WCAL embarks on 50th anniversary season - by John Horgan Daily Journal
A milestone begins this month, albeit without much fanfare. The West Catholic Athletic League is commencing its 50th season as a Bay Area prep sports conference. Through the decades since its inception in the fall of 1967, the league has become one of the strongest in California.
It began as an outgrowth of the original Catholic Athletic League, a Bay Area-wide entity comprised, early on, of relatively small high schools with limited budgets and, frequently, minimal facilities.
Some of those institutions (St. Anselm’s of Marin County and St. Peter’s and St. James, both of San Francisco) no longer exist. In the aftermath of World War II, the evolving CAL did not feature extensive athletic offerings.
Well-established Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, founded in 1851, did not join the CAL in football until the late 1950s. The Bells were simply too strong; early CAL competition was not consistently challenging enough for them. But that changed once new parochial schools like Serra in San Mateo and Riordan in San Francisco began to see healthy enrollment increases in the 1950s and St. Francis of Mountain View opened and grew quickly.
In its heyday in the early 1960s, the CAL was split evenly in half: Four East Bay schools (St. Mary’s of Berkeley, St. Joseph’s of Alameda, Bishop O’Dowd and St. Elizabeth’s, both of Oakland) and four in the West Bay (Riordan, Serra, Bellarmine and St. Francis). But only one East Bay outfit, St. Mary’s, had a CAL football program.
Marin Catholic had left the CAL for Marin County’s public school league late in the 1950s. Efforts by Serra to join the Peninsula Athletic League at about the same time did not come to fruition. A crucial vote of PAL administrators failed by one vote.
A fateful decision that would alter the Bay Area’s high school sports landscape occurred in San Francisco in the mid-1960s when officials at St. Ignatius determined that the Jesuit institution would have to leave the public-school-dominated Academic Athletic Association because of a new rule that prohibited non-San Francisco athletes from AAA competition.
Once SI took that step, its ancient in-city rival, Sacred Heart, would follow two years later. The Irish didn’t have much choice. Where else to go? With SI, naturally. Savvy leaders of the CAL were ready and waiting. They decided to embrace SI and then SH in a new West Bay-only league, the WCAL.
The East Bay Catholic schools remained as the CAL and expanded (it was finally disbanded and its teams were distributed into public school leagues at the end of the 1980s, much to the dismay of the CAL’s loyal supporters). In San Francisco, the AAA was never the same; it’s been in decline ever since.
Along with a new Catholic school in San Jose, Archbishop Mitty, the newly-minted WCAL began operating in 1967-68 with six schools (St. Mary’s remained in football for several years as well). Ed Fennelly, a Riordan administrator and a key architect of the arrangement, was the league’s first commissioner, serving in that capacity for nearly 30 years. Sacred Heart joined for the 1969-70 season.
A non-Catholic school, Valley Christian of San Jose, was added in 2003. Girls’ sports eventually were included too. All-girls Presentation of San Jose is currently part of the league’s female equation. Belmont’s all-girls Notre Dame has dropped out as of this year (the Tigers will remain in water polo).
The results on the scoreboard have been impressive. The WCAL member schools (all of which are tuition-based and do not have enrollment restrictions based on geography as do public schools) have been competing fiercely with one another since that inaugural campaign. They are also a force outside their league.
According to the WCAL’s website, the league’s varsity teams have captured 451 Central Coast Section championships, 90 Northern California titles and 40 state crowns. Significantly, of those 40 state championships, 34 have been won by girls’ teams. Many observers believe that the WCAL’s overall girls’ program is the best and most challenging top-to-bottom, year-in-and-year-out in Northern California. And the boys aren’t far behind.
In terms of superiority within the league, Bellarmine rules the roost on an all-sports basis. The Bells, with an enrollment of 1,600 boys, have won 254 WCAL varsity championships, far more than any other school. Coed St. Francis is second with 148.
The rest are as follows: Mitty 114, St. Ignatius 91, Serra 63, Riordan 29, Valley Christian 17, Sacred Heart Cathedral 17, Presentation nine. Notre Dame has three. Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton has 22, 20 in boys’ and girls’ water polo combined. Notre Dame and SHP currently are supplementary members of the WCAL.
Some of the prominent WCAL alums, through the decades, include: Aaron Gordon, Lynn Swann, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Chris Munk, Shannon Rowbury, Tom Brady, Brandi Chastain, Barry Bonds, Dan Fouts, Kevin Gogan, Pablo Morales, Kevin Restani, Doug Cosbie, Tyler Johnson, Gregg Jefferies, Igor Olshansky, Raymond Townsend, Byron Marshall, Pat Burrell, Mike Ryan, and Eric Wright.
WCAL Commissioner Jolene Fugate said the league’s primary observation of its founding will occur in 2017-18.
John Horgan can be contacted by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.
See more at: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/artic...eason/1776425167022.html#sthash.lxki3p0q.dpuf
A milestone begins this month, albeit without much fanfare. The West Catholic Athletic League is commencing its 50th season as a Bay Area prep sports conference. Through the decades since its inception in the fall of 1967, the league has become one of the strongest in California.
It began as an outgrowth of the original Catholic Athletic League, a Bay Area-wide entity comprised, early on, of relatively small high schools with limited budgets and, frequently, minimal facilities.
Some of those institutions (St. Anselm’s of Marin County and St. Peter’s and St. James, both of San Francisco) no longer exist. In the aftermath of World War II, the evolving CAL did not feature extensive athletic offerings.
Well-established Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, founded in 1851, did not join the CAL in football until the late 1950s. The Bells were simply too strong; early CAL competition was not consistently challenging enough for them. But that changed once new parochial schools like Serra in San Mateo and Riordan in San Francisco began to see healthy enrollment increases in the 1950s and St. Francis of Mountain View opened and grew quickly.
In its heyday in the early 1960s, the CAL was split evenly in half: Four East Bay schools (St. Mary’s of Berkeley, St. Joseph’s of Alameda, Bishop O’Dowd and St. Elizabeth’s, both of Oakland) and four in the West Bay (Riordan, Serra, Bellarmine and St. Francis). But only one East Bay outfit, St. Mary’s, had a CAL football program.
Marin Catholic had left the CAL for Marin County’s public school league late in the 1950s. Efforts by Serra to join the Peninsula Athletic League at about the same time did not come to fruition. A crucial vote of PAL administrators failed by one vote.
A fateful decision that would alter the Bay Area’s high school sports landscape occurred in San Francisco in the mid-1960s when officials at St. Ignatius determined that the Jesuit institution would have to leave the public-school-dominated Academic Athletic Association because of a new rule that prohibited non-San Francisco athletes from AAA competition.
Once SI took that step, its ancient in-city rival, Sacred Heart, would follow two years later. The Irish didn’t have much choice. Where else to go? With SI, naturally. Savvy leaders of the CAL were ready and waiting. They decided to embrace SI and then SH in a new West Bay-only league, the WCAL.
The East Bay Catholic schools remained as the CAL and expanded (it was finally disbanded and its teams were distributed into public school leagues at the end of the 1980s, much to the dismay of the CAL’s loyal supporters). In San Francisco, the AAA was never the same; it’s been in decline ever since.
Along with a new Catholic school in San Jose, Archbishop Mitty, the newly-minted WCAL began operating in 1967-68 with six schools (St. Mary’s remained in football for several years as well). Ed Fennelly, a Riordan administrator and a key architect of the arrangement, was the league’s first commissioner, serving in that capacity for nearly 30 years. Sacred Heart joined for the 1969-70 season.
A non-Catholic school, Valley Christian of San Jose, was added in 2003. Girls’ sports eventually were included too. All-girls Presentation of San Jose is currently part of the league’s female equation. Belmont’s all-girls Notre Dame has dropped out as of this year (the Tigers will remain in water polo).
The results on the scoreboard have been impressive. The WCAL member schools (all of which are tuition-based and do not have enrollment restrictions based on geography as do public schools) have been competing fiercely with one another since that inaugural campaign. They are also a force outside their league.
According to the WCAL’s website, the league’s varsity teams have captured 451 Central Coast Section championships, 90 Northern California titles and 40 state crowns. Significantly, of those 40 state championships, 34 have been won by girls’ teams. Many observers believe that the WCAL’s overall girls’ program is the best and most challenging top-to-bottom, year-in-and-year-out in Northern California. And the boys aren’t far behind.
In terms of superiority within the league, Bellarmine rules the roost on an all-sports basis. The Bells, with an enrollment of 1,600 boys, have won 254 WCAL varsity championships, far more than any other school. Coed St. Francis is second with 148.
The rest are as follows: Mitty 114, St. Ignatius 91, Serra 63, Riordan 29, Valley Christian 17, Sacred Heart Cathedral 17, Presentation nine. Notre Dame has three. Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton has 22, 20 in boys’ and girls’ water polo combined. Notre Dame and SHP currently are supplementary members of the WCAL.
Some of the prominent WCAL alums, through the decades, include: Aaron Gordon, Lynn Swann, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Chris Munk, Shannon Rowbury, Tom Brady, Brandi Chastain, Barry Bonds, Dan Fouts, Kevin Gogan, Pablo Morales, Kevin Restani, Doug Cosbie, Tyler Johnson, Gregg Jefferies, Igor Olshansky, Raymond Townsend, Byron Marshall, Pat Burrell, Mike Ryan, and Eric Wright.
WCAL Commissioner Jolene Fugate said the league’s primary observation of its founding will occur in 2017-18.
John Horgan can be contacted by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.
See more at: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/artic...eason/1776425167022.html#sthash.lxki3p0q.dpuf
