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Death, taxes and the North Coast Section coming up with screwy seeds and playoff brackets – those are the only sure things in life.
I have been reporting and watching NCS at-large and seeding meetings since 1985. I remember the days when the coaches of the respective sports would cram into a classroom and make their pitch as to why their team should be in the playoffs.
Then once the field was selected, the coaches gave their opinions on how the seeds should shake out. A panel of coaches from other sports judged the presentations. They could ask questions, and they debated in front of all the coaches.
There was accountability right in front of the coaches and the press. Nothing is perfect, but this system was miles ahead of how the fields are selected now.
As technology has advanced, it has taken the place of common sense – and more importantly, the human element that can often make sense more thoroughly than a ranking system and a closed meeting.
It doesn’t matter the sport; the head scratchers can appear any time. And they reared their ugly head with the NCS football seedings.
When I got to the Division II seedings, I had to look at it a few times, finally taking in the hard to believe.
Campolindo being the top seed was fair, although an argument could be made that No. 4 seed Clayton Valley did beat Campo 21-16 three weeks ago.
After that …
Monte Vista was the No. 2 seed, California the No. 3 seed, and Amador Valley was the No. 7 seed, meaning the Dons must travel to Monte Vista for a first-round game on Friday night (Nov. 14).
Let’s look at the last two weeks of East Bay Athletic League play and lay the facts out: Two weeks back Amador beat Monte Vista 35-14, then last week the Dons knocked off California 42-35 at Cal.
Yet for that, they got the No. 7 seed and Monte Vista, and a team Amador manhandled two weeks ago, got the No. 2 seed.
The Dons were decimated by injuries early in the season, and it led to a 0-4 start. Now they are healthy and are playing as well as anyone. There is every reason to expect another late season run in the playoffs.
It’s the human element that is making a joke out of the at-large and seeding meetings. It used to be allowed to talk about injuries and their effect on a team, but now it’s not discussed – it’s ignored.
Outside of the blatant injustice of the D-II playoffs, as usual, the EBAL is well-represented in the playoffs.
Open/D-I: De La Salle is the top seed and will host No. 8 San Ramon Valley. Normally facing DLS is a death sentence, but the Wolves drop into the D-I playoffs with a loss to the Spartans.
D-II: As talked about above Monte Vista is seeded second and will open by hosting Amador. California is seeded No. 3 and will face American Canyon, but because American Canyon is a league champ, throw the seeds out the window and the Grizzlies are forced to go on the road.
Livermore, by virtue of winning the Valley, gets the No. 8 seed in D-II and because the Cowboys won the Valley they get to host top-seed Campolindo on Friday, once again making a mockery of the process.
D-III: Dublin is the No. 6 seed and travels to No. 3 El Cerrito for a Friday night game.
D-IV: Granada, who played Livermore tough in the regular season finale, is the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 Deer Valley on Friday night.
For 40 years now I have looked at the NCS playoffs and have yet to figure out the lack of logic and common sense when it comes to the selection process.
I honestly feel I could sit in my home office knowing the results of all the games, along with extenuating circumstances, and do a better job by using common sense and logic.
It can’t be as hard as NCS continually makes it.
As I said above it’s never been perfect, but it has been a heck of a lot better than it is now. The athletes and the schools deserve better than what they are getting now and it shouldn’t be hard to fix – but yet, don’t expect any changes to be made.
NCS girls’ golf
The EBAL dominated the tournament, taking the top three team places, and the top three individual spots.
Team wise, Carondelet was first with a score of 400, Dougherty Valley was second at 419 and Dublin was third at 432. All three teams qualified for the CIF NorCal tournament that took place Monday (Nov. 10) at the Berkeley Country Club in El Cerrito. Make sure to check back next week in this spot to see the results from NorCal.
Individually, Lily Peng of Carondelet was the winner (72), Lauren Kim of Monte Vista (72) was second and Erin Lee of Dougherty Valley (73) was third.
Leng and Lee advanced to NorCal as members of advancing teams, while Kim will participate as an individual.
Here are the results of the EBAL teams:
Carondelet (400): Lily Peng 72, Kate Keith 75, Madison Delumen 75, Madison Mathis 86, Sawyer Fogel 92, Sahana Duggal 92.
Dougherty Valley (419): Erin Lee 73, Cynthia Liu 75, Rachel Lee 80, Tia Saini 89, Amaya Reddy 102, Dia Chopra 105.
Dublin (432): Chloe Giang 76, Callie Mclaughlin 77, Elin Cheng 84, Riya Singh 97, Audrey Phan 98, Beverly Chan 105.
Monte Vista (434): Lauren Kim 72, Madeleine Bull 77, Natalie Mack 92, Kaitly Chung 93, Laila Sanford 100, Madeline Ott 105.
Foothill (446): Neha Baldawa 77, Victoria Hang 90, Natalia Lo 90, Maya Viswanathan 92, Aanya Palkonda 97, Leila Fu 113.
California (468): Kate Shu 85, Myra Singh 89, Aanika Iyer 98, Kayla Minor 98, Erin Rhyne 98, Madison Vahey 109.
Livermore (468): Quinn Johnson 76, Natalie Messing 93, Thalia Chavez 93, Ella Carroll 97, Reese Boswell 109, Matt Soto 126.
Amador Valley (543): Ireland Cox 86, Haasini Kollu 103, Sari Kinzer 113, Mahi Rathod 119, Shreeya Hule 122, Elissa Jimerson 122.
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.
