Lions Win 50th CIF Title

Track & Field

Wins Milestone CIF Title

The OCS girls’ and boys’ track and field teams made athletic history with a one-two punch to capture

the school’s 50th and 51st California

Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) championship titles. Oaks Christian School has set a phenomenal record in achieving 51 championship titles in the short 21 years since the school was founded.

Coached by Wes Smith, the teams were heavily favored going into the Division 4 championship meet at Carpinteria High School on June 12, 2021. And they dominated and delivered. It was the fifth sectional title for the boys and the sixth consecutive for the girls.

The girls reached the 50th title by scoring 156.33 points, the most in CIF-SS history, boys or girls, since 1913. The boys were right behind them and an hour later laid claim to number 51.

“To accomplish this feat of winning CIF championships 50 and 51 in 21 years tells us a lot about the quality of student athletes we have and the quality of coaches we have,” said Head of Athletics Jan Hethcock. “I would never have imagined Oaks Christian would win this many championships in such a short time. This is a wonderful accomplishment for our athletes, alumni, coaches, and the school.”

The Lady Lions won gold in the 4×100 relay (47.26) and 4×400 (3:53.74). Tenly Kuhn took first place in the girls long jump at 12’ 5”. Jahzara Richardson brought home two gold medals, winning the 100m at 12.00 seconds, and the 200m at 24.62 seconds. Teammate Brooklyn Courtnall won her first sectional title in the 400 with a time of 55.66 seconds. Right behind her for second place was Raeshell Austin at 57.40.

In the boys’ division, Oaks Christian netted a score of 79, handily beating Ontario Christian at 46 points. Lion standouts were Gabe Martin who easily captured the long jump at 24’ 2.75” Jake Reed took the pole vault victory at 14’6.” and Ethan Bergman took third at 13’. Elijah Gipson enjoyed a personal best of 40.50 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles. Chase Farrell placed third in the 100m at 10.8 seconds, and Jalen Lewis came in fifth at 11.04.

Curtailed Recruiting Doesn’t Stop Achievement

Despite Loss of Junior Year, Seniors Celebrate Signing Day

Oaks Christian celebrated Athletic Distinction with a socially distanced National

Signing Day event in the

Dallas Athletic Facility on Feb 3, 2021. The ceremony recognized 20 athletes in attendance (a second signing day in late spring honored athletes unable to be at the first event). Surrounded by family, friends, coaches and staff, the students signed Letters of Intent to play their sport in college.

The annual ceremony is always a celebration of the athletes’ hard-won recognition of their ability to compete collegiately, but this year’s crop of athletes is especially to be commended. Recruiters typically look closely at an athlete’s junior season, but for this year’s seniors, COVID-19 severely reduced or eliminated those seasons.

“It was definitely difficult to showcase myself when the baseball season was shut down because I had a lot of coaches that were interested in recruiting me. They wanted to come out and watch me play, but that did not happen,” said Gianni Horvat who signed to play shortstop with University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Years before the pandemic, much of the recruiting process had already moved online with athletes posting resumes, game videos, and highlight reels. However, those platforms are more supplementary: recruiters still like to see athletes perform in person, assessing the highs and lows of their skill set, split second decisions made on the field or court, and their interaction with teammates. Also, the fit needs to be right for both player and school, something that is hard to determine solely online.

“The biggest loss is the comfort level in-person, the coach with the recruit, the recruit with the coach, the recruit with the campus and community and other coaches. You’re relying on digital correspondence, but the in-person evaluation is just as important. For the recruit—does the campus look like it did on my computer screen? Do I feel comfortable in the community or town? That is why many athletes went and scouted out schools on their own—just to make sure it was the right fit across the board,” said 247Sports National Recruiting Editor Brandon Huffman.

Last year, the OCS baseball team played seven non-league games before the California Interscholastic FederationSouthern Section (CIF-SS) shut down spring sports. Without practices and games, Horvat used the time to get in the gym and keep conditioning. But he also got creative and used social media to keep a presence in front of recruiters, a recommendation made by several sports associations in addition to updating or creating a personal sport website.

“Twitter and Instagram really helped me out tremendously. I started posting on these platforms every three days and made sure that I was consistent with posting baseball content,” he shared. “This allowed for coaches to make an assessment on me as a player because I was providing them with the information they needed to recruit me into their program.”

He admits doing so was stressful though, and was relieved after he signed, and thankful for his coaches and family that got him to signing day.

Senior Brooklyn Courtnall will be playing both soccer and running track and field for the University of Southern California. College soccer recruits earlier than track, but she shared, “because of the pandemic coaches really have to take a chance and trust you’re developing well on your own without games.”

She sent them clips from her junior year, and they have been watching her play club since her freshman year. Track and

field completely shut down in 2020, so she had no junior year record. Because she was not running her events—the 400, 200, 4 X 1 relay and 4 X 4 relay—coaches had to look at her personal bests from 2018-19, which she felt weren’t ideal. However, getting on the USC teams more than made up for that.

“I’m extremely thankful I got to sign even though the season got cancelled. This is a tough time for all athletes, and it’s caused a lot of adversity. To be able to be a college athlete is something I’ve dreamed of since I was seven,” she said.

In addressing the athletes at the signing ceremony, OCS Head of Athletics Jan Hethcock acknowledged the extenuating circumstances they faced.

“What a past year this has been! None of us could have imagined the events we have been through,” he said. “I commend you for hanging in there and not giving up on your dreams…committing yourself to late night, early morning workouts and weekend study sessions, and not missing practices. Now your dream of playing college sports is becoming a reality.”