In this day and age, teams that typically compete for a CIF-Southern Section Pac-5 Division championship, the most coveted and competitive division in Southern California, are usually loaded with big-time transfers and several others supported by tuition assistance.
Bishop Amat, who advanced to the Pac-5 semifinals with a 24-17 win over second-seed JSerra and will travel to the Inland Empire to take on third-seed Corona Centennial on Friday at 7:30 p.m., is not a school known to operate that way.
Bishop Amat is making its first trip to the semifinals since 1998 and hoping to cash in on its first championship since 1995.
Maybe the long drought has something to do with a school that doesn’t hand out financial assistance like they’re giving out college scholarships. That’s not to say Bishop Amat doesn’t hand out financial assistance, but it hasn’t used it as a tool to attract whoever it wants.
And since coach Steve Hagerty took over in 2008, the school hasn’t had a significant game-changing transfer that’s made a difference. In fact, more impact players have transferred out than transferred in during Hagerty’s tenure.