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ALAMEDA — Last fall, this news organization took a deep dive into the universe of high school football blowouts, learning that coaches and administrators, for the most part, do quite a bit to prevent teams from crossing the delicate lines separating gross mismatches and cringe-worthy humiliation.
Fast forward a few months, to St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda, basketball Hall of Famer Jason Kidd’s alma mater.
Since the 2016-17 school year, SJND’s sports programs have called the East Division of the Bay Counties League home. It’s an appropriate spot for small private schools that compete at lower levels.
Except it has not been a fit for St. Joe’s girls and boys basketball teams.
In the sport that put athletics on the map at the school of 470 students, it’s hard to imagine any league being less a match than the Bay Counties.
The fallout from that pairing and predictable blowouts have caused SJND girls basketball coach Shawn Hipol to resign from the program he helped elevate to the Bay Area’s upper echelon and a community that appreciates him and his commitment dearly, judging by the tone of interviews done by this news organization and social-media outcry.
“I sent him a text,” Pinewood girls coach Doc Scheppler said recently. “All the coaches that know him feel the same way about it. It’s a shame because he’s a good guy. He does not have an out-of-control ego and a demonist way to make kids feel bad.
“It’s just the disparity of talent. He’s got high-level players that want to go play at the highest level, get a college scholarship. He’s got high-level players playing against relative beginners, novices. That’s going to be the result.”
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The fourth season of these mismatches will be the last for St. Joe’s basketball teams in the Bay Counties League.
Last week, the North Coast Section Board of Managers — seemingly ripping a page from the SJND girls team’s scorebook — voted 45-0 to move the school’s basketball programs into the stronger West Alameda County Conference beginning next season and into the section’s next three-year league alignment cycle.
But barring a change of minds, that’s too late for Hipol.
The coach resigned this month because, according to sources, an SJND administrator not in the athletic department took exception to a 91-4 rout of Redwood Christian on Jan. 7.
The Pilots led 69-2 at halftime.
The score was the most one-sided since SJND joined the Bay Counties League but not by much. A month before the Redwood Christian rout, the Pilots blasted College Prep 87-3. Last season, they routed Bentley 87-9. Two seasons ago, they crushed Valley Christian-Dublin 83-5.
SJND has not come close to losing a Bay Counties game, winning more than 30 of them by an average of about 60 points.
Hipol wouldn’t get into specifics about his resignation, saying in an email this week, “I can confirm that I did resign my position as varsity girls basketball coach on Wednesday, January 15th. This was a very difficult decision for me since I consider Saint Joseph Notre Dame as one of the flagship high schools in the Bay Area.
“I have great respect for the community and my time at the school was filled with so many positive events. I am very grateful for the opportunity they gave me.”
Hipol, who was in his sixth season as the program’s head coach, declined to say which administrator was upset by the Redwood Christian result.
Emails sent to SJND’s interim principal Julianne Guevara and athletic director Carlos Arriaga were not returned. Redwood Christian coach Joe Hendren declined to comment, forwarding our request to his athletic department, which did not reply.
The SJND boys also are undefeated against Bay Counties opponents but in a more pedestrian fashion. Their average margin of victory is roughly 34 points.
Don Lippi, the legendary coach of the school’s boys program, applauded the decision made last Friday by the NCS’s Board of Managers.
“It’s 100 percent the right thing to do,” Lippi said. “The way it’s been happening the last four years, it’s been very difficult to keep the scores within a reasonable number. The boys and girls are in the same boat — the girls probably worse.”
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So, what exactly happened in Hipol’s case and why was the 91-4 score any different from 87-3, 83-5 or any other in the long list of blowouts?
“My understanding is he was following the protocol set forth by the school, where they were allowed to play the first half hard and, you know, take off the gas in the second half,” said Miramonte girls coach Kelly Sopak, a friend of Hipol. “That wasn’t, obviously, good enough for one particular administrator.”
Scheppler, whose Pinewood program has played well above its weight class for decades, said he empathizes with Hipol because he has been in those shoes.
In the late 1990s and in the 2000s, the small private school in Los Altos Hills was misplaced in a league with programs like the ones SJND has been playing.
Not surprisingly, Pinewood won by a lot — despite trying to ease up, according to Scheppler.
“We did everything in our power, and we still got ripped,” the coach said. “‘Hey, you got to keep the score down.’ Very similar to St. Joe’s Notre Dame of Alameda. It comes a time where the administrators have to make the right decision. Is this right for that team? No, it’s not. The games should not be played.
“It’s kind of an aberration to their league that they’re that good. Well, the administrators have to make that decision rather than, ‘Hey, it’s 97-4.’ No, it could have been 300-0. We did everything humanly possible” to keep the score down.
Beyond not playing at all, as Scheppler noted, could anything have been done to keep the scores a little tighter?
Sopak suggested an outside-the-box idea — declare SJND the winner but play with a running clock and no scoreboard.
“Just play,” the Miramonte coach said. “The outcome is already set. It’s not like there’s going to be some upset. Just shut the scoreboard off and mark it as a win. I am sure the other coach would appreciate that as well.”
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On Monday afternoon, the SJND girls — now coached by assistant Brian Sato — made the 21-mile trip to Valley Christian of Dublin for another league mismatch.
St. Joe’s did not deploy a full-court press in the first half, which Valley Christian was expecting, but picked up its defensive intensity once the ball crossed midcourt.
The result was still lopsided.
SJND led 46-3 at halftime on its way to an 80-6 triumph. The fourth quarter was played with a running clock.
The difference in speed and physicality between the teams was clear from the start.
Valley Christian’s top scorer did not play because of injury, but her presence likely would not have made much difference.
In the matchup Monday, there were no visible signs of animosity.
Just business as usual.
“I thought they were super respectful today,” Valley Christian coach and athletic director Jeff Gadd said of SJND. “They didn’t press at all, which we were anticipating. They didn’t trap except for a couple of times at half court. They slowed the ball down in transition in the second half. I thought they did everything they could. Obviously it could’ve been a lot worse than what it was.
“I was telling the other coach before the game, I think it’s a lot harder to coach up 50 than down 50, to be honest. I’ve been on the other side of the coin, too, with some dominant teams. How do you slow a team down that’s trying to win a state championship?”
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When SJND left the Tri-County Athletic League for the Bay Counties before the 2016-17 school year, it was not crystal clear that the girls basketball program would be such a square peg in its new league’s round hole.
In 32 games against their soon-to-be league opponents in the MaxPreps era (2004-present), St. Joe’s was 24-8 against the likes of Bentley, Head-Royce and Valley Christian-Dublin.
In fact, Valley Christian had a winning record against SJND, beating the Pilots three times alone in 2015, including twice by double digits.
But there were no such results once SJDN changed league addresses.
“When they came in from the TCAL, they came in participating in all sports,” Bay Counties commissioner Tom Welsh said. “Then they found out that in the sport of girls varsity basketball and boys varsity basketball after just one year that there wasn’t the competition that they were seeking. If you look at the scores, that one program far excels anything we have in Division V. We’re a Division V conference. They’re just playing at a much higher level.”
Last season, the league went to a six-game schedule rather than 12. SJND’s girls won its six by an average of 63.5 points.
The school eventually applied to move its basketball programs out of the league. It went through the NCS’s administrative process until the official stamp of approval arrived last Friday, nine days after Hipol submitted his resignation.
“It’s not permanent,” Welsh said about SJND’s move. “In four years, they could come back. A lot of this has to do with coaching. You get a really good coach in a program and the kids come to that coach. There is nothing illegal going on.
“Now when there is a coaching change, then things change.”
In this era of competitive equity, SJND’s move to a stronger league is not unprecedented. Just last fall, Clayton Valley Charter’s football program was placed in the East Bay Athletic League because it was deemed too strong for the Diablo Athletic League.
And last week, the NCS Board of Managers approved a proposal to merge the Mission Valley Athletic League and West Alameda County Conference in football, with the divisions based on competitive strength.
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A glance at SJND’s schedule underscores the level with which the team aims to play.
The Pilots’ losses this season include one to reigning California Interscholastic Federation Open Division state champion Sierra Canyon and back-to-back setbacks against Archbishop Mitty, the top-ranked team in this news organization’s Top 25.
Four days after the rout of Redwood Christian, SJND defeated last year’s Northern California Open Division runner-up, Salesian, 68-60.
Hipol’s departure came days before SJND was scheduled to face two more elite opponents.
In the midst of all this turmoil, the girls elected to play on under Sato.
“They feel like their coach wasn’t given just due, so it’s unfortunate that this happened to the kids during the season, especially how strong of a team they are,” Bishop O’Dowd coach Malik McCord said. “In speaking to a parent before the game from over there, the kids decided, ‘Let’s play the season out.’ And my hat’s off to them because that’s a lot when your leader is gone.”
The Pilots lost 60-48 to powerhouse Centennial-Las Vegas in the MLK Showcase at St. Mary’s-Stockton on Jan. 18 and 71-43 to La Jolla Country Day, the top-ranked team in the country, in the MLK Classic at Bishop O’Dowd on Jan. 20.
Sandwiched between those games was a Bay Counties matchup against Bentley on the night of Jan. 18, the same day the Pilots played Centennial.
SJDN won 66-3.
Sato, an assistant under Hipol for nine years, has taken over the program on an interim basis.
He concedes it is not the same without Hipol.
“I don’t have the level of dedication or time or commitment that he does,” Sato said. “He’s 150 percent all the time. I’ve got my things going on, so it’s a shame, but I’m trying the best I can. It’s rough, though, because he’s coached these girls multiple years on various teams. It hurts, everyone is hurting, even the parents.”
For Sato, playing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day served as a metaphor.
“The theme, I think, is persevering and battling through adversity,” Sato said. “And these girls are living a major life lesson at this moment. They’re growing up literally day by day as we speak. When they say ‘I rise’ — overcoming obstacles and challenges — this is real-life stuff. This is how you grow up, this is how you mature.
“And they’re getting a crash course.”
