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It’s been a good year for athletics at Livermore High.
In the fall, the Cowboys took the East Bay Athletic League Valley football title. During the winter season, the boys’ basketball season the Cowboys turned in their best season in years, advancing to the North Coast Section playoffs and beating De La Salle in the regular season, giving Livermore its first win ever over De La Salle in any sport.
This spring has been a good one as well as the softball team is 17-1 right now, grabbed the title of the Livermore Stampede and is the top-ranked team in Northern California at the moment.
But the one sport that has really caught my eye is the boys’ volleyball team. At this point, Livermore is 27-4 overall and 8-2 in EBAL play and has put together a 12-match winning streak.
“We have a group of seniors that have been playing year-round volleyball,” said Livermore coach John Buchenauer, who has been coaching the varsity since 2021. “We started looking at this group since they were freshman because they were so athletic.”
Four of the seniors – Carter Macintosh, Matthew Calaway, Evan Amos and Jacob Smithson – play club for the NorCal 18 I team, with a fifth senior, Nicholas Manrique, playing for the NorCal 18 II team.
Buchenauer – who played for Amador Valley, graduating in 2010 – coaches the NorCal 16 I team and has three sophomores and a junior from that team on the varsity as well.
Since the five seniors played on the varsity as sophomores, the team has not had a losing record overall. In 2024 they were 19-15 overall and 5-8 in EBAL play, advancing to the second round of the North Coast Section playoffs.
Last year, the Cowboys were again 19-15 overall and 5-8 in EBAL play and had their season end in the EBAL playoffs by De La Salle.
Now coming into their senior year, with two years of varsity experience as well as playing as a unit in club, there was plenty of reason to feel big things might be coming.
“I knew we were going to be a strong team and the players were confident,” said Buchenauer, who teaches biology at Livermore. “Our goal every season is to make the NCS playoffs.”
Confidence is a great thing to have, but you still must play the games – and there is always learning to be had.
For the Cowboys, the key point in the season came early in the season in their first tournament. After opening with a pair of non-league wins, they went to the tough Sanger tournament, where they went 1-2 in their first three games.
“After the second loss we had that bummed feeling that we were not going to be in the Gold Division,” said Buchenauer. “We told the team that it was OK, that we could go out and win the Silver title.”
They did just that, running off four straight wins to capture the Silver crown.
“That whole day, I saw the growth of the team,” Buchenauer said. “It was OK that we could lose games and still be a good team. It’s all about how you play. It’s not about winning and losing – but it’s about learning.”
The team has only lost twice since then, falling 3-2 to both San Ramon Valley and De La Salle.
“Winning is always great, but learning is forever,” Buchenauer said. “And we have not lost since that De La Salle game.”
That set up the current 12-match winning streak, which included winning the River Valley tournament on April 11, followed by beating Foothill and Dublin in EBAL play.
The berth in NCS is a given, as is a spot in the EBAL playoffs in two weeks where they will likely face San Ramon Valley and De La Salle again.
“It’s been a couple of years of players absorbing what it takes to play at this level,” Buchenauer said. “The core group guides the other players on the court.”
And the entire program at Livermore is learning. The junior varsity is 23-4 this year and the freshman team is 18-4.
“We have only 12 losses so far in the entire program,” Buchenauer said. “I can’t say I’m responsible for that. These guys have all committed to the sport – they are all in.”
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.
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