By Andrea Swayne
The Dana Hills High School surf team wrapped up a great season with a coveted win in the highly competitive men shortboard division at the Scholastic Surf Series State Championship in May, beating overall team champions San Clemente High School.
In the field of 10 schools, the Dana Hills team took second place overall, second in women’s longboard, equal third in men longboard, women shortboard and coed bodyboard.
In SSS individual state competition, Dana surfers turned in three podium performances.
Bethany Zelasko and Alison Heinemeyer were runners-up in women shortboard and women longboard, respectively, and Kyle Perez brought home a fifth-place finish in men longboard.
In March, the team turned in a second place finish behind San Clemente at the National Scholastic Surfing Association Interscholastic State Championship varsity competition.
In that event, Zelasko was the winning surfer in women shortboard, Danny Kenduck took third in men shortboard and Perez took sixth in longboard.
Looking toward next year, assistant coach Tim Sampson said the team’s mens’ shortboard victory at SSS States was a huge accomplishment—and an especially nice victory for head coach Mark Deegan who retired his position at the end of the season—as it is the largest and most competitive division and speaks volumes for the team’s future.
Sampson has been promoted to head coach for next year.
“Even though we lost a good number of seniors to graduation, we have a very strong junior class and some very talented sophomores coming up next year,” Sampson said. “We are really excited about the upcoming season.”
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