Repeat Success : Santa Margarita Wins Large-School Title for Second Year in a Row, Servite/Rosary Wins Small-School Crown

Santa Margarita is the first repeat winner of The Times Orange County’s All-Sports award, which recognizes schools based on the performance of their entire athletic program.

The Eagles won the large-school title with a record 491.4 points, including 201.1 points earned in the nine (out of 10) spring sports in which they fielded a team--an average of 22.3 per team out of a possible 40.

Servite, an all-boys school, and Rosary, an all-girls school, combined to win the small-school title for the first time. Servite/Rosary scored 416.1 points, preventing Brea Olinda (397.7) from winning for a second consecutive year.

Comparatively, the county’s other major parochial school, Mater Dei, which fielded outstanding teams in some of the higher profile sports, lagged behind. Mater Dei, which won the award in 1994-95, scored 322.4 points and finished sixth in the large-school competition.

Still, it was a boon year for private schools. Calvary Chapel, which fields only 14 of the 21 sports eligible to receive points in the All-Sports scoring, took fourth among small schools with 274.6 points.

Perhaps no one in the four-year history of the award was happier to win than Rosary Athletic Director Juleen Wise.

“I think it’s hard to be successful across the board when the philosophy is like ours, which isn’t win at all costs,” said Wise, who is in her fifth year as athletic director. “The self-esteem of the girls is more important than winning the game. I can’t tell you how important this is, because I fight to keep that as the backbone of our athletic program. To have success on top of that is overwhelming.

“We try in the program, at a time when athletes are really specialized, to get them to compete in as many sports as possible. I think that has helped us to achieve this.”

Santa Margarita, which added International Baccalaureate and campus ministry retreat programs last year, discovered the busier the students were, the more effective they were.

“Both [programs] require more hours of the students,” Athletic Director Rich Schaaf said. “We started to worry that we were offering too many things and it would overload the kids and they wouldn’t do anything real well. What we found out was the more things we offered academically, the better the kids did [athletically].

“The point I would stress to kids today is get involved.”

The result? Two banners in a row.

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The All-Sports award is a competition designed to identify and reward schools that have the county’s most successful and most balanced athletic programs. Schools may earn points in all sports for which there is competition for a Southern Section team title. Thus, gymnastics programs don’t earn points, but badminton programs do.

The scoring is based on a school’s performance in each sport, earning points for win-loss record (based on winning percentage, 10 points for an undefeated season), its league finish (earning 10 points for first place, seven for second, five for third) and its success in the playoffs (gaining 20 points for a title down to eight for reaching the quarterfinal). All sports count the same.

The winning school among large schools (1,300 students and above for grades 10-12) and small schools (below 1,300) receives a traveling trophy to display for one year, a trophy to keep, and a banner to hang in its gym recognizing its achievement.

Rosary, which added several league championship banners this year, ran out of room where they usually hang them, Wise said. The girls from Rosary accounted for 182.6 points (22.8 per sport), while Servite’s boys scored 233.6 (21.2).

Trailing Servite/Rosary and runner-up Brea in the small-school division were Pacifica (335.6), Calvary Chapel (274.6) and Tustin (256.5).

El Modena and Newport Harbor, which were in third and fourth place after the fall and winter scoring periods, fell to sixth and eighth place, separated by Garden Grove in seventh.

At first glance, Brea’s lack of a boys’ volleyball team appeared to cost it first place for the second time in three years. Servite/Rosary won by 18.4 points, and Servite’s boys’ volleyball team scored 19.4 points.

However, Servite doesn’t field a wrestling team and Brea does (and scored 23 points).

Brea Athletic Director Ron Hampton said his school will have a boys’ volleyball team next year. He pointed out that Brea is one of 14 county schools that fields a (nonscoring) gymnastics team, and it went undefeated and won the Southern California title.

“Second place is never anything to be ashamed of,” Hampton said, “but it’s always better to finish first.”

Here’s how Servite/Rosary, which held a 21-point lead in the fall, overcame a 30-point deficit to Brea in the spring.

* Carry-over: Servite/Rosary scored 220.9 points during the fall and winter sports seasons. Brea Olinda had 241.9.

* Baseball: Servite finished 24-4 overall (8.6 points, rounded up, based on its winning percentage of .857), finished first in the Golden West League (10 points) but failed to reach the playoff’s quarterfinals (0 points). Brea lost seven points here to the Friars. Total: 18.6.

* Golf: Servite went 6-0 in league (10 points), won the league title (10) and finished second in the Southern Section playoffs (16). Brea lost 16 points. Total: 36.

* Softball: Rosary went 21-8 overall (7.2) and finished second in league (7). Brea lost less than a point. Total: 14.2.

* Boys’ swimming: Servite went 5-0 in league (10) and won the league title (10). Brea gained 12 points. Total: 20.

* Girls’ swimming: Rosary went 5-0 in league (10), won the league championship (10) and finished fifth in the section finals (8). Brea lost eight points. Total: 28.

* Boys’ tennis: Servite went undefeated in league (10), won the league title (10) and reached the playoff’s quarterfinals (8). Brea lost nine points. Total: 28.

* Boys’ track and field: Servite went 3-2 in league (6) and finished in third place (5). Brea gained nine points. Total: 11.

* Girls’ track and field: Rosary was undefeated in league (10) and won the league championship (10). Brea matched the Royals’ points. Total: 20.

* Boys’ volleyball: Servite went 14-8 overall (6.4), finished third in league (5) and reached the playoff’s quarterfinals (8). Brea didn’t field a team. Total: 19.4.

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This is the second year in a row Santa Margarita has won the large-school division. Mater Dei won the title two years ago and finished second last year. And though many presume Mater Dei in particular and parochial schools in general have an unfair advantage in drawing from a larger area than public schools, Schaaf said that’s not necessarily the case. He said that advantage doesn’t exist nowadays.

“With open enrollment policies, the way the CIF has realigned different transfer policies, I think kids can go wherever they want this day and age,” Schaaf said. “If anything, you could consider they have to pay to go here, do 40 hours of service work and take an extra class.”

More than half (51.1%) of Mater Dei’s points came from football, boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball and softball.

“Mater Dei, us, Servite and Rosary--we all play in tough leagues,” Schaaf said. “When the playoffs roll around, we get to play against schools our same size. That’s certainly an advantage, at least for us.”

Santa Margarita piled on the points this spring in golf (31), boys’ swimming (36), boys’ tennis (30) and boys’ volleyball (39). The Eagles got 15 points from girls’ swimming, 15 from boys’ track and field, 15 from girls’ track and field, 14 from baseball and six from softball.

The Eagles, who didn’t field a badminton team, won one section title this spring, in boys’ volleyball.

“The biggest thing we’ve tried to do, we tried to hire quality coaches in every sport,” said Schaaf, who said his school was going through a cycle of good athletes. “It seems that it has paid off. We’re not just a baseball or basketball school, we’re pretty even across the board.”

Which is the whole point.

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TOP 10

LARGE SCHOOLS

1. Santa Margarita

2. Esperanza

3. El Dorado

4. Laguna Hills

5. Foothill

6. Mater Dei

7. Woodbridge

8. Mission Viejo

9. Los Alamitos

10. Aliso Niguel

SMALL SCHOOLS

1. Servite/Rosary

2. Brea Olinda

3. Pacifica

4. Calvary Chapel

5. Tustin

6. El Modena

7. Garden Grove

8. Newport Harbor

9. Corona del Mar

10. Laguna Beach

Divisions

Orange County’s high schools were split into two divisions. The cutoff point was 1,300 students, excluding freshmen.

LARGE SCHOOLS

1. Los Alamitos, 2,053

2. Esperanza, 2,024

3. Fountain Valley, 1,970

4. Saddleback, 1,950

5. Irvine, 1,860

6. Santa Ana Valley, 1,800

7. Century, 1,792

8. Capistrano Valley, 1,786

9. El Toro, 1,782

10. Santa Ana, 1,764

11. Westminster, 1,735

12. Aliso Niguel, 1,722

13. University, 1,700

14. Huntington Beach, 1,609

15. San Clemente, 1,604

16. Dana Hills, 1,602

17. Edison, 1,596

18. Marina, 1,571

19. Mission Viejo, 1,542

20. Sunny Hills, 1,520

21. Mater Dei, 1,517

22. Anaheim, 1,477

23. Orange, 1,476

24. Trabuco Hills, 1,427

25. Woodbridge, 1,421

26. Loara, 1,403

27. Villa Park, 1,390

28. El Dorado, 1,374

29. Cypress, 1,374

30. Foothill, 1,361

31. Los Amigos, 1,358

32. Canyon, 1,347

33. Kennedy, 1,344

34. Katella, 1,344

35. Santa Margarita, 1,329

36. Santiago, 1,309

37. Laguna Hills, 1,306

SMALL SCHOOLS

1. Troy, 1,297

2. Brea Olinda, 1,282

3. Tustin, 1,269

4. Garden Grove, 1,253

5. Newport Harbor, 1,251

6. Valencia, 1,227

7. Buena Park, 1,194

8. Savanna, 1,193

9. Sonora, 1,183

10. El Modena, 1,175

11. Ocean View, 1,150

12. Pacifica, 1,133

13. La Habra, 1,118

14. Western, 1,105

15. Magnolia, 1,073

16. Servite/Rosary, 1,054

17. Fullerton, 1,046

18. Bolsa Grande, 1,022

19. Rancho Alamitos, 1,018

20. La Quinta, 977

21. Costa Mesa, 804

22. Estancia, 771

23. Corona del Mar, 741

24. Laguna Beach, 596

25. Calvary Chapel, 488

26. Brethren Christian, 443

27. Orange Lutheran, 436

28. Whittier Christian, 379

29. Connelly, 292

30. Capistrano Valley Christian, 167

31. St. Margaret’s, 150

32. Southern Calif. Christian, 121

33. Claremont, 120

34. Fairmont, 116

35. Orangewood Academy, 69

36. Heritage Christian, 60

37. St. Michael’s, 62

38. Liberty Christian, 40