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My high school years were amazing.
Much of it had to do with my years playing soccer for the Amador Valley High varsity team. My junior and senior years we lost one game total. That came my junior year, and it came early in the season.
My senior year (1979) we didn’t lose, winning everything along the way – tournaments, the East Bay Athletic League and the playoffs. There was no North Coast Section back then, but the EBAL champ would face off against the winner of the Catholic Athletic League, which were the two best leagues … and this year it wasn’t close.
My senior year we faced De La Salle, and the final score was 6-2. We finished the year No. 1 in the nation and gave up only like six or seven goals in 21 games.
I can remember the quote from the De La Salle coach following the game that was run in the local paper. Maybe a tad bit paraphrasing, but it’s close: “They can be beat, but not by a team in the United States.”
It is arguably the best Amador team in any sport and featured three players that went on to play professional soccer in Kevin Crow, Steve Englebrick and Marty Espinoza.
Of our 11 starters, I was the lone one not to play sports in college. I blew my knee out that summer – and by the time I recovered, I was in college, discovered how good pizza and beer are, and the rest was history.
It was the middle year of a three-year run at Amador where the soccer team went 55 games without a loss. It was a record for all high school sports in the country and stood until the De La Salle football program blew it away.
High school soccer in those days was monstrous, with the games being played right after school back then, guaranteeing a big crowd as the students stuck around to watch the games.
Great memories for all of us, but initially we didn’t realize the deep reason why those years were so special: our coach.
Mike Geib was a longtime teacher at Amador and turned out to be the most successful soccer coach in the school’s history.
The older we got, the more we were able to reflect upon everything that made those years extra special – Geib.
While you are younger, I don’t think any athlete fully appreciates the role their coaches played in their lives. When you get older and have kids of your own, you start to grasp lessons learned from your coaches and understand they were more than just wins and losses, but life itself.
Three weeks ago, a group of five of us former players had Coach Geib over to my house on a Saturday afternoon. I had talked to his daughter a couple weeks earlier, and she told me he could use a visit with us.
We set a date and his daughter brought over coach and his wife.
It was a couple of hours of telling stories, laughing and remembering some of the best days of our lives. In some ways it was like those high school days had never left.
As much as it meant to coach, I couldn’t help the feeling it meant every bit to the five of us. This was back in the days when you played youth soccer through high school with the same group of friends.
You went to battle with your buddies year-round, and it provided memories that are as vivid in our 60s and as they were when we were growing up.
We all look forward to our next visit with coach and feel blessed we still have a chance to spend time with a coach that helped shape all our lives.
Thanks, Coach Geib – we all love you.
Amador girls’ water polo
The Dons fell 17-5 to Los Altos in the first round of the CIF NorCal playoffs.
Susan Swyers scored twice, with Dori Selway, Addi Drain and Genna Schmidt scoring one each. Deepika Suresh made six saves for the Dons.
Los Altos fell 10-7 in the championship match to Merced.
Amador boys’ basketball
The Dons knocked off James Logan 70-44 last Friday behind 22 points from Jaylen Smith.
Cade Krueger and Dante Ventura had 11 points each, with Elijah Stanley adding nine points.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
