It began as a trickle and turned into a flood
– new students descending with their families on Morgan Hill and
filling the relatively new Live Oak High campus to the seams.
It began as a trickle and turned into a flood – new students descending with their families on Morgan Hill and filling the relatively new Live Oak High campus to the seams.
It was the 1970s and population growth in the little South Bay town was expanding at previously unheard-of rates.
In fact, the growth was happening so fast that Live Oak was forced to go to double sessions as a result in the mid to late 1970s.
One happy byproduct of all that sudden growth was that the Acorn sports teams were inundated with scores of student-athletes ready to compete for the Green and Gold.
Nearing its 75th anniversary, Live Oak was on the cusp of a 25-year run of athletic success and regional dominance unlikely to be repeated in the school’s history.
According to current Live Oak Athletic Director and longtime baseball coach Mark Cummins, who arrived at the school near the beginning of the long run of success, a talented, dedicated coaching staff and high expectations were the primary reasons for LO’s dominance.
“We had some great coaches and we were supposed to win the league championship every year,” Cummins said. “If we didn’t win, it wasn’t exactly a bad year but it was disappointing.”
In football, Norm Dow arrived from Northern Arizona as an assistant coach in 1976, and four years later he had taken over the top job.
Over the next 18 years, Dow would lead Live Oak football to four Central Coast Section titles, and two more section runner-up finishes.
In all, Dow’s teams made the postseason 16 of 18 seasons.
And, when another longtime LO coach, Mack Haines, arrived in the 1980s, the Acorn aquatics program was already the class of the area.
Begun by Tim Thornton in the 1960s, LO swimming and water polo teams were already perennial champions.
But over the next couple of decades, led by Haines and girls coach Lynn Gautschi – the former Olympic medalist – LO swim and water polo teams dominated area pools.
Since Haines arrived, the boys water polo program has won 17 league titles and a CCS title, while the swim teams has won 13 league titles.
In addition, the LO girls swim team won a CCS title under Gautschi, along with a host of league titles, and produced an Olympian in Kelly Asplund.
And, the girls water polo team has also enjoyed its share of success, winning a long string of league titles.
In baseball, Cummins has led his teams to eight league titles and 14 straight CCS playoff appearances during his tenure.
