Pulling in more MCAL wins in the last several years than any other school, Redwood has consistently had one of the most successful athletic programs in recent MCAL history.
But Redwood is not always on top. Although the Giants have performed the best overall in MCAL over the past decade, Marin Catholic, has had more success than Redwood in the NCS playoffs.
According to data from MCAL, Redwood won or shared 71 MCAL championships from 2002-2011, more than any other school in the league.
While Marin Catholic has dominated in football, and Drake has dominated basketball, Redwood has had more across-the-board success in MCAL sports.
“When you’re talking about all sports combined, all levels combined, Redwood High School without question has been the best for decades,” said Mike Dibley, who has coached high school sports in Marin County for 28 years at all three levels.
Marin Catholic is the only close competitor with 62 wins during the same time 10 year period. Next in line is Drake with 39, followed by Tamalpais with 26, Terra Linda with 22, Branson with 20, Justin-Siena with 14, Novato with 13, San
Marin with eight, and San Rafael with four.
“They (Marin Catholic) have quality teams at most levels in most sports,” Dibley said. “Per capita, the student athletes and teams, Marin Catholic is very close to us.”
Dibley believes that Redwood’s success has been driven by community support and the school’s size.
“First and foremost is the support of our community, “ he said. “At a young age kids have lots of opportunity for not only participation, but for quality coaching, and expert guidance.”
Redwood is the largest school in the league with over 1,500 students. Marin Catholic is right up there in titles despite only having 700 students. Drake has also had success with less than 1,000 students.
Branson has even won more titles than four other schools despite only having 320 students, while the size of Novato and Tamalpais, the second and third largest schools in the league, haven’t translated to MCAL titles.
“With size comes opportunity,” Dibley said. “When we have as many kids as we have we can field deep teams even at the lower levels.”
The Giants’ overall success has been in large part due to the individual success of MCAL titles in cross country, softball, track and field, tennis, and swimming.
When competing against the entire North Bay in the North Coast Section playoffs, Redwood has not had the same overwhelming success as they have in league, but they are still ranked towards the top among all MCAL schools in NCS titles.
In the long run, over the past 20 years, Redwood is tied with San Marin with 12 NCS titles, only trailing Marin Catholic with 28 and Branson, which excels at girls’ volleyball and boys’ basketball, with 29.
The Redwood team that has won the most NCS championships is the girls’ volleyball team. They have won four titles, in 1997, 2003, 2006, and 2011.
Softball won NCS in 1996 and 2008, boys’ tennis in 2005 and 2006, boys’ cross country in 1998 and 2000 as well as baseball in 1997, and boys’ basketball in 2010.
But judging success by NCS titles can be a bit misleading. Branson has the second most NCS titles over the last 20 years, but they typically compete in Division IV and V. Redwood teams, in contrast, usually compete in Division II. NCS divisions are determined by the sizes of the schools.
Dibley says that he judges success more in terms of MCAL playoff success than NCS, though.
“I’d rather have a team that won the league and lost in the section than maybe lost in the league playoffs but got to a section semifinal or final.”
Recently Redwood has also seen its fair share of great athletes. The school has had 33 MCAL player of the year or co-players of the year since 2004, second only to MC among all MCAL schools.
