When Aragon was founded in 1960, boys basketball was one of the few athletic teams at the school. It quickly became Aragon’s signature sport.
The school hired Eddie Diaz as its first basketball coach — a decision that quickly paid off, as Aragon would win its first league championship in school history in 1970. Diaz developed excellent players within the program, including Sidney Williams, who would go on to play for San Jose State before getting drafted into the National Basketball Association by the Portland Trail Blazers.
While it was Diaz who created a Peninsula Athletic League powerhouse, it was Ron Bolin who took the team to the next level. Bolin took over in the 1979-80 season when he replaced Pete Pontacq, who left to become the head coach at Skyline College. Bolin coached through the 1996-97 season, where he won numerous league titles for Aragon. Most notably, Aragon won the 1990 and 1994 Central Coast Section titles, with the 1988-89 and 1989-90 teams being inducted into the Aragon Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.
Bolin claims his Dons replicated the revolutionary up-tempo style of play that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas team was using to take over the college basketball world: “[Frosh-Soph head coach Lou Murgo and I] both agreed we wanted to run like the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV.”
“It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters. They would just run up and down the floor, scoring a 100 points. I think they scored 100 points [three or four] times, and it was the greatest show on the Peninsula,” says Athletic Director Steve Sell.
During Bolin’s time, the quality of play was high. Those teams were led by quality players, such as 1990 PAL Most Valuable Player Jimmie Pryor, Kenny Powell, who went on to play for Seton Hall, and current boys basketball head coach Hosea Patton.
“The 1979-80 team played in a league with nine Division I athletes. Right now, there are no Division I basketball players in our league,” explains Sell. “[Back then], there was four in just the San Mateo Union High School District: two at Aragon, one at San Mateo and one at Hillsdale.”
In 2003, Aragon pioneered a movement that has taken on a life of its own since then, when Kerry Huxford was hired as the head coach of the varsity basketball team. Huxford became only the second woman in California history to coach a boy’s basketball team.
“People thought I was crazy to hire a woman to coach the varsity boys basketball team. I received prank phone calls criticizing me for that,” says Sell. “But she was an amazing coach.”
Huxford guided her teams to back-to-back league titles in 2003 and 2004, and an appearance in the 2004 CCS championship game before going out on top after two years.
Aragon waited 10 more years after her departure before winning its next CCS championship, which they won in 2014 under head coach Sam Manu. Their run was highlighted by a 94-93 overtime defeat of Aptos in the semifinals before taking down Valley Christian 61-55 in the final. Although the Dons fell to Vanden 88-85 in the opening round of the Northern California Division III playoffs, it was a season to be proud of.
Since 1960, the Aragon basketball team has gotten a renovated gym, new uniforms and has seen numerous new coaches. But despite all the change surrounding the team, one thing has managed to stay constant year-in and year-out: from the moment the Dons take the court to the second the final buzzer sounds, the passion and electricity surrounding the red and black never seems to fade.
In your 2nd paragraph you said that the basketball team won the 1st Aragon Championship in 1970. It was actually 1963 and we repeated our championship in 1964. I was a member of both of teams. We had the three ‘BS’ boys, Bruce Sivils, Bruce Somerby and Bruce Silliman (Bob Allen was an honorary member). Sivils was a part time starter on the 1963 team and Somerby and I played occasionally. Mark Jorgerson was all MPL and went on to play at Nebraska. In 1964 Somerby was our big scorer and we had four forwards who would start at various times throughout the year: Tony Campagna, Bruce Sivils, Bruce Silliman and Bob Wells. In our final, championship clinching game against Hillsdale, I was the surprise starter. Earlier in the year I had scored 10 points off the bench to help preserve a victory against Capuchino HS.
But the most important person on these first two championships was our Coach Eddie Diaz. He instilled in us a sense of pride in playing for Aragon which resulted in an excellence which started with defense (in both 1963 and 1964 our average points allowed was under 40 points per game.
While I don’t believe that Mr. Diaz had and other basketball championship teams the tradition these two started has contributed to a legacy that should be recognized by all Aragon alumni.
Aragon also won the championship against Hillsdale in 1965 when Bob Somerby hit two free throws after the final buzzer. Diaz may have won other titles between 1965 and 1970 that I’m not aware of.
Actually it was Bob Somerby. In 1965, he sank two free throws against Hillsdale after time had run out to win a second championship for Aragon.