Due to adjustments made on the fly thanks to the coronavirus pandemic... San Pedro Prep Football fans got just an appetizer of what to expect this past Spring.

Now it's time to unleash the main course.

Thursday, August 19 marks the start of the traditional high school season when San Pedro High football battles St. Anthony of Long Beach at St. Pius X/St. Matthias High in Downey at 7 pm, then at 3 pm on Friday, August 20, Mary Star Of The Sea High hosts Marshall of Los Angeles in a pair of intersectional openers.

Both teams are planning on spreading the love offensively.

The Pirates showed their high capability of making plays in their two-game spring season in mid-to-late April, piling up 119 points. In Mary Star's final of three spring games against Harvard-Westlake, the Stars scored the final touchdown of the game in a…

So many sports, so little time.

When the 2019-2020 school year was booming into the Spring, all high school sports everywhere was cancelled on March 14, 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, ending the hopes and dreams of potentially make a run for a CIF Sectional championship for everyone who had them.

Some were still hopeful that once things calmed down that sports would make a return, which it did, amazingly. Others still wondered if some sports would return at all, and one of the sports that were in serious doubt especially because it's one of the main ones played indoors, was basketball. 

Many adjustments were made to get the sport running, which included spreading out the team benches on each side of the scorers table and simply not have fans, just selected administrators, along with the teams, and…

With the recent two California Interscholastic Federation sectional championships claimed last month by both San Pedro High baseball and Mary Star Of The Sea High girls basketball, San Pedro Prep Sports has finally come full circle in the ten years of San Pedro News Pilot online, which gives us the opportunity to review the ten best CIF sports championship teams in the past decade from 2011-2021.

It was tough to gauge since all CIF championships claimed by any of the high schools in town are special, but they are all carefully selected based on key victories during their seasons and top team accomplishments other than winning their respective CIF titles themselves.

This selection of teams had it all.

One team captured a championship with a sudden death golden goal.

Two of them got to win their titles on their own…

San Pedro High baseball was well represented on the 2021 All-City Open Division teams after capturing the program's second CIF-Los Angeles City Section major division championship when it won the Open Division title on June 19 with a 7-6 victory over El Camino Real.

Senior INF/P Dylan Kordic was named the City Section's Open Division Player Of The Year, just the second Player Of The Year in Pirate baseball history and the first since 1955.

Junior INF/P Zack Geiss, who won the first two playoff games against Banning of Wilmington and Birmingham of Lake Balboa, was named Co-Pitcher Of The Year along with Banning senior, Cal State Fullerton-bound Anthony Joya, and head coach Steve Tedesco was named the Open Division Coach Of The Year, closing out his eight-year tenure as the Pirates' coach with 121 victories, four Marine League titles in…

Springing up excitement in 2021 for San Pedro Prep Softball was the uprising of a new era for San Pedro High softball.

First-year head coach Leanna Flores injected some well-needed optimism and a whole new level of intensity to a program that has produced 17 CIF-Los Angeles City Section championship seasons. With the combination of senior leadership and youthful talent all meshing together as one, the Pirates outplayed their own expectations to win the Marine League championship and reach the CIF-LACS Open Division semifinals with a 13-2 record.

One player that made sure her final season counted no matter how it ended and whomever was in her way, was senior third baseman Sierra Sandoval.

The Marine League Player Of The Year hit .481 with six home runs, 29 RBI, 25 hits and six doubles, while also coming through defensively with a…

The 2021 San Pedro Prep Baseball season... was a pick-up of what the 2020 season left off, due to the early cancellation of it due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Finishing their business the most out of all three schools, is San Pedro High.

Losing most of their incredible talent from their abbreviated 2020 campaign, the Pirates were picked by some to finish second or third in the Marine League standings, but they not only managed to win their fourth consecutive league title, they took it three victories further to become the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Open Division champions when it rallied in the middle innings to defeat El Camino Real of Woodland Hills, 7-6 on June 19.

San Pedro finished 17-8 in the 2021 season, going up against only CIF-LACS schools due to an Los Angeles Unified School District pandemic rule…

Normally, high school basketball seasons in California end in March, but the 2021 season for many started in March... and ended in June.

As things seem to return to normal around town, San Pedro and Mary Star Of The Sea High Schools went on with their boys and girls basketball seasons this Spring, while Port Of Los Angeles opted out to return to hoops action for the 2021-2022 school year. One of the four teams not only went on with their season, they also went on to make hometown history.

Mary Star High girls basketball made a marvelous run that seemingly came out of nowhere to most, overcoming many obstacles in the CIF-Southern Section Division 4-AA playoffs before capturing the Taper Avenue-based Catholic school's first-ever CIF-SS sports championship with a 54-50 win over Agoura of Agoura Hills on June 10. The Stars and eight-year…

The seasons were short, and it wasn't the kind of season many are accustomed to, but at least the Class Of 2021 for both San Pedro and Mary Star High football programs had a season this spring.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic cancelling the usual Fall seasons last September, the Pirates and Stars managed to play abbreviated seasons, with Mary Star playing three games in the Del Rey League, with one of their scheduled four games thrown out, and San Pedro only managing to play two games with their first two of their four-game schedule in April cancelled due to health and safety protocols.

San Pedro was highly impressive in their two games, routing Harbor Area neighbor Banning of Wilmington, 64-19 on April 23, then doing the same to Garfield of Los Angeles, 55-0 in the April 30 finale at Mike Walsh Pirate Stadium which gave their seven…

Mary Star High girls basketball garnered their first bit of postseason praise 18 days after capturing the Taper Avenue-based Catholic high school's first CIF-Southern Section sports championship.

Thanks to a dominant playoff run, freshman forward Madison Watts was named the CIF-SS Division 4-AA Player Of The Year, leading the Stars in scoring and rebounding for the season. During both the Section and CIF Southern California Regional Division 3-AA playoffs, Watts averaged 22.3 points and 10.7 rebounds in eight games.

Watts delivered her most prolific performance of the playoffs when she delivered career highs of 33 points and 14 rebounds in a 74-58 victory over Westchester in the CIF SoCal Division 3-AA Regional semifinals on June 17, one week after scoring a game-high 24 points and hitting the championship-sealing free throws…

1992 still feels like a long time.

That was when San Pedro High baseball won their first CIF-Los Angeles City Section championship when it outlasted Polytechnic of Sun Valley at Dodger Stadium under the leadership of longtime coach Jerry Lovarov.

Reaching a championship game was few and far between for the Pirates, only managing two more appearances in 2004 when they lost to eventual national champion Chatsworth, and again in 2010 where they were one strike away from a dogpile at Chavez Ravine, before falling on the last two pitches to El Camino Real. 

The 2021 edition of the Pirates made the most of their shortened season and it was made even more special on Saturday when in front of a large capacity crowd on their own home field on campus, when it staged a comeback for the ages and won 7-6 over the visiting Conquistadors to…