Campolindo basketball star Aidan Mahaney made news amid the drama of a Bay Area high school football weekend.
The senior announced Saturday that he will stay home for college, playing for Randy Bennett at Saint Mary’s College, a mere 2.2 miles from Mahaney’s high school campus.
Mahaney said he has known his future coach since he was barely learning to play as a 6-year-old. Back then, Bennett’s sons, Chase and Cade, were on the opposing side.
Before long, they all became youth basketball teammates and eventually teammates at Campolindo High.
In the Mahaney era, all Campo has done is win.
The Cougars won a state championship when he was a freshman, a NorCal championship when he was a sophomore (the state final was called off because of the pandemic), and went 15-0 in an abbreviated season last spring.
A day after the 6-foot-2 guard announced his college choice on social media, he spent a few minutes over the phone with the Bay Area News Group, discussing why he chose Saint Mary’s over his other finalists, Cal and Princeton, his injury-marred junior season and his goals for the upcoming basketball season.
Here’s a hint: They’re through the roof.
“My goal coming in was to go four for four on state championships,” Mahaney said. “As far as I’m concerned, if we get this one, I’ll be able to say that I did that.”
Here’s our conversation with Mahaney (edited for clarity and brevity):
Darren Sabedra: Why make the college choice now?
Aidan Mahaney: Something that’s really important for me is I wanted to get it done before the high school season starts because I really want to put all my focus into trying to go win a state championship. I always knew that I was going to try to get it done early.
DS: Was Saint Mary’s the only school you were considering or were there others in the mix?
AM: I dropped the top seven and then it kind of kept going from there. But the final three that it really came down to were Saint Mary’s, Cal and Princeton. Those are the three that I just felt showed me the most love throughout the process.
DS: What’s your background with coach Bennett? Obviously, you’ve played with his sons. How far do you go back?
AM: There’s a little elementary school called Lafayette Elementary, like five minutes from my house. There used to be these little rec-league games when I was younger, like five, six, seven years old. I’m pretty sure my dad ended up coaching with my team against Randy with his two kids on their team. And this is like layups basketball, hoop at eight feet, beginning-beginning. So I’ve known Randy for a really, really, really long time. I didn’t really get to start to know him better until probably like third grade. I started playing on his little Gaels AAU team. … Recruiting really started picking up for them and Saint Mary’s my sophomore year. They just wanted to give me time, and they didn’t want to put pressure early on or anything like that.
DS: Some guys want to get away from home for college. You’re right down the street. What are your thoughts on being so close to home?
AM: Honestly, I like it a lot. For me, I’m very goal-oriented. And I knew going into this college decision and everything that my goal is to play basketball as long as I can after college at the highest level. I realized that for me to do that I don’t necessarily have to go places. If I can get to a place with a ball and the gym, I can get that dream done with a good weight room. There are obviously other factors, but I just need a ball and the gym and it didn’t matter to me whether it was five minutes from my high school or across the country. I was willing to go wherever I thought gave me the best chance, and it just happened to be that it was close to home.
DS: What was it like last spring with those injuries? (Mahaney played in six of the 15 games, sidelined by an ankle injury and then an injured hand he cut trying to catch a lobbed pass for a dunk).
AM: Yeah, definitely. It was a crazy year last year. I’ve never really been an injury guy and that was kind of my summary of my junior year as far as basketball went. And that’s just the way it is. You can’t do anything about it. Got to move on, move forward. But as far as this year, we have very, very high expectations for this team. I have high expectations for myself, for my teammates, for Campo as a whole. I am super, super, super excited for what it’s gonna look like. I mean, my goal is for this to be the best Campo team there has ever been, for sure. Very, very high goals, but we know that we’re gonna have to work really hard to get there.
DS: What is the goal, winning the state Open Division?
AM: Open Division 100%. We definitely have the highest goals set in Campo history. But I think we have the guys, the coaching, everything to do. We just have to really start locking in now, which we have, and start putting in the work early.
DS: How good was the Campo team last spring? (It went 15-0 with wins over many of the region’s top teams).
AM: Honestly, I don’t think that team ever got the respect they deserved just because of COVID, without many fans, as well as I think a lot of people kind of wrote us off right away when I was out, not realizing how good we were as a team. Honestly, I thought we were really, really good. I think defensively, it was arguably the best defensive team I’ve been a part of. Guys were ready to go, no egos involved. Play hard every possession. It was huge. It was a big-time team. They had guys that stepped up when they needed to for sure.
DS: How much do you cherish what you’ve been able to achieve in high school? (He played with his older brother, Carter, for two seasons and has never ended a season at Campo with a loss).
AM: I’m beyond thankful for how my high school experience has gone so far on the court. It’s been great, but I’m definitely coming back this year with a big, big chip on my shoulder. I just feel like my teammates, myself, Campo, we’ve had a lot taken from us for reasons uncontrollable. And I just feel like those seniors, my brother’s senior year, deserved to have that championship game and win it. And I think the seniors last year deserved to have that state championship run and win it. And I think that this year that just means it’s more important. My goal is to try to do it for everyone. If we win this year, there’s going to be no debate that we would have won my sophomore and junior year because we’ve won every year that we could. That’s really my biggest thing. I think this is a huge, huge year for multiple reasons. We have high goals and if we were able to reach them, we should be able to cross all those boxes. My goal coming in was to go four for four on state championships. As far as I’m concerned, if we get this one, I’ll be able to say that I did that.
