Balboa Stadium’s days were numbered.

When construction was completed in 1915, the concrete horseshoe seating more than 23,000 was the largest municipally-owned stadium in the world, according to Don King, author of “Caver Conquest.”

The 1933 magnitude 6.3 earthquake that destroyed 230 school buildings in Southern California, including many at Long Beach Poly, resulted in the Field Act, government legislation that was specifically for schools in California.

The Field Act mandated that all pre-1930 buildings be demolished unless they were of earthquake resistant construction.

Since Balboa Stadium was owned by the City of San Diego, the edifice did not come under the Field Act.

But after San Diego Stadium opened in 1967, the city leased Balboa Stadium to the San Diego Unified School District, a move that put the aging facility in the crosshairs of the Field Act.

The hastily constructed second deck added in 1961 to accommodate the San Diego Chargers was found to be unsafe by earthquake standards.

By 1974 repairs allowed for use of Balboa for two years, but the extension ran out and major improvements, mostly to the second deck, were not made. Had there been no second deck , the stadium, anchored against a canyon, would have been useful for years.

A condemned Balboa Stadium soon would follow Russ Auditorium and  many campus buildings and the gymnasium at San Diego High that were bulldozed beginning in 1973.

Gov. Brown’s office ruled that only the playing field could be put to use. The Stadium became dark on Friday nights this year as City schools played elsewhere.

Lights were turned on only once, when private schools St. Augustine and University met in the “Holy Bowl”.

The end was near.

Rob Gilster of Valley Center moved from 11th to 9th place among all-time winning coaches in San Diego County in 2015  and needs three victories next year to gain admittance to the 200 Club.

The Jaguars’ 8-4 season  gave Gilster a 27-season record of 197-121-5 for a .618 winning percentage.  He was head coach at Orange Glen for nine seasons before beginning the Valley Center program in 1998.

Several other active coaches moved up on the all-time list of 41 with at  least 100 victories.

Mira Mesa’s Gary Blevins rose from 21st to 18th with 139 victories, Christian’s Matt Oliver from 26th to 20th with 136, Mission Hills’ Chris Hauser  from 28th to 21st with 135, and Point Loma’s Mike Hastings  from 33rd to 28th with 128.

Madison’s Rick Jackson is the active coaches leader in winning percentage at 108-34-1 (.759) in 12 seasons.

Chula Vista’s Chet DeVore is the all-time percentage leader among coaches of at least 50 games. DeVore was 44-7-1 (.856) from 1951-55.  Duane Maley is second at 97-19-3 (.828) from 1948-59 at San Diego High.

John Carroll leads in the category of  coaching continuously at one school.  Carroll, second all-time with 248 victories, had a .763 winning percentage from 1989-2014 at Oceanside.

Castle Park’s Gil Warren was 83-23-5 (.783) from 1967-77  and 70-18-1 (.792) in a second stint with the Trojans from 1992-98. Ed Burke was 151-40 (.791) in a second go-round at Torrey Pines, 1991-2006.

TRUE GRID

Damien Gonzalez, 98-86-3 at Army-Navy and Poway, is the next closest to 100 victories…no other active coach can reach that mark in 2016…Monte Vista’s Ron Hamamoto, who has 203 victories, leads all active coaches with 343 games…Gilster has coached 323 and Mission Bay’s Willie Matson  312…Mira Mesa has had only two head coaches in 39 years and both have had virtually the same level of success…Gary Blevins is 139-102-4 (.579) in 21 seasons and his predecessor, Brad Griffith was 112-82-3 (.576) in 18….

It’s essentially not who you beat, but who you played and how who you played did.

St. Augustine lost three games but was 20th in the state and No. 1 in Division II in Cal-Hi Sports‘ final 2015 rankings.

Cathedral lost five but its schedule was so difficult that the Dons earned a Cal-Hi ranking of sixth in Division II and 38th overall.

Mission Hills, No. 1 in the final Union-Tribune poll, was 11-1 but didn’t finish among Cal-Hi‘s top 50.

IT’S ABOUT THE SCHEDULE

The Saints and Cathedral faced far more demanding, regular-season nonleague tests than Mission Hills.

St. Augustine was steeled by tough losses to Los Angeles Loyola and Vista Murrieta.

Cathedral took on Rancho Santa Margarita, Westlake Village Oaks Christian, Bakersfield Liberty, and St. Augustine, among others.

The Grizzlies, ranked No. 1 for most of the season in the Union-Tribune‘s weekly poll and king in a weak North County, were no match when St. Augustine ran away to a 48-14 victory in the San Diego Section Open Division semifinals.

The Saints, although losing to Helix, 44-30, in  the Open championship, rose three spots from 23rd on Cal-Hi‘s final list.

Reliable Helix ranked seventh overall, might have become a state D-I champion had it not lost in the final two minutes, 32-28, to eventual winner Mission Viejo in the Southern California playoff.

Mission Viejo defeated San Jose Bellarmine, 24-0, for the D-1 title.

TWO OUT OF 13

The San Diego Section had four state finalists and two champions in the 13 competing divisions.

Mater Dei, 56-21 winner over Reedley Immanuel in V-AA,  joined Rancho Bernardo, 30-14 conqueror of Atherton Sacred Heart D-II.

Coronado dropped a 16-6 decision to East Nicolaus in VI-AA and Bonita Vista was a 33-21 loser to Hanford in IV-AA.

BEST 50

Four County squads made Cal-Hi‘s most recent all-time state top 50.

Coach Dick Haines’ 1985 Vista club, 13-0 behind quarterback Sal Aunese, is 27th.  The 1916 national champion San Diego Hilltoppers are 36th, followed by the national champion San Diego club of 1955 at 43rd. Morse, 14-0 and fourth in USA Today‘s national rankings in 1990, is 47th.

The 12-0 Concord De La Salle team of 2001 was selected first.

TRUE GRID

Other 2015 state division rankings included Rancho Bernardo, seventh in D-II, Bonita Vista 10th in D-III, and Mater Dei fifth in D-IV…Santa Fe Christian and Coronado were “on the bubble” in IV and V, respectively, and Mission Bay gained honorable mention in III…Rancho Bernardo was 13-2 but also did not make the state’s top 50…the Broncos played no intersectional games in the regular season…it’s not that Mission Hills didn’t try…the Grizzlies scheduled two intersectionals but they were against mediocre Los Angeles Crenshaw and Long Beach Millikan…Helix’ Nate Stinson was the Section leading scorer with 35 touchdowns and 210 points…C.J. Verdell of Mater Dei and Greg Bell of Bonita Vista had 204 each and Elijah Preston of St. Augustine 198…go to the “Football” link and scroll down to “Top Performances” and “Annual Individual Scorers” for a more complete list….

New Year’s and league play await, but  holiday action continues, most notably with the Under-Armour event hosted by coach John Olive and the Torrey Pines Falcons.

Play begins Saturday with seven of the Union-Tribune Top 10 clubs competing.  Foothills Christian, St. Augustine, and Army-Navy are in the elite National Division.

Foothills, No. 1 in the latest Union-Tribune poll,  plays Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, and No. 2 St. Augustine takes on Bellevue Washington in first-round games Saturday. No. 6 Army-Navy meets Pebblebrook of Mabelton, Georgia.

No. 2 El Camino and No. 4 Cathedral will be in other major tournaments, the Wildcats in Palm Desert for the Max Preps and Cathedral near Chicago at the Proviso West event.

Brandon McCoy, the 6-foot, 11-inch Cathedral transfer from Morse, will be the featured performer in the late game against New Trier Winnetka on Saturday.  McCoy was born in the Chicago area and lived there until moving to San Diego as a sophomore.

Pairings:

No. 1 Foothills Christian is scheduled to play  Cypress Lakes of Katy, Texas, in the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear, Arizona, Friday. The game is to be televised on ESPN 2 at 3:30 p.m., according to Max Preps.

Other teams in the upper half of the Union-Tribune Top 10 will be in tournament play beginning Thursday.

No. 2 St. Augustine opens against Las Vegas Cimmaron Memorial or Compton in the Rancho Santa Margarita Christmas Classic.  No. 4 Cathedral takes on Carson City, Nevada, in the Tarkanian  event in Las Vegas.

El Camino, No. 3, meets host Sweetwater in the Lions Club event in National City. No. 4 Torrey Pines will be in the Grossmont Invitational.  San Dieguito and Army-Navy also are in the Santa Margarita tournament.

First-place votes in parenthesis.

Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

NR—Not ranked.

Others receiving votes, including record: Francis Parker (4-1, 9), Vista (4-1, 8), La Jolla Country Day (5-0, 7), Christian (7-3, 5), Escondido (1-2, 4), San Ysidro (5-1, 2).

11 media representatives vote, including John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand, Terry Monahan, Jim Lindgren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Lisa Lane, San Diego Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.

San Diego Section teams posted a 4-2 record in the Southern California playoffs (a.k.a. State  Bowl Championship Series) last week, the games hewing to a historic trend of strength in the lower divisions.

Local teams will be favored in at least three of the state championship games this week, with all kickoffs Saturday night at 6.

DIVISION III-A

After a 31-30 victory in a game played amid temperatures that dropped to the mid-thirties at Hesperia Oak Hills, Rancho Bernardo will play host to Atherton Sacred Heart, which won the Northern Regional, 56-20 over Oakland McClymonds.

The Sacred Heart Bears closed with a rush to earn the Central Coast Section championship and are on a 10-1 run, 11-3 overall. Coach Tristan McCoy’s Broncos have averaged 36 points in winning their last eight.

Calpreps.com gives the Broncos a 46.4 rating and Sacred Heart 40.8.  The visitors will be traveling about 470 miles, with at least eight hours on the road.

DIVISION IV-AA

Bonita Vista will make a 346-mile journey to the home of the 13-1 Hanford Bullpups, who were beaten by Lemoore, 42-7, in the West Yosemite League title game but came out of the Central Section playoffs and topped Sonora of the Sac-Joaquin Section, 42-18, last week.

Bonita, 12-2, defeated Anaheim Canyon, 24-21, last week and coach Chris Thompson was named San Diego Section coach of the year by a panel working under the auspices of the San Diego Hall of Champions.

The Barons have a Calpreps.com rating of 41.7.  Hanford’s rating is 35.8.

DIVISION V-AA 

The Central Section’s Reedley Immanuel, 11-2 and with independent status, lost a regular-season game to Santa Barbara Bishop Diego, 43-20.

Bishop Diego won a 29-21 decision from Santa Fe Christian, which defeated The Bishop’s, 51-8, which dropped 42-21 and 49-14 decisions to Mater Dei.

It’s a reach but the comparative scores seem to favor Mater Dei, playing at home, with a 13-1 record sullied only by an early-season forfeit to El Capitan.

Calpreps.com gives the Crusaders a 33.8 rating but only 21.1  for the  Eagles, whose travels will take them 330 miles South after they advanced last week with a 31-21 win over Sacramento Bradshaw Christian of the Sac-Joaquin Section.

DIVISION VI-AA

Coronado, 14-0 winner over Los Angeles Belmont, will play host to Nicolaus East Nicolaus of the Northern Section.

East Nicolaus, a school of less than 300 students, is located in Nicolaus, about 25 miles North of Sacramento and 532 miles from Coronado, making the Spartans’ trip the second longest in the playoffs.

(Eureka St. Bernard will motor 698 miles for its D-V battle at San Juan Capistrano Saddleback Valley Christian).

The Spartans have a 12-2 record and have won  their last 10 after beginning 2-2.  They defeated Merced Stone Ridge Christian of the Sac-Joaquin Section, 34-14, in the Northern Regional.

Coronado was 2-3 in Central League play and 3-4 after 7 games but is 7-0 since then and carries a 10-4 record and Calpreps.com rating of 2.  East Nicolaus has a 14.5 rating.

OPEN AND DIVISION  I

Helix took a 28-20 lead into the fourth quarter at Mission Viejo but couldn’t hold on as the host team went ahead with 1:59 to play and won, 32-28.   Oceanside, up and down all season, was ushered out, 36-14, by La Mirada..

TRUE GRID

Helix’ Nate Stinson tied Reggie Bush’s school scoring record at Mission Viejo.  Stinson and Bush each scored 35 touchdowns and 200 points in 13 games, Bush doing it as a junior in 2001…

BASKETBALL

Cathedral’s opened the season  1-2 in the Father Barry Tournament at Carmichael Jesuit…the Dons won their opener, 68-55, from San Francisco St. Ignatius, then bowed 60-57 to  Jesuit and 66-59 to San Jose Archbishop Mitty…Brandon McCoy, who transferred from Morse, had scoring totals of 27, 22, and 8, respectively, for the Dons…Cathedral next will meet Carson City, Nevada, on Tuesday in the opening round of the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas…Foothills Christian, 4-1, and recovering from a 106-86 loss to USA Today No. 3 Chino Hills, is scheduled to be in Houston Tuesday for a game against Katy Cypress Lakes, a free-wheeling Texas team that already is 8-3….