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SHP named CalHi Sports State School of the Year
By Mark Tennis | Published: August 17, 2021
Sacred Heart Prep Athletics has been named the Cal Hi Sports Division III State School of the Year!
Division III State School of Year: Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton)
Competitive equity playoffs for a school like Sacred Heart Prep, which traditionally has been D4 for school of the year calculations, allows for the Gators to be moved up and gives us some flexibility to select a more deserving group of honorees instead of rigidly jamming schools into enrollment-based divisions.
For 2019-20, the Gators were the D4 state school of the year. For 2020-21, they were considered for D3 but have come out on top again. There were five CIF Central Coast Section title teams that came in boys basketball, boys soccer, girls swimming, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse. The two lacrosse titles also came in the CCS Open Division. SHP lacrosse players Paul Barton and Ben Ramsey were both All-Americans and both will play in college in the famed Atlantic Coast Conference (for lacrosse).
For us, Sacred Heart Prep gained notice early in the spring in football as head coach Mark Grieb’s squad finished No. 1 in the final D4 state rankings. There were no CCS playoffs in football and there were none in boys water polo, either, a sport in which SHP was 13-0 and probably one of the best in Northern California.
The year ended for the Gators at the unofficial state track championships in Arcadia where the foursome of Janie Morganroth, Julia Soderbery, Luci Lambert and Lucy Paynter placed second in the 4×800 relay.