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By clay kallam | Contributor
o recap: In 2010, St. Mary’s-Berkeley played for the California Interscholastic Federation Division IV state championship in Bakersfield. There, they ran into 33-1 Harvard-Westlake, which was powered by two superb senior guards, Nicole Nesbit and Nicole Hung. But less-heralded Sydney Haydel went off, scoring 20 points, and Harvard-Westlake rolled to a 58-44 victory. In 2011, St. Mary’s returned to the Division IV state title game, and this time, the Panthers faced nationally-ranked Windward, with 6-7 post Imani Stafford (now at Texas) and elite point guard Jordin Canada. In state title try number two, the loss hurt even worse, as underdog St. Mary’s trailed almost the entire game, but battled back to take a 45-44 lead on a Danielle Mauldin basket with 5:55 left. Stafford and Canada countered, giving Windward a three-point lead with 4:23 left. Again, the Panthers rallied, getting a free throw from Emily Vann and another basket from Mauldin to tie the game with just 1:11 remaining. But Canada buried a three from the top of the key 10 seconds later, and Stafford blocked St. Mary’s last gasp shot, and the Panthers were denied again. Last season, it was clear that the path to a third straight trip to the cham-
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SportStars™
December 6, 2012
pionship game was going to have to go through league rival Salesian. The first two times the teams met, the Panthers handled the Pride. The third game, in the North Coast Section title game, was a seven-point win for Salesian, but not surprisingly, the two teams met again in the NorCal finals — and Salesian eked out a 47-44 win and moved on to Sacramento to shoot for a state championship. It was small consolation to coach Nate Fripp and the Panthers that Salesian then got hammered by nationally-ranked La Jolla Country Day 72-41, because after all, you don’t have a chance to win a California title if you don’t play for one. So this year, it will come as no surprise that St. Mary’s has a to-the-point motto: “Unfinished business.” “Plain and simple,” said Panthers’ junior wing Mikayla Cowling. “We have set our goal to win state.” But how did a small school on the border of Albany and Berkeley, competing for talent with Bishop O’Dowd, Salesian, Berkeley, St. Joseph Notre Dame and all the Oakland Athletic League schools, get to this point? After all, most schools would be ecstatic to win a NorCal title once, and get to experience just playing for a state title. But for the last three years, the Panthers have been this close to winning the big one. Naturally, it didn’t happen overnight, and the process began even beUpload photos and team stats! www.SportStarsOnline.com