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When Campolindo walked out of Foothill with the North Coast Section Division II championship on Nov. 27, the Cougars took not only the football hardware, but they also possibly took the hopes of Foothill to host any NCS events in their stadium.
Confused? Okay, let me explain.
There is no denying that Foothill’s facilities for the stadium are antiquated and in dire need of some upgrades.
The press box is an accident waiting to happen, and most importantly, there is a serious issue with ADA accessibility for the field that sits well below the level at which people enter.
There is a ramp down to the lower level, but it is by the softball field — a decent distance from the football field/stadium.
It has been that way for years, but no one has complained like the Campolindo people did to NCS following the game.
I don’t believe the Campo complainers wanted the following tornado to hit Foothill — but it has hit hard and left Foothill hurting.
NCS got the complaints and promptly sent Foothill track and field coach Jorge Quero an email that the NCS Tri-Valley Meet was being taken from Foothill and that there would be no other NCS events at the Foothill stadium until the improvements were made.
That means no NCS events at Foothill for football, soccer, lacrosse, and track and field.
That stinks and can potentially be an issue for a lot of student-athletes.
“We have known there has been some needs,” Foothill principal Sebastian Bull said. “Business Services (in the Pleasanton Unified School District) is working with NCS to meet requirements at least in the short term.”
PUSD spokesman Patrick Gannon got back to me Sunday — impressive and appreciated, working on the weekend — and had the following statement.
“We’ve reached out to NCS and are hopeful to explore some short- and long-term options,” Gannon said. “We are aware of the improvements needing to be made. It is important, but expensive, work and we are committed to exploring solutions.”
There are short-term options.
One, and the most obvious, is paving the dirt path from the end of the ramp by the softball field, alleviating the need to traverse a bumpy and inconsistent dirt-and-gravel path.
It’s not a perfect solution, but the Campo complainers may have done Foothill a favor, although I seriously doubt that was their objective.
But what needs to be done is what benefits the student-athletes. If NCS can’t recognize that, shame on them.
I am fully confident Foothill and PUSD have the best interests of the student-athlete in mind. Let us hope NCS does as well.
Amador boys’ basketball
The Dons hit the road for the Rocklin and split four games, finishing fourth in the 16-team tournament.
Amador opened the tournament facing an aggressive defensive team in Atwater, with the game going back and forth until Amador pulled out a late 52-50 win. Foster Keast had 17, Tyler Cheng 10 and Colton Cash nine to lead the Dons.
Game two saw the Dons knock off Rocklin 56-50. The Dons held a lead at the half before both teams exploded in the third quarter, with Rocklin outscoring Amador 23-21 in the third.
The Amador defense then got the job done in the fourth quarter for the win, sending the Dons into the semifinals. Cheng and Cash had 10 points each. Keast had nine and Jason Ooi seven in the win.
In the semifinals, Amador met the highly touted Clovis West team, with the Dons fighting out to a 20-18 lead early in the second quarter.
Then Clovis caught fire and outscored the Dons 30-6 the rest of the quarter for a 48-26 lead at the half. The lead grew in the second half with Clovis finishing out with an 84-46 win. Clovis went on to win the tournament with a 69-43 win over a good St. Francis team in the finals.
Bryce Osaki, Cheng and Javier Gros-Suanzes had nine points each for Amador in the semifinal.
In the third-place place game, the Dons fell 66-53 to Whitney. Cheng had 17 and Osaki 14 in the loss.
Foothill boys’ soccer
The Falcons varsity started the season off Dec. 1 with a 2-0 win over Castro Valley.
A penalty kick goal from Anthony Tahir opened the scoring, and a header late in the game by Ben Harbourne sealed the victory.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
