With the conclusion of the inaugural year of the Century Conference, Sunny Hills athletics claimed 10 league championship titles — the most out of any school.
“I attribute that to our coaches and students as they did all the work,” said Paul Jones, the athletic director. “I’m just here to support everybody, but it’s a nice accomplishment for us to go into a new conference and have such good success.”
After CIF-SS officials decided to switch up the leagues in the 23-24 school year, the Lancers and Lady Lancers moved from the 40-year-long Freeway League to the newly formed 15-school Century Conference.
Within the Century Conference are three leagues: the Crestview League, Freeway League and North Hills League.
Below is a look at last year’s leagues for the winning sports teams.
Jones said that while winning was a nice bonus to the year, the new conference meant that many sacrifices had to be made.
“We love the Freeway League and we’ve been able to play against our district schools in which all of our district kids know each other, so we bring them against their friends and you have the rivalries and everything,” Jones said. “So when you move to a different conference, you lose a lot of that.”
He said that because students no longer had a personal connection with the other schools in the conference, he saw a decline in the student section at away games.
“When we play against these schools that nobody knows, people don’t care, so they don’t go,” Jones said. “It’s kind of unfortunate.”
However, for a few programs, the new conference marked the end of their droughts.
Boys basketball and wrestling won for the first time in 13 and 18 years, respectively, while girls track and field won for the first time in 19 years.
“It was a great feeling,” boys basketball head coach Joe Ok said. “I know the guys were very happy, just because it hasn’t happened in a long time, so I think it was a great experience for us to be able to get that.”
Girls track and field head coach Jake Holloway said that it felt great for him to bring home the title, yet he gives the credit to his athletes.
“I’m there to help guide and put them in the right situation and to motivate them, but they are the ones who actually have to execute it,” Holloway said. “I don’t take credit for the execution.”
On the contrary, athletes said they agree that the coaching staff played a major part in Sunny Hills’ accomplishment in the new conference.
“Coach Willie definitely helped us throughout the season,” girls soccer outside back junior Annalise Glynn said. “He just brought in a whole different perspective and really brought something out of us that we didn’t necessarily have before.”
Girls soccer head coach William Allgeier said that despite now being in the highest league within the Century Conference — the Crestview League — he believes his team can maintain a winning streak.
“It will be a difficult league, but the coaching staff has a lot of confidence that we can succeed in this league and repeat,” Allgeier said.
Boys wrestling senior Gavin Kim said he also agrees that the coaching played a major factor in his team’s victory in the new league.
“We had a new lineup of coaches that year and they pushed our team really hard,” Kim said.
With the new competition, teams like girls golf and girls swim and dive said they did not expect their win.
Boys and girls golf head coach Scott Enrico said that he was surprised to find out that his girls golf team won the title of co-league champions along with Troy High School [THS] because of confusion with the new league system. It wasn’t until he checked the Century Conference website that he said he found out a share of the championship was awarded to his team.
Yet he said he still believed in his athletes.
“To be honest, I thought we had a shot if things fell in the right direction for us,” said Enrico, who went into the season knowing that THS had a strong team and was uncertain about the others. “Luckily, things fell the right way, and we were able to beat Troy at home at our first meeting.”
Meanwhile, girls swim and dive head coach Sergio Dorrego said that he had no idea how his team would perform in the new league.
“Honestly, these were all new schools that we’ve never swam against before,” Dorrego said. “I think we did better than I expected us to do, and that felt really good.”
Dorrego said that with the competition being more intense, he is considering changing his strategy for the upcoming season.
“We have so many swimmers that we can pack events and get points, so that might be how we win this year,” the swim and dive head coach said. “They could have one or two fast girls, but we have a lot of fast girls to maximize the points.”
Excluding wrestling, all nine sports are advancing to the next highest league within the conference for the 2025-26 sports season.
As SH athletics head into the new league year, Jones said he believes the sports teams are capable of accomplishing the same feat despite constant changes within the conference.
“It doesn’t matter where we go or who we’re going to play against,” Jones said. “We’re always going to try to compete.”
