Patrick Segurson has always been a “numbers” guy.
Segurson, 48, has been attending Archbishop Riordan High football and basketball games for as long as he can remember, usually with a clipboard, notepad and pen in hand.
When the Riordan football team played host to Serra recently – a 56-0 Padre victory – Segurson missed his first Crusader football game since 1985. He said he was helping out St. Francis that night (he has been friends with Lancer statistician Joseph Schram, who was ill) for many years.
Not just a stat geek, Segurson played football at Riordan as a freshman and junior. He also played golf for a year. But numbers proved to be his true calling.
“As a junior, I started doing stats for the basketball team, and found out I enjoyed it,” Segurson said. “I met Dr. Robert Jefferies (the former St. Ignatius statistician) and Joseph Schram. As a senior I was the statistician for basketball and football after I was cut from the football team for missing too many double-day practices.”
Segurson, like so many sports-minded graduates of West Catholic Athletic League schools, loves his alma mater. His father and two uncles graduated from Riordan back in the 1950s and 60s and Segurson attended Camp Crusader even before he enrolled at the school on Phelan Avenue. The man bleeds Riordan purple and gold.
Following high school, Riordan summoned Segurson back to The City like a siren song.
“I went away to college for one year at the University of Portland,” he said. “I went to the Oregon state (high school) basketball championships and thought Riordan could have defeated any of those teams. So in 1983-84 I came back to San Francisco, got a job and started doing the stats for the Riordan basketball team. In the 1985 season I started doing stats for (Riordan football).”
Indeed, Segurson’s handle on at least one prep sports message board is ARHS Stats, though he’s not employed in any official capacity with the school right now. But he’s been around Riordan sports and the WCAL for a long time and has seen many of the great ones, including former Crusader football stars Steve Sewell, Derek Loville, Donald Strickland and Eric Wright; Serra’s Tom Brady; Sacred Heart Cathedral’s Jason Hill; and St. Francis’ Chase Lyman and Troy Bienemann. All landed in the NFL.
He also got an eyeful of a tall, lean Barry Bonds playing basketball for Serra. Bonds could drain a jump shot as a prep player, but became better known for his splash hits into the San Francisco Bay.
So it hasn’t been all about Riordan for Segurson. Sometime in the late 1980s he wanted to keep stats during the football post-season, but Riordan wasn’t involved. So he spoke to Schram and then-St. Francis coach Ron Calcagno about helping out the Lancers and has been doing THAT ever since – only missing Lancer games when Riordan played on the same day.
He said he learned to keep stats from Schram and the perpetually bow-tied Doc Jefferies, who died about 10 years ago.
“I went to some St. Ignatius football games on the road, because Doc Jefferies gave me a ride to the game,” Segurson said. “One game down in Monterey, I actually worked the chains, along with an SI father and a soldier from the nearby Army base.”
His dedication has impressed more than one prep observer.
“Pat has been passionate about providing stats,” CCS assistant commissioner Steve Filios said. “He has done a great service to the CCS and the local media, providing a complete box score for all of the CCS championship basketball games, as well as many other tournament games. His energy and commitment to high school sports is to be commended.”
In addition to his work with Riordan and St. Francis over the years and his efforts at CCS championship events, Segurson has also worked with St. Ignatius aquatics.
The loyal Riordan grad, who is not married, said he prefers prep sports because he knows the players are competing for the love of the game and not just for money.
“All of the players out there are trying their hardest to win the game for their school,” he said.
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John Murphy is the Web Content Manager for Prep2Prep.com. He can be reached at jmurphy@prep2prep.com.
