Athlete Spotlight

Clayton Valley Athletic Association’s cheerleading won another national championship last month in Las Vegas at the JAMZ Youth Nationals. Teams had to receive a bid based on previouscompetition to compete at Nationals. Clayton Valley’s Nationals team competed in Division 13 Level 1 Sideline Performance Cheer and Division 13, Level 2 Show Cheer.

Theteam wasawarded first place in Show Cheer with a score of 93.2 The team was also awarded the High Point award which comes with a bid to the YCADA Youth Nationals in Atlantic City, NJ at the end of February for the highest score out of all Division 13 teams.

Basketball, from page 8

They’re 23-5. They won one of the divisions down at Damien. I am pretty sure that’s one of the best teams in this area. Dublin had a great year. Granada was a six seed in our tournament, and they have multiple college players — and not just like (lower level) players. They have Division I players.”

COUGARS OPPONENTS

FROM 8 STATES

Carondelet won the NCS girls Open Division title a year ago and coach Kelly Sopak’s Cougars finished 21-5 in a challenging independent schedule

Jared Gallegos

School: Mt. Diablo High

Grade: Junior

Sport: Soccer

After making a big impression in his sophomore season as a first team all-Diablo Athletic League player, Gallegos carried on this year with another outstanding effort as a captain for Red Devils coach Octavio Guzman. “Jared is a special player on and off the field. He is coachable and doesn’t need reminders to do great things. He is one of our top academic athletes here at Mount by maintaining a 4.0 GPA all three years. He made varsity as a freshman and was a starter. I believe a bright future is ahead of him,” Guzman says of his junior standout. The team had a streaky season that included winning five of seven games in the middle of the schedule with both losses by one goal. That was followed by having only three draws to show for the final seven games, although only being outscored by four goals in their losses during that stretch. The team earned a berth in the NCS Division IV soccer playoffs.

Marin Academy-San Rafael (1212) in a 2022 playoff rematch.

The winner will meet top seed Berean Christian (22-4, 9-1) in the quarterfinals.

Clayton Valley Charter boys were part of a competitive threeway race in the DAL Foothill Division with defending champion Campolindo and Las Lomas. The Concord school split its two league games with both teams. Campo is top seed in Division II and Las Lomas is No. 3.

In Division I, Moreau Catholic of Hayward is seeded second to CVCHS with a number of perennial basketball powers in the flight including Bishop O’Dowd, Pittsburg and Berkeley. If the Ugly Eagles win their opener they will meet the winner of San Leandro-Fremont in the quarterfinals.

Coach Frank Allocco Jr. is surprised that his team was not placed in the six-team Open Division. He points out his team’s big wins over Campolindo, Oakland Tech, Berkeley, San Leandro, Monte Vista, Bishop Manogue of Reno and two good Texas teams as superior to a nine-loss Dublin team.

Then incredibly, the No. 1 seed Ugly Eagles must travel to the lowest Division I seed, Mt. Eden, for the tournament opener because CVCHS was a league co-champion while Mt. Eden won its league outright. which included games against teams from seven states besides California. Ygnacio Valley and College Park both qualified their boys and girls teams for the NCS playoffs while the Mt. Diablo girls make a return trip after reaching last season’s semifinals and then garnering a spot in the NorCal playoffs. By being selected for the Open Division, both De La Salle and Carondelet are guaranteed spots in the Northern California playoffs which begin Feb 28.

The Ugly Eagles made school history with their Division I championship last year, the first-ever NCS boys basketball crown for the Concord school and this year’s young squad, missing 10 seniors from 2022, has picked up from there highlighted by a win over Campolindo that ended the Cougars 36-game DAL winning streak.

De La Salle missed winning last year’s Open Division title by a point to Campolindo and the Spartans had to survive a brutal EBAL schedule to return to the Open Division bracket this season. The Concord school lost in overtime to Granada in the semi-finals of the EBAL playoffs last week.

The power of the EBAL this season is demonstrated with five of the six teams in the Open flight coming from the league.

“Yeah, 100 percent it’s a testament to our league,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder told the media after Sunday’s NCS draw. “SRV is really, really good.