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ter than Campolindo — can they keep it going?
But the Cougars’ current cha mpionship run was born from years of frustration and underachievement. Coach Max Luckhurst took over the program in 2001, hav ing been an assistant for the team that won NCS the year before under Brian Mc Gladrey. Campolindo fell to 12-12 in Luckhurst’s first season , and what followed was a string of teams that teased with their talent only to stu mble in the postseason. The Cougars never advanced pas t the NCS semifinals in Luc khurst’s first nine years as head coach. “It was kind of eating at him ,” said San Ramon Valley coach Chris de Clercq, a good friend of Luckhurst’s . “Ten years or so without winning one. … They had many good teams.” so The Cougars’ fortunes change d with a shift in philosophy in 2009. Luckhurst began targeting the best young pla yers in his program and fast -tracked their development “We said let’s just go with . the best kids in the progra m, and not necessarily go by matriculation,” Luckhu rst said. “We took some of the better freshmen, the mo physical freshmen, and bro re ught them up to varsity.” In 2009, that group included pitcher James Marvel, who developed into one of the Bay Area’s best all-around players by the time he was a sen ior last season. Luckhurst promoted three more freshmen in 2010 – Shelton, Stephens and Ten erowicz -- and all gained valu able experience on a team that finally won a section title. Those three now form the senior core of a squad that expects to play for the NCS title on a yearly basis. In all, 10 freshmen played on Campolindo’s varsity squ ad from 2009-12. “He kept a lot of freshmen on varsity, and there were a lot of people who were like ‘What are you doing?’” deC , lercq said. “But it paid off.” Campolindo, a Division III school by enrollment that petitions up to Division II for baseball, has compiled an 83-24-2 record over the past four years. But a berth this year’s NCS final is no giv in en. For one thing, who knows what to make of preseason polls? The fact that Campolindo is ranked second in the nation by Baseball Am erica but just fourth in Cal fornia by CalHiSports shows itheir inconsistency. Campolindo actually lost its season opener, 6-3, to St. Francis-Mountain View, ranked second behind the Cougars in Northern Califor nia.
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