A mass reorganization within the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League has left MHS in a lower division, Varsity Football Special Team Coach Vito Cangemi said. A merger of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with the Peninsula Athletic League was enacted last year due to concerns regarding the lower league schools, he said.
“A lot of schools that were suffering in football – Saratoga, South City San Francisco – ike a lot of the smaller schools during COVID didn’t even play, so the numbers were all down,” Cangemi said. “So they thought putting a bunch of schools that were a lot like each other was going to help save football at these schools.”
Cangemi dislikes the decision because he believes that the decision was mostly fair to only lower league teams, while the upper league teams suffered from the change, he said.
“I think they did it for the wrong reasons because they said they were doing it for the best of everybody,” Cangemi said, “But when in reality, if they would have done that, they could have created, not two A leagues, but three A leagues, which would come along with extra playoff spots.”
The changes to the leagues have forced the football team to play against completely new teams, said Cangemi.
“We are the only team from the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, but we play in the peninsula. It’s schools like San Mateo and Arragon,” Cangemi said.
Despite these changes, Varsity Head Coach Kelly King is optimistic about the team’s future this season.
“It’s our effort level. We trained hard in the offseason, and it’s showing on the field,” King said.
The Varsity Football team has won three out of their four games this season, according to the MHS Athletics website. Senior Jacob Alvarado was nominated for the Bay Area News Group Athlete of the Week reward for his four touchdown game against Santa Clara high school, according to Mercury News.
Cangemi attributes these changes to the players themselves, as the coaching style has not changed significantly this year.
“This team has worked hard. It’s a lot of kids that played on the JV team last year,” Cangemi said, “They work extremely hard in the weight room, on the field, studying, Google Classroom;we just do so many things that give them the avenues to really be successful.”
King similarly noticed a change in mentality among the players this season compared to previous years.
“The players are definitely motivated this year. Our players are fully bought in, and they’re playing really well right now,” King said.
The varsity team’s main goal is to obtain the state title, which the team has done twice already, Cangemi said.
“We’re still the only school in the entire Central Coast Section that has two state titles. It’s something we’re really proud of and that’s a goal we set every year,” Cangemi said.
Both King and Cangemi believe that MHS still has plenty of potential, beyond this season.
“The culture has always been here,” Cangemi said. “We’ve been saying it in Milpitas: Success is overshadowed by hard work,” he said.