In the past 20 years, Lick-Wilmerding High School has put considerable effort into expanding their sports program through an addition of four new sports and striking a deal with City College of San Francisco (CCSF) for use of their fields. This increased interest in athletics has translated to greater focus on athletics in admissions, as well as more sports-centric student life: not just at LWHS, but across the Bay Area.
According to LWHS Athletic Director Eliot Smith, these efforts illustrate the importance of athletics to the LWHS community. “We are trying to teach all of our student athletes the winning qualities that they will need: commitment, sacrifice, effort and positive attitude,” Smith said. Since the athletics program is a major part of many students’ lives, it is important to maintain a strong program built on shared values. “We look like champions. We act like champions,” Smith said.
From an admissions standpoint, solid athletics are crucial to attracting new star athletes and making sure that LWHS has a high admit yield. A school’s yield is the percentage of accepted students that end up enrolling. “It’s getting kind of crazy nowadays how important athletics is to an applicant’s decision making process. And essentially, what if it will yield the student?” said Andrew Manansala, LWHS Associate Director of Admissions and Boys’ Varsity Basketball Assistant Coach.
To keep this yield high and attract new potential athletes, the admissions team has devised a variety of strategies to encourage athletes to apply to the school. When an eighth grader first demonstrates interest in LWHS, they are directed to an admissions “Inquiry Form” where they are asked to share their favorite classes, extracurricular activities (including sports) and a variety of other information.
Students that express interest in athletics are later sent a second form, an “Athletic Inquiry Form,” that dives deeper into their athletics involvement, specific sports and club teams. LWHS then uses this data to cater an applicant’s LWHS experience towards their specific interest. “What we care about is that anyone who steps foot on campus will be able to learn about whatever topic, subject or co-curricular they’re passionate about. We also want them to feel a sense of belonging, and we do that by pairing them up with like-minded people,” said Manansala.
Interested athletes are invited to informational athletics admissions events, such as the “Athletics Showcase,” otherwise known as “The Tiger Experience,” an athletics event that takes place in the gym following a school tour. “Potential admits go to the gym and get a presentation from Coach Smith where he highlights the philosophy and mission of our athletics program. And it’s very interactive,” Manansala said. Applicants then get to meet the coaches of their respective sport, as well as talk to current players about team life and culture.
Another pre-high school athletics program, Tiger Basketball Camp, allows middle and elementary school students to get a glimpse into the LWHS basketball program through a summer camp. “That’s your first introduction to our athletics program, that we offer something during the summer so that boys and girls get a chance to be on campus, get a chance to see our coaches and student athletes,” Smith said. The program has been running for 30 years and has hosted thousands of students across the Bay Area.
“Seeing Eliot at the different admissions events and seeing the energy he brought, I saw that reflected in the students in their passion and joy,” Finn McDonald ’26, a freshman on the Boys’ Varsity Basketball team, said of his decision to attend LWHS.
“When I first came to Lick, I didn’t know anything about the school. I was kind of clueless. The first people I met were Mr. Tesfai, my coach and a bunch of the basketball girls,” said Girls’ Varsity Basketball Captain Kailee Mahlstedt-Kamekona ’23. Following this introduction to Lick basketball and coaches, she said that she based her decision to come to LWHS “solely on athletics.”
In the past 20 years, LWHS has extended their athletics programs in order to accommodate more athletics talent. One notable accomplishment, which took place 14 years ago, was a $75 million deal between LWHS and CCSF to use their sports facilities. According to Smith, initially LWHS had only used the CCSF tennis courts to practice.
“It really did start when the Athletic Director at CCSF called me and asked, ‘We will be remodeling our athletics facilities, would Lick-Wilmerding High School be interested in being a part of this project? Our administration has been so impressed by the way that your students at Lick-Wilmerding have been so appreciative,’” Smith said. This respect from LWHS students led to the access of countless fields, gyms and pools that LWHS has in a partnership with CCSF today.
As LWHS was acquiring new high class facilities, other Bay Area schools were also expanding their athletics programs. In the past 20 years, San Francisco University High School has begun a partnership with Paul Goode Fields, Urban School of San Francisco has built a new gym, San Domenico has remodeled their fields, Marin Academy has purchased a new pool, Saint Ignatius has bought land for fields in Pacifica and so on. Urban and University, schools which LWHS considers to be its peers, have also been increasing their athletics events in admissions, according to Manansala.
However, this cross between athletics and admissions can be dicey, and schools have to be careful to not break North Coast Section (NCS) recruitment guidelines. “In order to be a legal admissions event, you cannot have athletics events by themselves — it falls under recruiting violations,” Manansala said. This is why LWHS is unable to host athletics events connected to admissions without having a tour or other event beforehand. Additionally, it is not allowed for coaches to go out of their way to meet players, but some schools try to get out of this rule by having coaches “coincidently” running into players during shadow visits.
Although athletics are crucial to LWHS’ successes, equally so are all other departments, such as Performing Arts, Visual Arts and academics. It’s this well-rounded atmosphere that leads some student athletes who are interested in more than just their sport to choose LWHS.
“[LWHS] was one of the only schools with Water Polo in the city besides SI, and water polo was my leading passion at the time. So I chose Lick for its academic rigor and support but then also the benefit of having water polo. Which is ultimately why I chose it over SI, because it was like a two for one,” Water Polo Captain Joe Dolce ’23 said.
“So many kids are applying to our school, and everyone applying has a gift…We are a team. We are a family,” Smith said.
