LAKE COUNTY — While getting bumped up into Division 4 for the Northern California playoffs wasn’t their idea , the Clear Lake Cardinals happily accepted every challenge thrown their way during a 2019-20 season in which they won 27 games to match the school record they set a year earlier.
Led by veteran head coach Scott De Leon in his final season, the Cardinals advanced as far as the NorCal semifinals — also for the second year in a row — before losing to the team, Lincoln High School of San Francisco, that also ended their 2018-19 season.
Watching the school they handily beat in the North Coast Section Division 5 semifinals, San Domenico, capture the NorCal title in Division 5 and move on to the state championship game is one of the few things the Cardinals had absolutely no control over during another magical year.
All five of the team’s starters, four of them seniors, were significant contributors to the team’s success. In fact, each of them — Jaron Mertle, Darius Ford, Tyler Cerini, Travis Howe and Donovan Valadez, a junior — picked a specific moment to shine during the course of a campaign that began in late November and lasted through the first week of March.
All five were recently honored as either first- or second-team selections on the All-North Central League I team as selected by the league’s coaches, led by MVP Mertle.
On the 2019-20 edition of the All-Lake County team as selected by the Lake County Record-Bee, nothing will change. For the first time in the history of the All-County team, five starters from the same team have found their way onto the first team, once again led by most valuable player Mertle, a scoring and rebounding machine for the Cardinals and half of their dominating inside presence. The other half, Cerini, gave Clear Lake a most formidable one-two punch in the paint. Mertle’s ability to shoot the 3-pointer made him that much more dangerous. Both Mertle and Cerini provided some memorable dunks as well during the course of the season, including’ Cerini’s dagger slam in the fourth quarter of a NorCal first-round playoff win over Kingsburg.
Ford’s 3-point shot prowess combined with Howe’s defensive skills and Valadez’s solid guard play gave opponents all they could handle.
Overseeing the orchestra of talent was conductor De Leon, the easy pick for All-County Coach of the Year.
The Cardinals of the last two seasons have set Lake County’s boys basketball success bar quite high.
First team
Joining MVP Mertle and fellow first-teamers Ford, Cerini, Howe and Valadez on the first team is Middletown High School senior Andreas Cervantes, who capped off an outstanding varsity career for the Mustangs, a team that battled all sorts of adversity this season to reach the NCS Division 4 playoffs where they battled Del Norte in a 56-43 first-round loss.
Second team
Sammy Cervantes, a senior and the other half of the talented sibling duo for head coach G.J. Rockwell and the Mustangs, is one of five county players to earn All-County second-team honors. He’s joined by senior teammate Jimmy Rockwell, fellow seniors Bodhi Baird of Kelseyville and Hank Nevarez of Upper Lake, and junior Vann Wilkins of Lower Lake.
Coach of the Year
De Leon won a total of 54 games in his final two seasons with the Cardinals and will finally have some time off – at least when he’s not wearing one of his many hats as an employee for the County of Lake – to do other things.
He’ll take away a lifetime of good memories from his coaching days with the Cardinals, especially his final two seasons.
“Everyone knew their role,” De Leon said of his 2019-20 players. “They accepted it, they bought into playing selfless basketball for the good of the group. They were fearless. They always supported each other and held each other accountable. No one was more important than the other guy.
“It was an honor and a privilege to coach them,” De Leon added.
