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This is the last Big Picture of the school year but don’t worry, we will be back in August as we get ready for another year of East Bay Athletic League high school sports!
And since this will be the last time you hear from me for a couple of months, I’d love to end on a happy note – but in this case, I can’t.
There are a couple of things that happened in the final two weeks of the spring season that upset me.
Last week in this space, I wrote about how the Livermore boys’ baseball team captured the North Coast Section Division IV title and advanced to the NorCal D-IV tournament.
The Cowboys won their first two games in the D-IV tournament before falling 2-0 to top-seeded Half Moon Bay in the NorCal championship game.
It was a great run by a team that was last in the EBAL and was also the last EBAL team to be playing in the spring.
What I found perplexing was the level of sarcasm and disrespect some in the area had for the Cowboys playing against smaller schools.
I may be wrong, but I support all the EBAL schools when they are playing in the postseason. I have covered the EBAL for over 40 years and played in the league when I was in high school at Amador Valley.
I think overall it is the strongest athletic league in Northern California and one of the top in the state. When it comes to supporting the league, I have been called a “homer” – and that’s a title I wear proudly.
Southern California has been doing this for years, and NCS finally stepped up to level the playing field. I am quick to criticize NCS on a variety of issues, but this is a move I stand behind and applaud.
Livermore finished the regular season 6-18 playing in a league that sent two teams to the D-I semifinals. Six EBAL teams were in the D-I NCS tournament and a seventh was in the D-II playoffs. The Cowboys being placed in the D-IV tournament was right and fair.
I think it was a great story and one that many in the Valley embraced. The Cowboys run should be embraced and celebrated, unfortunately some decided to mock the story.
It’s a sad statement.
In other results at the NorCal level for EBAL programs, De La Salle and Granada both got by their D-I openers, with the Spartans beating Saint Francis 4-3 and the Mats coming from behind to beat St. Mary’s-Stockton 5-4.
Both EBAL teams fell in the semifinals, De La Salle losing 3-0 to eventual champion Valley Christian and Granada bested 11-7 to Elk Grove.
In the softball tournaments, San Ramon Valley lost 4-3 to Saint Francis in the first round of the D-I playoffs, with Foothill falling 9-2 to eventual champion Las Plumas in the D-III tournament.
Speaking of sad statements…
Back on May 30-31, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Track and Field Championships were held. And once again the athletes who train so hard to make one of the premier high school track and field meets in the United States were overshadowed by the controversy regarding a transgender athlete.
The name is not important, and the athlete’s name has been trotted out in headlines in both print and broadcast across the United States. At the end of the day the situation is what’s important, not the name of the athlete.
The facts are simple – for the second straight year a biological male competed in the girls’ division and has won five gold medals and a bronze medal in the two years.
Look, I don’t care if this male wants to live life as a female, but it’s wrong to allow a male to compete against a female in athletic competitions.
He can live his life as he chooses, and no one should pass any judgement – it’s his choice and we all need to respect the choice. But allowing a male to compete is unfair and affects multiple people.
By all accounts, this athlete is a good person. His mother initially opposed the choice when she found out about his decision to live as a girl back in middle school.
Over time the mother has grown to support her child, which is the way it should be. It’s her child and having her support her child in his life choices is the way it should be.
But it all changes when you have boys competing against girls in athletics. It’s not a fair playing field.
I don’t place any blame on the athlete or the family – they don’t make the rules.
If anyone should shoulder the blame, it’s the CIF and their inability to make a stand and do the right thing that has the issue carrying over to outside athletics.
It’s become a hot item in this election year with lines being drawn and is a major talking point. The vast majority of Americans believe it is not right for biological males to compete against females.
The International Olympic Committee has voted against males competing against females – and in the next Summer Olympics, which ironically are taking place in California, females will compete against other females only.
Even CIF, in their infinite wisdom, announced the highest finishing female behind the transgender athlete would be awarded the same color medal. Two weeks ago, at the track and field meet there were two goal medals awarded in the high jump and triple jump, and two bronze medals for the long jump.
It’s a blatant admission by CIF that it’s not fair to the females. How else would you explain the awarding of a second medal? CIF has been destroying high school athletics in California for a while now and as an organization has had the chance to put the debate to bed.
The solution is simple, but CIF does not have the guts to enforce it – males compete against males and females compete against females.
Hopefully at some point, CIF will make it a non-issue, but don’t count on it.
We will see you back in this space in August when the 2026-27 fall prep season kicks into gear. Thanks for being a loyal reader and I look forward to bringing you more insight into the EBAL next season.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation. To sign up for free, visit here.
