Sierra Canyon’s CIF Open Division state title sweep included great plays from junior Vanessa DeJesus (left) and freshman Amari Bailey. Photos: Willie Eashman.
Since the CIF Open Division format was adopted in 2013, there hadn’t been a school to sweep the Open Division state titles in boys and girls basketball until Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth did it last weekend in Sacramento. That accomplishment, plus the Trailblazer boys finishing with a 32-3 record with the girls wrapping it up at 33-1, caused us to compile updates in our on-line state record files in the boys/girls combo categories.
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While the Open Division title sweep is a first for the CIF, it wasn’t that long ago (2011, 2012) when Mater Dei of Santa Ana won titles on the boys and girls sides in Division 1. Like Sierra Canyon for this year, the Monarchs also were State Team of the Year in both sports.
Here’s some other places in the newly updated boys/girls hoops combo state records section where Sierra Canyon of 2019 has landed:
*For same year state championships, this marked the 15th time it has happened in the 39 years of the CIF state finals. It hadn’t happened since 2015 when Sierra Canyon did it the first time with a win in the D4 (girls) and D5 (boys) title games. Alicia Komaki was also the head coach fo the Trailblazer girls that year, but it was previous coach Ty Nichols leading the boys. In that same CIF state championship weekend, Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland also won boys-girls state titles. The Dragons did it in the Open Division for boys and in D3 for girls.
*For Best Season Combo Records, Sierra Canyon’s winning percentage of 94.2 based on the boys ending 32-3 with the girls at 33-1 ranks as the 10th best in California history. The all-time record of 97.0 percent set in 1982 by Drake of San Anselmo remains the best. The Pirates, who had former NCAA head coach and longtime NCAA TV analyst Steve Lavin on the boys team, went 34-0 for boys and 31-2 for girls that season.
*For Most Season Combo Wins, Sierra Canyon’s total of 65 is a tie for fourth on the all-time list with those two Drake teams from 1982. The state record of 68 was set in 2012 by Mater Dei, which won 34 games for both boys and girls basketball in that season.
