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ST. MARY’S-BERKELEY: NEW COACH HAS PANTHERS IN RIGHT DIRECTION
The St. Mary’s boys basketball team embodies the personality of its head coach.
The Panthers are scrappy, resilient and smart – all qualities that reflect first-year coach Marshall Collins.
This season has been a complete shift from the last few years for the small East Bay private school, which is currently 13-3 and the No. 12 team in the latest Bay Area News Group rankings. St. Mary’s has been in a rebuild the last two seasons, going 21-31 since 2022.
It’s a decline for a program that has a rich basketball tradition and that was in a state title game in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the finals.
But for Collins, he believes the issues the last few seasons weren’t with the roster but with the culture of the program.
“My guys just play hard, you just have to give them a little belief,” he said. ‘It’s pretty much the same team as last year. I tell my guys that there isn’t a difference between what they did last year and this year. The only difference now is that they play hard.”
Collins has already earned the respect of his players and the St. Mary’s community. The Oakland native has been coaching for over 20 years and is the head coach for the Oakland Soldiers 17U EYBL teams – one of the top club programs in the country.
“I think the main driver of our resurgence is coach Marshall,” said senior point guard Jaden Jones. “He’s brought us to a new level and made everyone on the team believe in themselves and think that we can all really play well.”
Saint Mary’s guard Christopher “CJ” Baltrip, right, shoots over Salesian guard Elijah Stanley (14) during the first quarter of a boys’ high school basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 in Richmond, Calif. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
St. Mary has a plethora of young, athletic talent.
The tandem of 6-foot-6 junior CJ Baltrip and 6-6 sophomore Donovan Mikel has given teams fits on both ends of the floor. Senior guards Jonathan Fernandez, Ahmad Gabriel and Jones keep the offense running while sophomore Julian Henderson plays a key role on the wing.
So far this season, St. Mary’s has racked up impressive win after impressive win. The Panthers defeated North Coast Section contenders Ygnacio Valley, Justin-Siena and Head-Royce while also snagging wins against solid SoCal programs Gahr and Millikan at the Classic at Damien over the winter break.
On Tuesday, St. Mary’s gave No. 2 Salesian a fierce challenge before losing 64-50. The Panthers were down just two points at halftime and within striking distance late in the third quarter before Salesian took control.
Saint Mary’s guard Donovan Mikel (23) and Salesian guard Braylon Franklin (23) vie for a rebound during the fourth quarter of a boys’ high school basketball game, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 in Richmond, Calif. (D. Ross Cameron for the Bay Area News Group)
St. Mary’s effort didn’t go unnoticed by the reigning CIF NorCal Open Division champs.
“We knew going in this was going to be a tough game,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “St. Mary’s is vastly improved and they’re playing great. We needed to play well to win that game.”
For Collins, part of changing the culture was making sure everyone on the team was held to the same standard.
“It was just about holding them accountable,” he said. “The kids were good last year. It’s just the accountability and knowing that just being OK is not OK. One thing about our program is that we will be disciplined and we will play hard. No one’s going to ever say we don’t play as hard as we can.”
The goal for the Panthers this season is to make a run to a state title game. They have flown under the radar for the last few years, but the rest of the basketball community have certainly caught wind of St. Mary’s strong start to the season.
“I want NorCal to know we’re here,” Collins said. “We’re the little step child in the corner that nobody knows about. We’re coming.”
– Nathan Canilao
PALO ALTO SOCCER: VIKINGS UP BRIGHT AND EARLY
Palo Alto’s Rohan Bhatt (80) controls the ball against Mountain View’s Ayan Kothari (26) in the first half of a boys soccer game at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Plenty of high schoolers have trouble getting up for classes in the early morning.
So what does Palo Alto boys soccer do? Get up even earlier.
“This team was in a very bad position last year,” first-year coach Luiz Lodino said. “Now they’ve really bounced back. We train at seven in the morning. Most of them are setting up alarms for the first time in their life.”
Lodino is looking to instill a mindset in his players that if they put in the work before others even get out of bed, they’ll have a distinct advantage come game time.
“It has to be a learning lesson,” Lodino said. “It’s not punishment or anything. It’s just enforcing mentality. If you can get here at seven in the morning, knowing what the other schools are doing, already in your mind, it’s 1-0. I wake up at six. I gotta get something from this game.”
The benefits extend beyond the field. Lodino’s routine is appreciated by others around the program.
“I have parents come to me, (saying) thank you,” Lodino said. “They wake up right now. I don’t have to wake up and wake them up for school. A lot of them bike here. It’s cold. They have to do it.
“It has to be an everyday thing, quality. You cannot just choose to do your job one day in a week and then don’t work for four days. You get fired.”
Ultimately, Lodino is trying to instill life lessons in his players.
“I know a lot of those guys are not going to play soccer (for a living),” Lodino said. “But (it’s) work ethic. They’re going to take it to their jobs. They’re going to take it through other things they do in life, right? And mostly just to be a good human being and be a good father, one day, a good leader, a good CEO, any position that they have.”
– Christian Babcock
ACALANES BASKETBALL: POINT GUARD MAKES UNSELFISH PLAYS
Despite being the shortest player on the floor most nights, Acalanes point guard Karyss Lacanlale has arguably the biggest impact.
The 5-5 senior point guard is the true definition of a floor general, but isn’t afraid to light up the scoreboard, either. In Acalanes’ lone loss this season, to Oregon’s South Medford, Lacanlale scored a team-high 23 points.
Five days later, Acalanes blew out Heritage 72-20, but the senior only took three shots and dished out 10 assists in 18 minutes of play, drawing praise from her head coach.
“She’s buying into the team,” coach Margaret Gartner said. “She does not care if she’s scoring four points or 23 points, she’s going to do whatever it takes for us to win. And that’s what an amazing point guard does. She’s the best I’ve had.”
Lacanlale comes from an athletic family. Her brother, Kyle Lacanlale, made his pro boxing debut in August in Oakland and was a former basketball player at Dougherty Valley.
“She’s the toughest one out there,” Gartner said. “People come to see her play and they can pick out who the boxer’s sister is.”
– Nathan Canilao
MOUNTAIN VIEW SOCCER: SPARTANS’ DEPTH TESTED BY CLUB DEPARTURES
Mountain View’s Caddell Heatley (15) celebrates with teammates after he scored the second goal of the game against Palo Alto in the second half of a boys soccer game at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. Mountain View won 4-0. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Mountain View is a perennial juggernaut in Bay Area boys soccer.
The Spartans currently rank No. 2 in the Bay Area News Group Top 10 and have not lost a game (6-0-2) so far this season. Would you believe they’re doing it without six potential starters?
“I love this group. It’s a very, very different group,” Mountain View coach Jim McGuirk said. “I don’t want to bore you with all the history, but we had a whole club team that decided not to play for us this year. So a lot of these guys, we didn’t really expect to be our key players this year, but they’ve all stepped up and done a great job. We are very, very inexperienced for a Mountain View High School team.”
Their absences have given other players opportunities, and the understudies have taken advantage.
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“We’re getting a lot of experience really, really fast,” McGuirk said after Mountain View’s 4-0 win over Palo Alto on Wednesday. “And I love the way our defense is playing. We have three guys playing defense I would not have thought were gonna be the three starters two months ago, and now they’re our starters, and they’re playing great. And we got a great goalie, too.”
– Christian Babcock
THE KING’S ACADEMY BASKETBALL: DEFENSE IS THE OFFENSE
While TKA has scorers all over its team, the Knights are built on their defense.
In the Sunnyvale private school’s 69-45 blowout win over Half Moon Bay on Wednesday, fastbreak opportunities were aplenty as TKA forced multiple turnovers.
“Our identity is on defense,” coach Cameron Bradford said. “We’re making sure we’re getting up and guarding guys, getting in help and getting out and running.”
The Knights make life difficult for opponents with 6-4 freshman Boss Mhoon, 6-5 senior Caedmon Dickson and 6-2 junior Xavier Barnett constantly in the lanes to grab steals and run. Add in high motor players like senior Karan Kolappa to the lineup and the Knights have all the tools to cause disruption for opposing offenses.
“We’re just working together,” Barnett said. “We spend a lot of hours working together and just trying to compete.”
– Nathan Canilao
SALESIAN: HEAD COACH MISSES HAWAII
Salesian had a successful trip to Hawaii over the Christmas break.
The Pride went 3-0 at the Grind Session Hawaii Invitational and got an opportunity to take a little break from basketball while in Hilo.
That said, Salesian’s upcoming showcase at the Paducah, Kentucky Shoot Out won’t have many moments where there will be outdoor team activities.
“Hawaii was great because it was 83 degrees,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “Now we’re getting on a plane to Kentucky where it’s 25 outside. We’re a little out of our minds right now.”
Salesian will play Chicago powerhouse Curie in its first game of the tournament on Friday.
– Nathan Canilao