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A Message from SPHS Athletic Director Anthony Chan
Dear Tiger Families,
It has been an incredible year of sports thus far in the 2021-2022 school year. Building on the successes of the past few years, four out of our seven Fall programs moved up in CIF Divisions. I am also happy to report that every single team made the playoffs this Fall season. Additionally, our programs continue to adhere to current safety guidelines in preventing the spread of Covid-19 and none of our teams were forced to cancel a match due to Covid.
Here are some notable highlights from our teams:
- Cross country had both Boys and Girls qualify for the CIF State Meet together for the first time in school history, competing against the best cross-country teams in the state. Boys took 1st in league and Girls took 2nd in league.
- Football reached CIF-SS Semi-Finals for the first time since the 1970s, falling short of reaching the championship game in the last few seconds. This year they also beat our historical rival San Marino, winning the 67th annual matchup. Football took 3rd in league play.
- Girls Tennis moved up to CIF-SS Division 2 and played a tough match against Temescal Canyon in the first round of playoffs.
- Girls Golf moved up a CIF-SS Division to Division 2. Individually, we had student-athletes competing at the highest levels of CIF golf, reaching the Southern State Regional Championship by being in the top 28 players in CIF-SS, competing against all of Southern California. As a team, they took 2nd in league.
- Girls Volleyball continues to be one of the strongest girls’ volleyball programs in the San Gabriel Valley, ending with two epic showdowns with La Canada High School, reaching back-and-forth matchups to the 5th and final set on both occasions to packed gyms. They also moved up to Division 1/2 and took 2nd in league.
- Boys Water Polo moved up to CIF-SS Division 2 and played a tough non-league schedule to prepare them for playoffs after moving up a division. They took 1st in league.
For the first time, we have also been able to use all of the renovated facilities to their fullest capabilities. Our film room is frequented by many of our teams, utilizing our athletic program’s cloud-based video service in Hudl. Teams are using the game breakdown and statistics service, exchanging films on our opponents, analyzing our gameplay, and using those videos to create college recruitment highlight tapes.
In the training room, we are happy to continue our partnership with Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, providing our programs with a full-time athletic trainer in Amanda Zamani. The training room is a perfect example of a modern athletic training room equipped with digitally controlled temperature whirlpools to help our athletes recover quickly.
Additionally, our work with Healthy Roster helps us log in and keep track of all services that occur through our log-in Kiosk as they enter the training room. The renovated weight room has also seen plenty of use from all our student-athletes; we are thankful for all of the input our coaching staff provided on the design, layout, and equipment in the weight room.
Given all of this, our student-athletes are becoming better students of the game, recovering faster, and becoming stronger as well as less injury-prone through our renovated facilities.
As we near being fully immersed in the Winter Season, I wanted to remind everyone that we will continue our Covid Testing for in-season teams on Mondays. They will only need to register once, and instructions have been distributed by the coaches, team parents, and myself for this testing.
I also wanted to remind everyone that if a bus, or transportation is provided for a team, the windows are to be down and masks are to be worn. When a bus is scheduled, all athletes must use it; however, once a season, a parent may email both me and their coach with at least a 24-hour notice that they will be taking their child to/from a match. This is something the coaching staff and I have agreed on, as it is extremely difficult to track when multiple people are on/off the bus on many different games and trips.
All athletic clearances are to be done online, including uploading the physical exam from an approved medical professional. Physical exams are good for up to 1 year, and as they are set to expire, you will be notified via Healthy Roster to upload a new physical exam.
Some final thoughts: If your student-athlete does not have a SAC card, I highly encourage it, as they get in to all our home non-playoff games for free, with proceeds of SAC Card sales helping to pay for a variety of athletic expenses. The SAC Card also provides discounts on a variety of student activities!
Our SPHS Booster Club continues to support our programs by providing our athletics, school clubs, and programs with resources. Just one way that the Booster Club helps is to provide nearly $35,000 in grants to athletic teams, school clubs, and programs annually. Participation is at an all-time high, with more Booster Club Memberships than we have had in the past. It is not too late to still join!
Lastly, I wanted to thank the South Pasadena families and community for coming together and supporting our athletics program. Attendance at games has been at an all-time high, and our coaching staff have encouraged our teams to come out and support each other. In a variety of ways, we have demonstrated that we are “one town, one team.” As we stress with all our programs, it is about teamwork. Our team is one town, one Tiger family. I hope to see you all at a competition soon!
Sincerely,
Anthony Chan – Athletic Director
South Pasadena High School
