| | Published July 20th, 2022
| Campolindo Athletic Department chosen Division State School of the Year for 7th time
| | | By Jon Kingdon |  | | Track & Field winners of NCS 2022. From left: Kyrstin Wilson, Sara Tabibian, Meagan Kennedy and Mari Testa Photo Karin Testa |
For the seventh time, and the sixth time in the last 11 years, Campolindo was named the Division State School of the year (2022, 2020, 2019, 2015, 2012, 2011 and 2005) by Cal-Hi Sports. Except for 2020 when the Cougars were the Division 2 program of the year, the other six years they were classified in Division 3.
Since Ray Meadows was named the athletic director at Campolindo in 2019, it's the third time the school has won that award. "I stepped into a really fortunate position as the athletic director with a lot of long-tenured coaches on staff," Meadows said. "This has really contributed to the consistency and success of the programs that we have at Campolindo."
Meadows ascribes the long-term success at Campolindo to Bob Wilson who was the athletic director when he began his teaching career in 2004. "Bob really set much of the foundation for the success of the athletic program at the school," Meadows said. "The principal at the time, Carol Kitchens, was very supportive of athletics and in my time as the athletic director, working with our principal, John Walker (who will be moving on to the district office next year) has been incredible in terms of his support for athletics."
In picking the best schools by division, Cal-Hi focuses on teams that have been particularly successful in various sports. With Campolindo, it was not a difficult choice with the particular success of eight different teams: girls cross country (state champion), boys cross country (second in the state), girls track and field (NCS champions), boys basketball (won CIF and ranked fifth in the state), girls swimming (tied for fifth at CIF state finals), boys volleyball (won NCS D1 championship), football (NCS D2), boys' water polo (D1 NorCal semifinal), girls water polo (lost in NCS final open division).
"I'm looking for schools that are way up there in 2, 3, and 4 sports and then I hone in from there," Mark Tennis, the co-publisher and editor of Cal-Hi Sports. "I've done it that way for the past 25 years and see it as a way to honor schools, judging them from an overview standpoint. I look at it at the end of the school year and determine which teams have been the best."
As a small, suburban school, Campolindo has often been matched up against much bigger schools. "We have often found ourselves punching well above our weight in the playoffs," Meadows said. "I remember once in the girls Division I volleyball state championship, we were matched up against a school with 3,000 kids and their administrators could not get over how we were such a small public school with such a small enrollment. It helps with the parental and community support that we get each year, and it has become a part of our school culture."
The success in such a wide array of sports at Campolindo was not lost on Tennis. "They have a nice combination of success in the traditional sports like football, basketball and baseball," Tennis said. "With similar results in the `country club' sports like swimming, water polo, golf, and tennis, Campolindo has a nice combination of sports." |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA