2014 was a magnificent year for high school sports in San Pedro, and there was plenty to be excited about for most programs at San Pedro, Port Of Los Angeles and Mary Star High Schools.

Many playoff runs in the CIF-Los Angeles City and Southern Sections were realized, former doormat programs finally found success, league titles were seized, a CIF champion was crowned, winning streaks were made, long-suffering losing streaks were broken, and yes, there were some milestones to be achieved.

It was also a year where one of the greatest mainstays in this great city finally called it a career.

Let's just review some of the most memorable moments in the San Pedro prep sports world shall we...

1. POLA High Baseball Finally Claiming That Elusive CIF-Los Angeles City Section Crown

From 2011 to 2013, the softball team would win a CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division III championship, while the baseball team would come up short in the semifinals, two of those losses came in the final at-bat to the eventual champion. And the 2014 season didn't start off well according to plan for the Polar Bears, as they started off the year 1-4 and at one point was 7-9 on the verge of not being able to win a second straight Crosstown League title.

Yet, POLA continued to battle, eventually got hot at the right time, and ended up as the biggest San Pedro Prep Sports success story for 2014.

POLA would win their final seven games and ended up with both the league crown, and their first CIF-LACS Division III title with a 3-2 victory over Fulton College Prep of Van Nuys at USC's Dedeaux Field for the school's first male-related sports championship in the short history of the San Pedro-based charter school.

Only one word would be able to describe the magnificent late run of POLA baseball.

"Surreal," says POLA baseball co-coach Brian Emerson, who coaches alongside his father Dennis. "I knew we had a chance to make a run in the playoffs but winning the championship was something I really didn't think about until we won league. Once that happened, I thought we had a good chance to do something special."

Indeed they did.

POLA would garner the top seed of the playoffs, and the road wasn't as easy as it looked. First, the Polar Bears held off Valley Academy Arts & Sciences, 8-5 in the first round, then rallied to topple Northridge Academy, 2-1 in the quarterfinals. The semifinal game matched the Polar Bears up against Crosstown League rival Rancho Dominguez Prep, who took two of three from POLA in the regular season and was one out away from ending their dream.

Suddenly, the Polar Bears erupted with three runs in the bottom of the seventh to win 5-4 over the Lobos to end their semifinal jinx.

"Oh my God, there were moments of doubt but I knew that we could do it," returning junior second baseman Angel Munoz said.

Sure enough, the Polar Bears were off to USC to take on Fulton, another school making its first entry into a CIF-LACS baseball title tilt. The Polar Bears fell behind 2-0 in the second inning, but stormed back to tie the game in the fourth. The defense aided returning junior left-handed pitcher Fernando Rivas, who pitched six solid innings, with two inning-ending double plays.

The game would continue into the ninth inning, and Fulton would have runners on first and second base, then the most critical part of the game came when the Polar Bears went around the entire infield for their third double play of the game, ending with the potential tying run being thrown out at home plate.

Chris Marshall, now graduated, led off the bottom of the ninth with a towering double to left-center field, then was sacrificed over to third base with a bunt from Rivas. In came Munoz, who stepped into a pressure-packed situation, and handled it like a professional.

"I knew I had to have confidence going up to the plate," Munoz said. "I knew I had to make solid contact to give Chris a chance to score the winning run."

With the count 1-and-1, Munoz drilled a hard ground ball at Fulton third baseman Joseph Reyes, who dove to stop the ball from going into the outfield. Reyes quickly popped up to try and get Marshall out at home, but the throw was offline as Marshall slid in safely for the championship-clinching run.

The celebration was on, and the jubilant Polar Bears wasted no time in rejoicing. Four years of waiting was over, and that proverbial monkey was finally off their backs.

Monday, June 9, 2014 will forever be a day linked in the annals of Port Of Los Angeles High sports history.

2. San Pedro High Football Posts Another Solid Season

The Pirates were truly remarkable in 2014, as did what few would have predicted in Mike Walsh's 24th year as coach, posting an 11-2 season and earning a three-way share of the Marine League championship with the two schools that ended up in the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division I final on December 6, champion Narbonne and runner-up Carson, who eliminated San Pedro, 33-30 in the semifinals.

However, San Pedro's 17-15 victory over the Colts on November 7 in the season finale not only earned them a share of the league crown, but the overall top seed in Division I. Senior kicker Christian Mills' dramatic 30-yard field goal with ten seconds left sent the Pirate Stadium crowd into a total frenzy and set off a wild celebration as time expired.

"This season was great," senior offensive lineman Dominic O'Brien said. "Everybody thought at the start of this season that we would be average but we all fought hard, and played with a chip on our shoulders.

Senior running back Chris Alvidrez rushed for 1,196 yards and a school single-season record 22 touchdowns, while junior quarterback Jacob Miller kept opposing teams honest by throwing for 1,476 yards and 14 touchdowns to spearhead an offense that gained 4,779 yards and scored 63 touchdowns. Junior safety Antonio 'A.J.' Frazier was the singular most dangerous defensive player in the league, and junior tight end Mike Spinosa was named one of three Linemen Of The Year.

"I'm very proud of this team," Alvidrez says. "We worked hard and we had a great season."

3. Mary Star Girls Volleyball Goes From Basement To Santa Fe League Penthouse

4. The Retirement Of A Coaching Legend

The year 2014 would be the final one of coaching for San Pedro High softball legend Tony Dobra, as he announced his retirement in late May. The 34-year coaching veteran posted a lifetime record of 728 wins, 185 losses and a draw, a staggering .796 winning percentage, with 25 league titles and 13 CIF-Los Angeles City Section championships while coaching at San Pedro and Mary Star of the Sea High School.

“To have that type of success that I was fortunate enough to enjoy at both schools comes from talented student-athletes,” Dobra says. “Most of the girls start playing at a young age and continued developing their softball skills all the way up to and through high school. A good number of these players also went on to have successful collegiate careers.”

Dobra started his long career at Mary Star, and from 1981-86, he coached the Stars to four league titles posting a record of 102-27 (.648 win percentage). 

Dobra, a San Pedro High School alumnus of 1974, would come back to his alma mater to take over the softball program in 1987, and from there, Pirate softball would skyrocket to stardom. In his 28 years coaching the Pirates, all alongside longtime assistant Allan ‘Doc’ Moore, San Pedro posted a dazzling record of 626-158-1 overall (a .798 winning percentage), winning the Marine League or Southern Pacific Conference title an astonishing 21 times. Dobra led San Pedro to 17 CIF-LACS Division I finals, 13 of his teams won the crown.

Dobra’s final team in 2014 at San Pedro finished 21-9 overall, placed second in the Marine League and won the Whittier Tournament championship. His San Pedro teams won the Downey Tournament twice, and the El Segundo Tournament four times.

The legacy Dobra leaves behind will not be forgotten by his players, not only as a coach, but as an English teacher.

“Dobra always told us to put education first, and make sure we remember we’re student-athletes,” says San Pedro returning senior catcher Alexa Ponce. “He genuinely cared about us and about our lives outside of softball. He was our ‘Uncle Tony’ and he definitely left a mark on my life.”

5. POLA Softball Goes After The Big Dogs And Comes Up With 30 Victories

Sure, POLA had some detractors for wanting to jump to Division I in the CIF-Los Angeles City Section after dominating Division III each of their first three seasons of being playoff eligible, but these Polar Bears were fierce, determined and dangerous. Melissa Bugarin-Espinoza and her husband Moe shaped this team into a Division I contender right away with a Redondo Tournament championship, and twin Bronze Division titles at the Las Vegas Spring Jamboree and Torrance National Tournaments. Winning the Crosstown League for the fourth straight year without a loss wasn't much of a problem, and they even beat San Pedro twice in a three-day span during mid-April, which included a convincing 11-0 pounding at Harbor College on April 24. The playoffs saw POLA engage in three hard-fought battles, holding off Lincoln and Polytechnic of Sun Valley in the first two rounds, before one bad break finally doomed them in a 2-0 semifinal loss to eventual repeat champion Carson. Still, the Polar Bears went 30-8 in 2014 and had a historic season in spite of that defeat.

6. Double Signing Day Ceremonies For Nicolle Miranda & Marina Vitalich

7. San Pedro Girls Soccer Jumps On Cloud Nine

Starting off the season 1-8-1 would be problematic for anyone, but not this team. San Pedro and first-year coach Elisa Nagle would overcome the odds, and even the end of their 95-match unbeaten streak in the Marine League by once again overcoming nemesis Narbonne on the final day of the regular season to claim their ninth straight league title. Goals by Jenny Rivera (now graduated) and current junior Rianni Gonzales, who banged in her free kick off the post in the 45th minute, combined with a solid effort by current junior goalie Taylor Miller, was just enough for the Pirates to prevail.

8. San Pedro Softball Slugger Armida Roman Clubs Three Home Runs In One Game

Monday, March 17, would provide one of the more stellar individual performances in a while, as San Pedro softball catcher Armida Roman, now at Albright College in Pennsylvania, would literally carry the Pirates to a 8-7 victory by hitting three home runs, all over the left field fence. Roman first bombed a two-run home run in the fourth inning, blasted a first-pitch solo home run in the sixth inning, and for good measure, delivered with a towering solo home run in the seventh to finish 3-for-3 with a walk, three runs and 4 RBIs. The most incredible thing is, Roman only hit two home runs in her first three years with the Pirates, and she ended up hitting six long balls in the month of March.

9. San Pedro Girls Volleyball Finally Overcomes Narbonne

First-year coach Chris Ceballos made as good enough impact on these Pirates as Jaynes did for Mary Star. Although the Pirates were not able to end their drought of winning the Marine League, they did end a five-year, nine-match losing streak to rival Narbonne on October 13 with a convincing 25-16, 25-12, 25-19 sweep of the visiting Gauchos, as strong outings by the newly formed "Twin Towers" of senior Allison Kittell and junior Tracy Folchi, proved to be too much for Narbonne to handle. Seniors Paige Peterson and Reanna Pele, along with sophomore Jordan Freitas, also played pivotal roles in the victory.

10. Mary Star Football Scored 69 Points On Halloween Night

It was a dismal 2-8 season for the 2014 Stars football team, but there weren't high expectations for a young team, and they knew it. However Mary Star came up on the most incredible scoring output by a team, and it had to occur on Friday, October 31 at Daniels Field against an eventual winless Don Bosco Tech of Rosemead squad. Vinny Lauro put one of the best individual outings of the year, rushing for three touchdowns, turning a screen pass into a receiving touchdown, and also getting a chance to show another dimension of his talent, throwing a 28-yard touchdown pass off a halfback option trick play to Ubert Arana. Junior Jarod Alves accounted for 27 of the Stars' points on three touchdown runs and nine PAT kicks.

Look for the new year of 2015 to be just as good, and likely better to the Pirates, Stars and Polar Bears.