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With the Cougars boys and girls cross country teams winning state titles, the girls volleyball the state runner-up and the boys basketball team seen as winning the state championship (though the final game was canceled), Campolindo amassed a score of 975. St. John Bosco (Bellflower) finished in second. Other Bay Area schools that finished in the top 10 in the state were (5) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose), (6) Montgomery (Santa Rosa) and (9) Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland).
Raymond Meadows, in his first year as the athletic director at Campolindo, sees the award as a reflection of the commitment to athletics by the entire Campolindo community. "This is a huge honor for the school and our athletic program," he said. "I'm proud to accept it on behalf of the school but there are a lot of people alongside me and those who came before who helped build this culture and athletic success here and I'm proud to be a part of it. We have so much support for our program and I'm learning every day what that means and how to do that better. We have a longstanding tradition of consistent and professional coaches and there is a lot of parental involvement who are right there on the positive side. Our teachers are also heavily involved - they are at the games and are supportive of the kids along with the school's administration. I meet with Principal (John) Walker daily and he's very involved in athletics and how it defines the culture of the school on top of everything else that he does."
The fact that Campolindo has about 900 athletes out of a student body of only 1,400 students, makes the award all the more notable to Kevin Askeland of MaxPreps. "It's much more difficult to win a California state championship because of the high number of schools that competea," Askeland noted. "There are only six divisions for the California state championships in basketball, for example, which means about 500 schools compete in each division, on average. In New Hampshire, there are four divisions that compete for a state championship in basketball, which means only about 20 teams compete in each division which makes it much easier for New Hampshire schools to rack up state championships. So, it is very impressive that a medium-sized school like Campolindo wins the California MaxPreps Cup because it has a lot of things working against it. Even more impressive is that it is a public school. Usually the only small schools that win a MaxPreps Cup state title are private schools."
As for athletics next fall, Meadows is cautiously optimistic. "We're getting ready for it," he said. "NCS, CIF and everybody are on the same page in terms of doing everything we can to make it happen. So we're really crossing our fingers at this time."
Reach the reporter at:
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA