard or patronizing them by treating them like you would a child you were teaching a game? If you have a superior team you might consider not playing league games but that is not always logistically possible.
it's not poor scheduling. SJND was forced to join the BCL after leagues realigned. so here you have a good basketball program playing against below average D5 schools. they have no control about the league schedule unless this was a non-league game.
I thought the clock is supposed to run once a 40 point lead is established. How do you add another 40-50 points after that without pressing?
I just assumed as they played that game on 12/6. But upon closer examination of maxpreps, it is indeed listed as a league game, as was Redwood Christian. Certainly not the coaches fault for that
If this is in fact true, shame on SJND admin. I"m sure the other schools were emailing, calling, etc. because of the score. Everyone and their momma knew this was going to happen for both boys and girls basketball. why they both (boys and girls) didn't go independent/anomaly is beyond me. This way they wouldn't have to deal with the Lilliputians of the BCL.
In the past I have said things like Hip was a Sopak wanna be but this year he really had done a GREAT job with the kids he had. Total shame when the admin doesn't support athletics and this is a clear sign (if in fact this is true) that they don't
In the past I have said things like Hip was a Sopak wanna be but this year he really had done a GREAT job with the kids he had. Total shame when the admin doesn't support athletics and this is a clear sign (if in fact this is true) that they don't
What?! Didn't the administration think about the kids on St. Joes' team. That is unfortunate. Maybe they could have given some sort of undisclosed disciplinary action or something. Coach Hipol is a strong coach. This is a sad situation for the players especially those girls that went to St. Joes because of coach Hipol. I don't like the Administration putting that type of pressure.
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I’m a parent shedding light on the situation because I don’t want anything negative to come up about the coaches or players. These kids and coaches have worked extremely hard to get to this level. They could’ve have scored 200 on these teams. The kids always displayed sportsmanship and never demeaned the other teams. Now 12 girls are left out to dry. 4 seniors
Great team/program forced to play in a bad league by the NCS. I'm the 1st to say you need to watch the games before you judge. They can zone the entire game and walk it up and not shoot until under 10 secs on shot clock and probably still win by 70. Im not sure exactly what can be done when the talent discrepancy is this large other than not to play the games. In girls sports this stuff happens on occasion.
There’s got to be more to the story......
Too good of a program for this to happen.
I do know that years ago before the league changes it was debated if St Joes should go with Berkeley, Odowd, etc because they didn’t want to remain in league with Salesian and SMB........but whoever placed them in that league made a bad decision.
how is that league in other sports? Boys basketball, baseball, etc
Too good of a program for this to happen.
I do know that years ago before the league changes it was debated if St Joes should go with Berkeley, Odowd, etc because they didn’t want to remain in league with Salesian and SMB........but whoever placed them in that league made a bad decision.
how is that league in other sports? Boys basketball, baseball, etc
Its a very weak league in boys hoops too. A lot of the teams are competitive with each other, but just not on the level of St. Joes.
This is a shock. My daughter played for Coach Hip periodically in AAU and he was always prepared, fair, treated the girls with respect, showed excellent sportsmanship, etc. Something is seriously upside down in the administration if they came to this conclusion based on a few scores.
A really awful situation and hard to judge without knowing what happened; though I will say from what I've seen Coach Hip looked like a good coach to me. That said, I hope Pete Mastora or someone like that takes over, those kids are talented and have worked really hard for where they have gotten to, would be an absolute tragedy if their season goes for a toss.
We definitely need to put some prayers up and some good vibes for the girls at SJND that this season isn't lost. It would be a terrible thing.
I spoke to Coach Hip directly. This is a complete travesty for both him and the girls. He WANTS to be coaching these kids. This is an administrator with an agenda who is envious of what he’s built and achieved there. This administrator blasted him for the scores and gave him ridiculous guidelines for games going forward and challenged his integrity and is now not being forthright with the concerned parents on the meeting that took place and what was said. He did choose to resign due to the insults, parameters and personal attacks on his character.
I hope for both Coach Hip and the girls that someone ABOVE this administrator steps up and steps in before it’s too late. It’s the administrator that needs to go and not Coach Hip. If I was a parent in this program and supports Coach Hip, which I know many do, I would make your voice heard. The girls already forfeited a game tonight in support of their coach.
I hope for both Coach Hip and the girls that someone ABOVE this administrator steps up and steps in before it’s too late. It’s the administrator that needs to go and not Coach Hip. If I was a parent in this program and supports Coach Hip, which I know many do, I would make your voice heard. The girls already forfeited a game tonight in support of their coach.
Fwiw, box scores from the two annihilations suggest that SJND did let up in the second half in both games. Rdwd Christian (69-2 first half, 22-2 second); College Prep (58-2, 29-1).
I won't judge having not seen the games, but if the administrator warned about margin of victory, shouldn't that warning have been heeded?
I won't judge having not seen the games, but if the administrator warned about margin of victory, shouldn't that warning have been heeded?
In horse racing the favorites carry extra weight to even the odds for betting purposes. Perhaps when the SJ girls play league they can make them wear ankle weights as their handycap?
Our society has turned into a lunatic asylum. We promote mediocrity just to avoid offending anyone simply to create the illusion of equity.
Our society has turned into a lunatic asylum. We promote mediocrity just to avoid offending anyone simply to create the illusion of equity.
It's a very complicated story, but it all began with SJND pushing to get in the BCL-East, where I used to coach. I happened to be at the Bay Counties League meeting when SJND was placed in the BCL-East, and it was not pretty.
To start with, the BCL is made up of 25+ schools, only six of which are in the BCL-East. SJND, as I understand it, wanted to be part of the BCL-East because it wanted to upgrade its academic reputation, and by associating with Head-Royce, College Prep and Bentley, among others, it would help the school's image. (Whether this makes sense or not, I can't say ...)
Another point: SJND is good but not dominant in most sports in the BCL-East. It's a little bigger than the other schools, but aside from basketball, it's an OK fit.
So back to the meeting: The SJND administrator, who's no longer there, makes his pitch to the 25+ schools in the room, saying that the emphasis of the school is changing, and the anticipation is that the dominant basketball programs will take a step back in the coming years. The BCL-East schools disagree, and say it's a joke to have SJND playing in their league and it should never happen. The rest of the BCL teams don't really care, as long as they don't have SJND in their league. (And NCS, by the way, had mandated that SJND had to be in the BCL, despite the fact its athletics were way above the standards for the teams in the BCL.)
So there was a vote, and all but one of the BCL-East schools voted against having SJND in the league -- but other BCL schools voted in favor.
From the jump, then, no one wanted the SJND basketball program in the BCL-East -- not the SJND coaches nor the teams in that league. The administrator didn't care about the ramifications athletically, because his only concern was association with Head-Royce, etc. The other BCL schools just wanted to move on, and if they didn't have to deal with SJND, fine. The BCL-East schools could figure it out.
And here we are ...
To start with, the BCL is made up of 25+ schools, only six of which are in the BCL-East. SJND, as I understand it, wanted to be part of the BCL-East because it wanted to upgrade its academic reputation, and by associating with Head-Royce, College Prep and Bentley, among others, it would help the school's image. (Whether this makes sense or not, I can't say ...)
Another point: SJND is good but not dominant in most sports in the BCL-East. It's a little bigger than the other schools, but aside from basketball, it's an OK fit.
So back to the meeting: The SJND administrator, who's no longer there, makes his pitch to the 25+ schools in the room, saying that the emphasis of the school is changing, and the anticipation is that the dominant basketball programs will take a step back in the coming years. The BCL-East schools disagree, and say it's a joke to have SJND playing in their league and it should never happen. The rest of the BCL teams don't really care, as long as they don't have SJND in their league. (And NCS, by the way, had mandated that SJND had to be in the BCL, despite the fact its athletics were way above the standards for the teams in the BCL.)
So there was a vote, and all but one of the BCL-East schools voted against having SJND in the league -- but other BCL schools voted in favor.
From the jump, then, no one wanted the SJND basketball program in the BCL-East -- not the SJND coaches nor the teams in that league. The administrator didn't care about the ramifications athletically, because his only concern was association with Head-Royce, etc. The other BCL schools just wanted to move on, and if they didn't have to deal with SJND, fine. The BCL-East schools could figure it out.
And here we are ...
Not sure if this is the same administrator that Craig was referring to but.... after some google searching it looks like the interim principal as of July is Julianne Guevara who by looking at linkedin I believe is formerly Julianne Berry. She used to be the coach at SJND and was the 2011 Cal Hi coach of the year for D5... anyone know how her tenure ended as coach?
Parameters were requested and established by the league ahead of time. Those parameters were met by Coach Hip. Not only does Hip do a great job, he is a great person who does what he does for the kids. He would never be one to stick it to someone or run up the score. At the same time, his kids are having a great season and they need to get what they need out of the game as well. He is playing the schedule that was handed to him and the second half scores of both games show they let up considerably.
Well that could be a key right there.. what's her agenda? Who does she want as the coach? Is she jealous of success that hipp has been able to accomplish that she never could?
This just took an interesting turn..
About 3-4 years ago, Brad Thomas (my AD) said that St. Joes and the rest of the AD's in our league (WAC-Foothill) had a meeting and was considering moving their basketball teams to our league. We probably heard a lot of the same things that the BCL said: unfair cause they recruit, they're not on the same level as our basketball programs..etc. The boys and girls teams at Alameda didn't care and welcomed it because we can't control the external factors and by added them, it would add instant credibility to the league which got no respect at the time.
I know Julie has been an admin for a while. was she the one advocating for BCL admittance? There has to be a happy medium because its not productive for SJ to schlack team and vice versa. An easy fix is to allow their basketball programs to join a new league when the new realignment cycle starts (or sooner). Can you imagine from the start of a game having to run 30 second off the clock, pass the ball around just to keep the score down? That's like 8-12 possessions a quarter, and that's if you don't get an offensive rebound.
I know Julie has been an admin for a while. was she the one advocating for BCL admittance? There has to be a happy medium because its not productive for SJ to schlack team and vice versa. An easy fix is to allow their basketball programs to join a new league when the new realignment cycle starts (or sooner). Can you imagine from the start of a game having to run 30 second off the clock, pass the ball around just to keep the score down? That's like 8-12 possessions a quarter, and that's if you don't get an offensive rebound.
I imagine it's because both SM and Salesian were National powers at the time. Things have evened up some since then
NCS will consider and likely approve moving SJND basketball to the WAC in the next couple months. All other sports will stay in the BCL-East, which is, for the most part, a decent fit.
The administrator who pushed for SJND to get in the BCL-East is no longer there, and I believe has been gone for a couple years.
The administrator who pushed for SJND to get in the BCL-East is no longer there, and I believe has been gone for a couple years.
I am a little confused. From what I heard St Joes went independent for at least girls basketball. Wouldn’t that mean they would not have to play league opponents if the league opponent did not want to play them? If they were not independent why not? This would seem like a text book example for why schools go the independent route..
They're not independent but in my mind would certainly qualify for it. Well, now that Hipp's gone who knows...but that should have been a no brainer.
Finally found it.. West Alameda County.
Not exactly a powerhouse
league, but at least there are some teams that can put up a good challenge, sometimes... and occasionally more than that (like Alameda’s boys hoops the last couple years before this).
Dunno bout the girls side, nor other sports for either gender cuz I don’t give a hoot... But having this happen would be a huge improvement over what’s been going on the last few years. 91-3 ain’t fun. Even 80-32 (which just might be typical if the Pilots somehow get Coach Hip back) would be a major improvement.
That being said, I have sat thru a couple of the above 91-3 jobs, and I saw nothing outlandish about the Pilots’ game plans. They’d go hard with the press and their starters going full bore for a quarter or so, then lengthen the rotation and ease wayyyyyy back on the pressure, generally only a little bit of halfcourt trap kinda stuff. The 2nd half would be strictly halfcourt on D, usually soft zone... 4th q would be strictly end-of-bench, work clock every possession with maybe an exception for wiiiiiiiiiiiide open layups.
Hope they can do the right thing here... Would start with that league move.
Not exactly a powerhouse
league, but at least there are some teams that can put up a good challenge, sometimes... and occasionally more than that (like Alameda’s boys hoops the last couple years before this).
Dunno bout the girls side, nor other sports for either gender cuz I don’t give a hoot... But having this happen would be a huge improvement over what’s been going on the last few years. 91-3 ain’t fun. Even 80-32 (which just might be typical if the Pilots somehow get Coach Hip back) would be a major improvement.
That being said, I have sat thru a couple of the above 91-3 jobs, and I saw nothing outlandish about the Pilots’ game plans. They’d go hard with the press and their starters going full bore for a quarter or so, then lengthen the rotation and ease wayyyyyy back on the pressure, generally only a little bit of halfcourt trap kinda stuff. The 2nd half would be strictly halfcourt on D, usually soft zone... 4th q would be strictly end-of-bench, work clock every possession with maybe an exception for wiiiiiiiiiiiide open layups.
Hope they can do the right thing here... Would start with that league move.
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No doubt about that.
Going through maxpreps, last game was 2011 State semi loss to #1 seed Pinewood. SJND was the 3 seed. Some regular season scores....Encinal 66-21, Swett 93-35, Encinal 70-21.
Her first season was 2006-07, the only losing season,
https://www.maxpreps.com/high-schoo...s-basketball-winter-10-11/records/coaches.htm
https://www.maxpreps.com/high-schoo...a)/girls-basketball-winter-10-11/schedule.htm
Julianne Berry was the Head coach at St. Ignatius just prior to landing at St. Joes......back to back CCS D3 banners in2004 and 2005..then left for SJND.
