Coming into the 2019-2020 season most everyone that follows girls basketball in Northern California knew Ashley Hiraki was going to be one of the top players on Archbishop Mitty.

Hiraki was named All West Catholic Athletic League Second Team last season and made Prep2Prep All Central Coast Section Honorable Mention, so some big things were expected from her this season.

Then, junior Hunter Hernandez, who was chosen as a WCAL and Prep2Prep First Team selection last season as a sophomore, injured her knee and was out for all but the final 10 games of the season. Besides Hernandez being out another junior, Marley Langi, who was expected to have a breakout season, strained her Achilles and was hobbled early on and in the Nike TOC, and then missed the West Coast Jamboree, and when she returned was never totally at full strength.

As a result, and with everything that transpired, Hiraki along with junior Olivia Williams became the go-to players, and Ashley embraced the role.

Now, after a shortened season that saw the 5-7 point guard lead Mitty to the CIF Northern Regional Open Division title, the Cal State-Northridge bound Hiraki has been named the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Player of the Year after snagging the same honor in West Catholic Athletic League this season and the top honors from the Bay Area News Group.

“It’s crazy,” remarked Hiraki when asked what it’s like to get this kind of recognition. “I’m very grateful and feel so blessed to receive everything I have gotten. With all the work from preseason conditioning, weight training, beach workouts, and other vigorous activities, I feel that it validates all the work not only that I have done but my teammates as well. Without them and Coach (Sue) Phillips I wouldn’t be where I am.”

Despite being shorthanded the deep Mitty squad was still projected to be the top team in Northern California, and Phillips knew Hiraki, one of only two seniors on the 16-player roster, had the right stuff to lead the team both as the point guard and overall leader on the court.

“I knew coming into this season it wasn’t going to be easy,” Hiraki said. “My teammates and I knew we would have to step it up, and we had to start trying new things to see what would work for us and what wouldn’t.”

“I think in general playing for such a great program with a great legacy behind it is a lot of pressure already, and then once Hunter and Marley were both out, it definitely increased it more,” Hiraki continued. “Also, I knew that being one of the oldest players on the team I would have to help a lot with the younger players. Overall, it was tons of responsibility but with the help of the coaching staff and my teammates I was ready to step up to the challenge.”

According to Phillips Hiraki exemplifies that legacy and long tradition of winning the right way at Mitty. Phillips, who ended the season as the all-time winningest coach in the Central Coast Section and No. 4 all time according to the Cal-Hi Sports Record Book with 718 career coaching victories, started rattling off Ashley’s attributes.

“Ashley was an exceptional teammate and led by example,” Phillips remarked. “She was one of our hardest workers, a relentless worker, pays attentions to detail, student of the game, coachable and makes the immediate corrective measure, held her teammates accountable to the Mitty standard, and mentored the younger players in the program. She was a coach on the floor.”

The numbers Hiraki put up were not off the charts, but on the P2P CCS No. 1 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 2, and a nationally-ranked team with eight players averaging six or more points per game, her 12.4 points a game led the Monarchs, as did her 3.4 steals. Her 56 made three-pointers tied Williams for the team lead, her 2.7 assists per game was second on the team, and 4.3 rebounds was top five as well.

Many of Mitty’s games were blowouts and that limited her minutes but in the big games Hiraki came through right from the start of the season.

Hiraki had a lot of outstanding performances but her best game of the season came in the Nike TOC Joe Smith Division opening round 58-57 victory over perennial Florida power Miami Country Day where Hiraki went for 27 points, six assists, six steals and four rebounds. Following that win Mitty needed every bit of her 19 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists to pull out a 71-70 victory over Nevada No. 1 Centennial-Las Vegas. From there she had 11 points against Cal-Hi Sports state and national No. 1 La Jolla Country Day in a 62-54 loss, and the third-place game of the top division of the TOC she also had 11 points in a 58-50 loss to Maryland No. 2 and national top 20 Riverdale Baptist-Upper Marlboro.

Prior to leaving for Arizona and the TOC, Ashley had her only double-double of the season after registering 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 74-37 drubbing of P2P CCS No. 3 Menlo-Atherton which showed just how superior Mitty was to any other team in the Central Coast Section.

In the semifinals of the Platinum Division of the West Coast Jamboree Hiraki was the only Mitty player in double-figure scoring after getting 14 points in a 47-41 loss.

After the Mater Dei loss the Monarchs won 17 straight games prior to the beginning of the CIF Northern Regional Open Division playoffs, including an 11-0 record in the WCAL, two wins over P2P NCS No. 1 St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda, a win over CIF NorCal Division I champion Bishop O’Dowd, and three easy wins in the CCS Open Division playoffs. During that stretch Mitty beat its opponents by an average score of 72-35 per game.

Hiraki wasn’t called on to score a lot in those games but she did have 21 points, four rebounds, four assists and five steals in a 71-48 WCAL victory over Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco.

In the Northern Regional Open Division semifinals Hiraki had 10 points and six steals in a 64-40 victory over P2P NCS No. 2 and state No. 11 Cardinal Newman-Santa, and finally, in the NorCal Open title game and in a third victory over state No. 9 St. Joseph Notre Dame, Ashley led the way with 18 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals in a 69-63 victory and the closest margin of victory over a Northern California opponent all season.

“We’ve always had the belief that Ashley could take and make the big shot,” Phillips said. “The plan and vision for our team was for Ashley to be the floor leader. She grew into that role and flourished this year under pressure and with those leadership expectations.”

How disappointing was it the way the season due to the Coronavirus pandemic and not get a chance to play for the CIF Open Division state championship?

“Like many other players, especially other seniors who also had the opportunity to win a state title, it’s upsetting and disappointing,” was Hiraki’s answer. “But I understand it’s for the well-being of everyone. I think one of the hardest things for me is not being able to play with this team one more time.”

“Ultimately this whole experience is something I’m really glad I was able to be a part,” Hiraki continued. “But without my teammates to push me and compete with me I don’t know if I would have been able to accomplish many of the things I have done this year.”

Now, Hiraki will be off to Cal State-Northridge and Phillips remarked “they got a gem” after she signed her letter of intent.

“I am looking forward to continuing my basketball career and being able to make new friends,” said Hiraki, who currently carries a 4.0 GPA and plans on studying kinesiology at CSU-Northridge. “The team and coaching staff are really hard working and supportive so I’m really looking forward to these next four years.”

“As for playing,” continued Ashley. “I want to be able to contribute any way I can, so if that playing tough defense or distributing the ball, I’ll do what is needed of me.”

Phillips sees her star as being an immediate contributor at the next level.

“Ashley will make an immediate impact because she is an unselfish players and willing to do whatever the team needs,” Phillips remarked. “She can impact the game with her defense or knock down the open shot. She will play scouting report defense and she is a quick learner and will pick up the nuances of their system quickly. Ashley will be an asset to CSUN women’s basketball.”

The season is over and there is not going to be any spring AAU basketball but Ashley along with other Mitty players have been conducting online workouts for the younger players on the San Jose Cagers the past couple of weeks and not surprisingly naturally Hiraki was at the head of the class.

“I was one of the first ones to do the workouts and drills for the little Cagers,” Hiraki said proudly.

For her efforts this season, we are pleased to recognize Ashley Hiraki as the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Player of the Year.

Other players considered for this award include Aptos’ Natalia Ackerman, Mitty’s Olivia Williams and Pinewood’s Annika Decker.

Half Moon Bay coach Antonio Veloso may have had the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Freshman of the Year and one of the top freshmen in Northern California on his 14-girl roster, but Alli Dioli was not a one-girl team on a young group of girls with only one senior, her sister Bella Dioli.

The Dioli sisters were part of the core of the Cougars, and with veteran coach Veloso orchestrating a remarkable 25-4 season, he led Half Moon Bay to an 11-1 record and a first Peninsula Athletic League – North Division championship since 2001, and a second Central Coast Section Division IV title in four years.

For everything he accomplished last season, and in the eight years since he took the Half Moon Bay helm, Veloso has been named the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Coach of the Year.

He joins some very elite company with the previous four selections being Sue Phillips of Archbishop Mitty, the all-time winningest coach in the CCS according to the Cal-Hi Sports Record Book with 718 career victories, Doc Scheppler of Pinewood who has 658 career coaching wins, Buck Matthews, who re-started the varsity program at Woodside Priory for the 2014-2015 season and has built a successful program, and last year’s winner, highly successful John Paye of Menlo School.

“All those coaches have built or are building consistently successful programs, so being named alongside those coaches says that Half Moon Bay basketball, and more importantly basketball on the Coastside, is moving in the right direction over the last eight years,” responded Veloso when asked how he felt about adding his name alongside those four coaches.

When Veloso took over for the 2012-2013 season he inherited a team that only had a handful of winning seasons since 2004 and was 7-17 the season before he came aboard.

His first two years the Cougars went 15-12 and 7-5 in the PAL – North, and 12-15 and 6-6 in league.

From there things started to blossom. In 2014-2015 Veloso guided Half Moon Bay to a 20-8 record and 9-3 in league. They were 18-9 and 8-4 in league action in 2015-2016. In 2016-2017, and in the year of his first Central Coast Section Division IV title, Veloso guided the Cougars to a 23-9 record and 9-3 in league. The 2017-2018 team was 20-7 and 10-2 in the PAL – North. Last season was a bit of a drop-off with a 14-12 record overall, but Half Moon Bay still managed an 8-4 record in league.

That gives Veloso an eight-year record of 147-76 overall and 68-28 PAL – North record with no losing seasons in league in his tenure.

Veloso has done this in a small somewhat isolated coastal community of around 12,000 residents and at a school with one feeder middle school and an enrollment of around 1,000 students.

“At the end of the day, the goal is to build a successful program and a successful program is not defined by championships and winning, but rather championships and winning are byproducts of an environment where girls have a positive sense of responsibility, commitment, and community,” remarked Veloso. “This positive sense of responsibility, commitment, and community is rooted in their knowledge, acceptance and core belief that they control their energy, enthusiasm, and confidence.”

“What we do have is a unique opportunity to instill these core beliefs into our Half Moon Bay community at an early age,” continued Veloso. “This occurs because of the geographic make up of Half Moon Bay as well as us having only one junior high that feeds into the high school. Essentially our program is built totally from within our community.”

Veloso is certainly no stranger in Bay Area basketball circles. The 1992 graduate of St. Ignatius didn’t make it as a player so he decided to try and become a coach.

“I never played basketball at any level because I got cut multiple times,” admitted Veloso. “I knew I wanted to be college basketball coach so when I got cut from the team at SI I had to figure out a way to get there.”

He started his coaching career at St. Monica’s parish school in San Francisco while still in high school, and upon graduation he went on to Santa Clara University where from 1992-1996 he was the men’s basketball team manager. During his time at Santa Clara as a student, Veloso would spend summers traveling the West Coast working various basketball camps. “It would be eight straight weeks of college basketball camps only making a little more than enough to get to the next location. But it was awesome.”

After graduation from Santa Clara he was an assistant at Archbishop Mitty, Menlo College, his alma mater Santa Clara, and he even was the head women’s volleyball coach at Menlo College.

After leaving Santa Clara in 2003, Veloso took a job as the Athletic Director at the University of Great Falls in Great Falls, Montana (now called the University of Providence), and from 2003-2006 he increased participation from three sports to 11 sports and increased the student-athlete population from 36 to 220 which at the time represented about a third of the student body, all the while doing double duty as the head coach of the men’s basketball team.

“I was by far a better athletic director than a basketball coach,” mused Veloso. “I was 22-67 as a head coach.

Veloso returned to the Bay Area after he says he was “burnt out and felt this was the best time in my life for a change.”

When he left Montana, Veloso relocated to Half Moon Bay where his wife Misty Veloso, currently a teacher at Hatch Elementary School in Half Moon Bay, was a 1992 graduate and a star Cougars student-athlete, playing soccer with the boys since there wasn’t a girls soccer team at Half Moon Bay High. Misty played a year of college soccer at Canada College.

Antonio settled into a career in sales and is currently working for STERIS Endoscopy in the sales of medical equipment.

Veloso was content with career in business but it was Misty that re-kindled the fire for Antonio to return to coaching.

“I applied for the job because she came home one day and said ‘you need a hobby’ and handed me a flier for the position. At first I thought nothing of it, almost brushed it off, but then started thinking about what we could build on the coast. How the geographical make-up of Half Moon Bay would lend itself to developing a program because the community was small and close knit.”

“I went to the AD and gave him my five-year plan of building a program built on choices,” continued Veloso. “The most important choice is knowing and accepting that we control our energy, enthusiasm and confidence in whatever we do.”

At that point the dye was cast, and while it took some time, Veloso has delivered on his promise to the community, and nurtured along a girls basketball program that is the toast of the coast.

Along the way he’s gotten to coach his stepdaughter, Genevieve Belmonte. The junior turned in some solid numbers last season, and along with the Dioli sisters formed part of the core unit for Half Moon Bay. Belmonte was fourth on the team in scoring and rebounding at 6.4 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

At what point did he and his staff, including the Dioli sisters father, Martin Dioli, feel the team was going to be special?

Our kids all come from Half Moon Bay and the Coastside, so we are able to build and see our kids grow,” Veloso answered. “We knew there would be talent but our eyes started to open when we were winning close games and come from behind games with such a young team. Of our 10 wins prior to league, seven were by 10 points or less in which all were come from behind wins, with some we were down by as many as 16 points in the second half.”

How does this team compare to the 2016-2017 that won the first CCS Division IV and included the oldest Dioli sister, Katherine Dioli?

“The 2016-2017 team was similar in terms of they both had a clear goal from the start, to win league and CCS. The 2016-2017 didn’t win league” Veloso responded. “The difference is how they both got there. The 2016-2017 had a group of seniors and juniors who were our first group, and because of that there was this underlying edge that they had to do their part in hanging a banner. This was part of their five-year plan. They were highly competitive kids who made sure every practice was a competition.”

“This season’s group was also highly competitive but rather than everything being a competition and how we are going to win, this group made everything about how we could get better,” continued Veloso. “To get better, we needed our younger kids to open up and be themselves. Our group of older girls (Bella, Maya, Genevieve, Layne), created that type of atmosphere every day in practice.

Beside Bella Dioli and Belmonte, two of the other older girls were juniors Maya Rippberger and Layne Faust.

Veloso had something to say about all of his girls starting with Alli Dioli, who led the team in scoring, assists and steals with per game averages of 13.8 points, 3.1 assists and 2.1 steals, and was second in rebounds with 5.8 per game.

“An obsessive need to keep getting better,” remarked Veloso about his freshman star.

What about his stepdaughter? “Genevieve made the PAL first team this year because she let the game come to her. The previous year she would bring the ball down at times, defend the post, extend out to defend a guard and held a lot of on court responsibilities because she had too. This year she simply began to play and from there she was a defensive rock on the post and a steady hand in those close games.”

Sophomore Abby Kennedy was second on the team in scoring and first in rebounds with 11.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. “Along with Genevieve, Abby made the biggest strides from the previous season. Abby was a first team PAL player her freshman year and in her sophomore year she began the personal development of being a defensive grinder as well as rebounder. She took to heart the two aspects of the game a player does have plenty of control over. She enthusiastically and energetically took it over and from there you could see the confidence in her game grow.”

Freshman Abby Co was third on the team in scoring at 6.9 points per game and second in assists with 2.7 per contest. “Abby started from day one at the point guard spot. She is naturally an introspective kid who puts a lot on her shoulders and if it isn’t perfect she gets down on herself. As she continuous to grow, she has the ability to move this program forward and have us accomplish bigger things.”

Bella Dioli averaged 2.7 points and was third on the team with 4.6 rebounds a game. “A caring selfless leader who is the perfect example of our program and what we want in our program because she puts the opportunity to create/accomplish something bigger than herself self above everything else. She makes everyone comfortable and challenges them to grow for the greater good of the team. She will be missed.”

Rippberger was a spot starter for Veloso. “Maya is another young lady who thinks about the team first and what’s best for the team. She was a defensive grinder for us. Her ability to make open shots and grind it out on defense while being a team first leader set a comfortable tone for the group.”

Ally Co is Abby’s twin sister and averaged 4.9 points per game. “Ally can shoot it and score in bunches. With her continued consistency and defensive awareness, she will be more than a solid piece to our success.”

Sophomore Sierra Young fought through an injury. “Sierra started the season securing a major role in the rotation as an athletic defender/rebounder/driver. Mid way through the season, she got injured but finished the season strong playing significant minutes because of her defensive aggression.”

Faust had her role as well. “One of our more fundamentally sound players. She will be looked at to defend the post as well as stretch defenses out with her ability to shoot.”

Every season has its challenges.

“The biggest challenge was getting the group to understand how good they could be if they let themselves go,” Veloso said. “If they let themselves enjoy competing, if they let themselves enjoy the moment, if they let themselves be where their feet were versus worrying about where their feet should be.”

What was the most satisfying thing about the season?

“The most satisfying part of the season was seeing how relationships developed and grew,” Veloso answered. “How our younger girls got out of their shells and began sharing themselves with the group, sharing not only their talents but their personalities, quirks, and stories. This could only take place through an atmosphere of trust which was developed by our more seasoned girls and the girls before them.”

For his efforts through this season, we are pleased to recognize Half Moon Bay’s Antonio Veloso as the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Coach of the Year.

Other coaches considered include Mitty’s Sue Phillips, Woodside Priory’s Buck Mathews and Menlo’s John Paye.

Natalie Ackerman

Annika Decker

Ashley Hiraki

Avery Lee

Olivia Williams

Aniyah Augmon

Sydney Bourland

Jael Butler

Da’Myiah Lewis

Lydian Li

Katie Springs

Courtni Thompson

Fallon Dexheimer

Alli Dioli

Rachel Harvey

Kelly Heimburger

Sabrina Ma

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Denise Stine