Lucia Mar School Board honors AG High athletics for historic ride

Posted: Apr 17, 2012 10:56 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Apr 18, 2012 10:12 AM

School Board honors historic year of AG High athletics

Arroyo Grande High athletes and coaches were honored on Tuesday night by the Lucia Mar Board of Education for one of the best sports years in school history.

The 2011-12 school year has been highlighted with memorable victories from start to finish. The football team unde Tom Goossen won the league title and captured its first CIF title since 1998. The girls basketball team under Dwight MacDonald won its first-ever CIF crown and earned the program's first-ever State Tournament berth. Head coach Ryan Glanville and the boys basketball team advanced into the CIF title game for the first time since 1970 and made its first-ever appearance in the State Tournament. The girls water polo team, under the direction of Steven Allen, finished runner-up in CIF and extended its league winning streak to 90 games. The boys and girls tennis coach Lori Hollister was also named the California High School Coach of the Year by the U.S. Professional Tennis Association.

Board members said it was important to salute the school's student-athletes for giving the community so many things to be proud of during the school year. "I think it's sort of unprecedented that in a relatively small, rural area like ours that we would have such excellent athletes. And what i'm so proud of is the team work involved and the scholastic aptitude of our kids," said Board President Dawn Hinchman.

Ten Arroyo Grande High student-athletes have also signed athletic scholarships to Division I programs so far this school year. Football players Brent VanderVeen, Garrett Owens and Garrett Weinreich are headed to Oregon State. Swimmers Sonny Fierro and Amanda Schacter will compete at the next level with Fierro going to Cal Poly and Schacter to Tulane. Softball pitcher Jillian Compton signed with Fresno State, while hurler Sydney Gouveia inked a letter with Loyola Marymount. Katie Sverchek will play women's water polo at Arizona State and Emma Weinreich will play women's basketball at North Dakota. Baseball star Jordan Morrison is headed to UC Irvine. Heather Madrigal has also decided to walk-on the Cal Poly women's basketball team next year.