It was a memorable year in Servite athletics that began with Water Polo winning the CIF-SS Division 3 Championship, a resurgence in the Football program and Coach Gibbs’ final season at the helm for Cross Country as he transitions into retirement.
Water Polo started the year with a bang winning their first CIF Championship since 2005 with Coach Coffman being named CIF Coach of the Year and Guillermo Ocasio earning Player of the Year honors.
Wrestling kept the excitement going continuing the championship momentum. The Fight’n Friars wrestled their way to the best finish in school history winning Masters, two CIF titles and Trinity League in addition to being selected the Orange County Wrestling Coaches Association Team of the Year!
The championship season marked new firsts for the Wrestling program in addition to breaking records. It was the first time the team won “the trifecta” (league and both CIF titles) in the same season and the first time in school history that the Fight’n Friars brought home the Masters Championship. In addition, they won the most individual CIF titles with five, qualified the most wrestlers to state in program history with eight and finished with the most placers, four.
Teddy Okada also became Servite’s third Wrestling All-American after placing at Nationals while Coach Alan Clinton was honored with the prestigious coaching award, NFHS National Coach of the Year!
Soccer won their sixth consecutive Trinity League title and their seventh in the last eight seasons. During that stretch, the Friars went 61-6-13 in league play while earning league MVP honors every year including this season as Uriel Sanchez was named Trinity League MVP and Brett Lux earned his second straight Defensive MVP honor following their 2019 campaign.
The student cheering section, the Asylum, added to the Friars’ championship run tallying their own impressive list of accomplishments. They made their presence known during football and basketball season winning four OC Varsity Student Section of the Week awards before being named Basketball Student Section of the Year by OC Varsity and So Cal Student Sections.
As reported by OC Varsity writer Manny Alvarez, “The Asylum went way over the top this season. They lassoed a horse, they parted the sea, they had a roller coaster, they won a boxing match by way of knockout and they had the mascot from the Anaheim Ducks show up! All that while going nuts for their Friars.” He continued “You sometimes forget that there is a game in progress when The Asylum puts on a show in the stands. This student section can bring the noise like any other student section, but the shows they put on are second to none.”
Spring season ended the year on a high note with three teams winning Trinity League Championships for a total of five on the year. Volleyball won their first title since 2015 going 9-1 in league play while only dropping three sets out of the 32 played. They also finished with the League MVP, Chris Morikawa, and six All-League selections. Meanwhile, Track & Field completed their 3-peat going undefeated to win Trinity League. Kyle Kimble (110 Hurdles) and Nolan Blachowski (Pole Vault) won individual Trinity League titles while the team advanced athletes to the CIF-SS Finals in six events.
Not to be outshined, Golf kept pace with Soccer winning their 6th consecutive Trinity League title and ninth in the last 11 seasons. They also won their third straight CIF-SS Team Championship and their fourth in the last five years while tallying three undefeated seasons including this year when they went 18-0 overall. During that five-year span, the Golf team has gone 105-2 averaging 21 wins per season!
After successful high school careers, 34 student-athletes from the class of 2019 will be continuing their academic and athletic endeavors at the next level. Soccer leads all sports sending seven athletes to compete collegiately while baseball and football have six each followed by volleyball and wrestling with four.
Among those headed to compete in college is 2019 Athlete of the Year, Christian Martinez. A three-sport letterman for the Friars, Martinez competed in water polo, basketball and swim at Servite and will pursue swim at UC Santa Barbara. During his high school career, he earned All-League recognition in all three sports in addition to All-CIF honors in water polo and swim and All-American status in swim. He also holds three Servite Swim records and the Trinity League record in the 50 Free, the same event in which he is a two-time league champion.
Other year-end athletic awards winners included Joe Lazo (Trinity League Scholar-Athlete of the Year), Ryan Saltzman (Servite Scholar-Athlete of the Year), Zuriel Silva (Jeff Sherer Courage Award) and Ethan Higgins (Frank Ryan Service Award).
Alumni continue to excel in athletics at the professional and collegiate levels. Cole Irvin ’12 recently earned the call to the big leagues making his debut for the Philadelphia Phillies on May 12th. He went seven innings giving up one run on five hits while striking out five to earn his first MLB victory! Collegiately, Matthew Johnson ’16 won a National Championship with Long Beach State Volleyball while Matt Wilson ’15 earned a victory of his own to close out his collegiate golf career winning the Individual Big West Championship for the first time in Cal State Fullerton history. Fellow golf alum, Patrick Cantlay ’10 continues to impress on the PGA Tour placing 9th at this year’s Masters Tournament, 3rd at the PGA Championship and most recently winning the Memorial Tournament, his second career victory!
Congratulations to all our current student-athletes and alumni on your achievements. We wish you continued success in all your pursuits!
