Swanky Sacred Heart Prep (pictured) was apparently so eager for some athletic glory in the early 1990s that it hired a character from Daly City, Mike “Chubby” Ciardella, to run its girls basketball program. Ciardella won 80 consecutive games.
By John Murphy
The other day at 3 a.m. or some godforsaken hour I got a message via my blog from an old friend.
It was Mike “Chubby” Ciardella, the former Burlingame Recreation Department supervisor who is better known as a former championship basketball coach at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton.
Ciardella won 168 games and lost 13 as the girls basketball coach at Sacred Heart Prep from 1992 through ’96. The Gators captured four consecutive state titles.
Now Ciardella, with the Giants not involved in the MLB postseason and no basketball team to coach, is apparently so bored that he is reading my blog.
Said Ciardella via message, “Love the articles Murph, glad to see you’re still covering high school sports. Burlingame Rec, San Bruno Rec, Papa Jess and the Padres, and John Muir School! I love all those past memories! Keep up the good work! Much success going forward! Mike (Chubby) Ciardella.”
Ciardella is not really chubby – he was just called that by the late Carl Reyna, a gregarious man with an intellectual disability who hung around Burlingame Rec. Carl was Capuchino High’s most fervent all-time fan, and its football stadium is named in his honor.
Carl was a character. Following a Giants’ baseball game at Candlestick Park, my car got a flat tire. I was standing next to my rig on the freeway when Carl rode by and yelled, “Hey Murphy, get a horse!”
That’s the way we rolled in Burlingame in the late 1970s. I was a Recreation and Leisure Studies major (yes, it’s a real thing) at San Francisco State and did my internship in Burlingame. That mainly consisted of talking sports with Ciardella and his merry band of rec leaders that included Steve Picchi, Clay Rice, and others. Carl was always there, and a pile of donuts was usually involved. It was light duty.
Other luminaries were Ray “Daddy Wags” Wagner who was the rec supervisor and another supervisor named Brock Riddle who I think was a male model on the side.
When things really got boring, Daddy Wags would gather the troops, and we’d drive to like Berkeley to investigate a playing surface for no apparent reason. We also attended the Tournament of Champions basketball tournament at the Oakland Coliseum Arena which was a forerunner to the state tournament. We were all hoops junkies and wannabe coaches — except for Ciardella who was a real one — so watching hour after hour of boys and girls hoops was bliss. Ah, good times.
Toward the end of my internship, Daddy Wags – no doubt impressed with my contributions but knowing I was headed for a newspaper career – said something like, “Well, this internship thing is good, but next time I think we should get an intern who is actually going into recreation.”
Ouch, that stung. But only for a moment.
Main Street Dog 