TOP TEN: Football coaches shuffle tops the list in a good sports year

Some call it the No. 1 Egg Bowl game of all time, but in the crazy Petaluma sports year of 2018, it wasn’t good enough to rate the top spot on our list of top 10 sports stories of the year.

So wild and mostly wonderful was 2018 that winning a league championship wasn’t enough to qualify all champions for a spot on the list.

In reverse order, here are the Argus-Courier picks for the Top 10 Petaluma sports stories of 2018.

10. Another legend passes

The year had barely started when Petaluma lost one of its most legendary sports figures with the passing of long-time Petaluma High School baseball coach Roy Lattimore.

Known for both the success and class of his Trojan baseball teams, Lattimore died at home on Jan. 1. He was 84.

Lattimore was a teacher at Petaluma High School for 33 years and a revered baseball coach. Not only did his baseball teams win, they won with class, reflecting the high moral standards of their coach.

He was also a popular teacher who taught countless students about history and life and a devoted family man who shared his life with his wife, Louise, for 62 years.

9. All new at St. Vincent

Patrick Daly began the school year as principal at St. Vincent, and with him came wholesale changes in both administration and athletics.

Stan Switala moved from athletic director to dean of student services and Domenick Romero was named athletic director.

By the end of the year, St. Vincent had new coaches for baseball (Switala), boys basketball (Scott Himes) and football (Trent Herzog).

8. Trojan girls rule

It was a great year for Petaluma High School girls athletics. By the end of the year, Petaluma had champions in basketball, softball, golf and track.

The girls basketball team had a particularly outstanding season, going undefeated through the last Sonoma County League season and winning the post-season SCL Tournament. Overall, the T-Girls were 23-6 on the season.

7. New field put to use

The new Petaluma High School football and track complex became more than a dream when the Trojan girls soccer team played the first official game on the sparkling new turf in a North Coast Section playoff contest.

Later in the spring, a dedication ceremony was held with the field press box named for the late Ron Walters, one of Petaluma’s staunchest supporters of high school sports and all community events.

The new track was named for long-time Trojan girls basketball, track and cross country coach and teacher Doug Johnson, who played an integral part in the design of the refurbished facility.

6. First VVAL champs

The area’s first Vine Valley Athletic League championship pennant was earned by the Petaluma girls golf team.

The Trojan girls won 12 straight league matches without a defeat, bringing to Petaluma High its first VVAL championship pennant to add to the last-ever Sonoma County League golf pennant it had won the year before.

5. Champions, champions, champions

Area high school baseball teams added to Petaluma’s ever-growing reputation as a baseball town, with all three local prep baseball teams winning league championships.

Petaluma High School won the last Sonoma County League pennant with a 10-2 record, finishing 19-8 overall. Casa Grande captured the North Bay League championship, with a 12-2 record, finishing 20-8 overall.

And then there was St. Vincent. The Mustangs won 25 straight games and the North Central League II championship before being beaten by Athenian in the North Coast Section semifinals, finishing 25-1.

Just to add an exclamation point to the South County baseball domination, the Petaluma Leghorns Senior American Legion team won Area and State championships, earning a trip to Denver for Regional competition. The Petaluma team finished with a 30-8 record.

4. Torkelson sizzles

Casa Grande graduate Spencer Torkelson stunned the college baseball world with his almost unbelievable freshman season at Arizona State University.

The former Gaucho led the NCAA in home runs with 25, breaking the ASU school record formerly held by Barry Bonds in the process. He batted .320 for the season and finished third in the nation with a .743 slugging average and tied for seventh nationally with 153 total bases. He led the Sun Devils in runs with 59, RBI with 53, walks with 38 and on-base average at .440.

His production did not go unnoticed. He was named second-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball News and Baseball America and was first-team Freshman All-American on both lists. He was just the seventh Sun Devil ever to be named All-American as a freshman.

3. Where is the Vine Valley?

Things will never be the same in Redwood Empire High School sports after the formation of the Vine Valley Athletic League.

The North Coast Section of the Interscholastic Federation placed Sonoma County schools Petaluma, Casa Grande and Sonoma Valley into a new league with Napa, Vintage, American Canyon and Justin-Siena, dismantling the Sonoma County League and shuffling the North Bay League in the process.

Casa Grande High School’s Rick O’Brien was chosen the new league’s first commissioner.

The remaining Sonoma County League schools, along with Ukiah, were placed in a two-division North Bay League, with schools in different divisions in different sports depending on their demonstrated proficiency in each sport.

In football, that translated into Montgomery, Santa Rosa, El Molino, Piner and Elsie Allen in one division and Cardinal Newman, Rancho Cotate, Ukiah, Windsor, Analy and Maria Carrillo in the other.

2. Best Egg Bowl ever?

The 2018 Egg Bowl may not have been the most artistic and athletic football game ever played between rivals Petaluma and Casa Grande, but it was the most exciting anyone could remember.

Two evenly matched teams stood toe-to-toe and battled until everyone from players to grandmothers were drained of breath and emotion.

The story will long be told of how Petaluma seemingly had the game won when it scored with just a minute to play to take a 36-29 lead.

But Casa Grande swept right down the field to score with 20 seconds left in the game and then ran in a 2-point conversion for an improbable 37-36 win.

1. Coaches come and go

The high school football coaching world continued to spin when Casa Grande head coach Denis Brunk surprisingly resigned to devote time to studying for his master’s degree.

John Antonio, who at one time was briefly (about a month) head coach at St. Vincent, was first named interim and then permanent Casa Grande coach.

After Antonio stepped away from the St. Vincent job, he was replaced by Trent Herzog, the former Casa Grande head coach, who led the Mustangs to a winning (6-5) season and into the North Coast Section playoffs.

As 2019 begins, Herzog is at St. Vincent, Antonio at Casa Grande and Rick Krist is starting his ninth year at Petaluma.