Photo by James Glover II

The highlight of the 2007-08 school year for the Thousand Oaks High athletic program was the girls' soccer team's 2-1 win over Marmonte League rival Moorpark in the CIF-Southern Section Division II title game on March 1. Thousand Oaks is the Star Cup large schools winner.

Photo by Jeffrey Earle
Special to The Star

Kat Luft and the Thousand Oaks High girls' volleyball team won one of the school's four Marmonte League titles in 2007-08.

It just doesn't get better than this, thought Thousand Oaks High athletic director Jason Klinger.

Not only had the Thousand Oaks girls' soccer team upset Torrey Pines, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, in the playoffs, the Lancers defeated Marmonte League rival Moorpark, 2-1, on the strength of two goals by Michelle Cruz, to capture the CIF Division II section title.

"I had never been in a situation to see a team make a run like that," said Klinger.

That championship — the 21st CIF title in school history — was the centerpiece of another remarkable sports year for the Thousand Oaks athletic program, which won the 2008 Star Cup large schools title for the fourth time in the last five years.

Coming in a close second was the memorable run to the CIF boys' doubles title by Denis Lin and Marcos Giron, who became only third doubles team from Ventura County to accomplish the feat.

And another example of why the school has maintained one of the area's best all-around athletic programs for more than two decades — 12 of Thousand Oaks' 22 teams have won one or more section championships.

In the 2007-08 school year, Thousand Oaks only won four Marmonte League championships: girls' volleyball, girls' soccer, boys' swimming and baseball. Fewer than Royal. In the same neighborhood with Westlake, Simi Valley and Newbury Park.

What separated Thousand Oaks from the Marmonte pack were a remarkable eight second-place finishes (five in the spring) and four third-place teams.

"Across the board," said Klinger, "we once again showed that we had the depth in all of our sports."

Nineteen of the school's 22 sports teams qualified for the playoffs. Seven teams won 20 or more games: Wrestling (30-4), girls' volleyball (27-3), softball (25-6), girls' soccer (23-4-2), boys' volleyball (20-6), boys' basketball (20-8) and baseball (20-11).

In all, Thousand Oaks teams won a remarkable 312 events.

One of the school's best turnaround stories was produced by the boys' golf team.

After finishing last in the Marmonte League with a 3-15 record in 2007, the golf team placed third in the final 2008 league standings and qualified for the CIF postseason.

Staples for the athletic program over the years have been the continued successes of the baseball, softball, boys' basketball, track, cross country, wrestling and swimming programs.

Expect upswings for two programs in the 2008-09 school year, projects Klinger.

Coming off a 27-3 season and CIF second-round appearance, the Thousand Oaks girls' volleyball team is poised to make a deeper playoff run in the fall, said Klinger.

After going through a revolving door of coaches, the girls' basketball team found its way under second-year coach Rick Cromwell and won eight of its last 12 regular-season game to tie for third in the Marmonte League and posted the program's first winning season in 10 years.

"Girls' basketball has good depth of talent and it's young," said Klinger. "They should be good next year."

Klinger owes the athletic department's success to participation of nearly 1,000 student-athletes as well as the continuity of staff coaches.

"You see solid, well-respected coaches," said Klinger. "They're always there. Hopefully that makes parents comfortable about sending their kids to our school."

Thousand Oaks' success is remarkable because of the high level of competition it faces every week in the Marmonte League.

"The bar is such that you can't relax in this league," said Klinger. "I don't know if there is a sport that you can have an off week. It's very hard to continue to stay at this level."