Long before Aidan Mahaney arrived at Campolindo, he was already winning games. A lot of games. His AAU team captured national championships when he was in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
So it was no wonder that the St. Mary’s College-bound star finished his high school career with the most wins in school history.
It was an unprecedented and decorated run that seemed destined to end on California’s premier high school stage until the script veered painfully off course in the final minutes of what turned out to be Mahaney’s last Campolindo game.
Not that the finish wasn’t dramatic.
With his team trailing at home in Moraga by eight points in the last 15-plus seconds of the CIF Northern California Open Division final, Mahaney hit two free throws, buried a 3-pointer and launched another 3-pointer from midcourt as time expired that would have extended the game against Modesto Christian to overtime had it dropped.
The ball bounced slowly around the rim, enough time to picture Mahaney’s entire high school career flash before your eyes, but didn’t fall.
For the first time since his arrival at Campolindo, Mahaney ended a season with a loss.
That’s the type of career Mahaney had. He won games.
A lot of games.
For that and numerous other reasons, Mahaney is our choice for Bay Area News Group player of the year.
“The biggest thing that some people don’t realize is his will to win,” Campo coach Steven Dyer said. “He’s a total team player. He could have averaged a ton more points this year. Other players like playing with him because he’s not out there to hunt his own points or anything like that. What he cares about the most is winning.”
MORE BASKETBALL HONORS
- All-Bay Area News Group boys basketball team
- All-Bay Area News Group girls basketball team
- Bay Area News Group girls basketball player of the year
And because he didn’t win his final high school game, Mahaney says he will be even more motivated when he makes the short leap to St. Mary’s in the fall.
“Looking up at the scoreboard at the end and getting that second-place medal … I know I’ve got more ball ahead of me and I think this is going to make me a better player,” Mahaney said on the night of the season-ending loss. “I’m always able to be like, ‘Hey, we won. I’m a winner.’
“Tonight we weren’t and obviously that doesn’t define our whole season or anything. But this is going to be a fuel that is going to drive me and that’s going to carry over to next year and a lot of people are going to see the difference.”
If there is a better version of Mahaney, St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett, whose son Cade played alongside Mahaney since the two were in first grade, should be quite satisfied.
This season, Mahaney, who missed a chunk of the abbreviated season last spring with ankle and hand injuries, averaged 17.2 points, 3.9 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game for a team that went 28-2 and won the North Coast Section Open Division championship.
In the Mahaney era, Campo won a Division II state championship his freshman year, a NorCal Division I championship his sophomore year (the state final was canceled because of the pandemic) and 15 games without a loss his junior year.
The Cougars won 96 games overall and finished No. 1 in the Bay Area News Group rankings in each of the past two seasons.
“He’s given us legitimacy for being not just a good team in Northern California but an elite team where we won a state title at the D-II level and we were in the state championship game at the D-I level and then making Open,” Dyer said. “I don’t know when I took this job if I ever thought that we would have a chance to do something like that at a public school.
“But when I really think about what he meant, when he was on the court, like all four years, I always felt that we had a chance to win. Since he came on to campus his freshman year, he’s kind of brought that swagger of being an elite player, and that’s just carried over to our whole program.”
Boys players of the year since 2012-13
2021-2022
Bay Area News Group: Aidan Mahaney, Campolindo
2021
Bay Area News Group: Emmanuel Callas, Campolindo; Michael Mitchell, Archbishop Mitty
2019-20
Bay Area News Group: Marsalis Roberson, Bishop O’Dowd
2018-19
Bay Area News Group: Brett Thompson, James Logan
2017-18
Bay Area News Group: James Akinjo, Salesian
2016-17
South Bay/Peninsula: Jake Wojcik, Bellarmine
East Bay: Damari Milstead, Moreau Catholic
2015-16
Mercury News: Jake Killingsworth, Serra
East Bay: Jordan Ratinho, De La Salle
2014-15
Mercury News: Ben Kone, Archbishop Mitty
East Bay: Ivan Rabb, Bishop O’Dowd
2013-14
Mercury News: Frankie Ferrari, Burlingame
East Bay: Ivan Rabb, Bishop O’Dowd
2012-13
Mercury News: Aaron Gordon, Archbishop Mitty
East Bay: Jabari Bird, Salesian
