Family ties part of special Clayton
Valley Charter basketball season

Family Ties for websiteIt’s been quite a season for Clayton Valley Charter High School boys basketball and there’s been a distinct family feel to it. Kris Pascoe (left) and her son Garrett Pascoe (second from left) joined John Mahloch (right) and his son Clayton at Ed’s Mudville Grill on the day the Eagles were announced as No. 1 seeds at North Coast Section. John Mahloch has called Mudville his work home for over two decades. Garrett Pascoe eclipsed some of John Mahloch’s school records  this season that date back to 1986 when both Mahloch and Kris Bell Pascoe graduated from the school. (Photo by Jay Bedecarré.)

Last month during a season to remember, Clayton Valley Charter High School basketball player Garrett Pascoe made a pass to a seldom-used freshman guard who sank a three-point shot. The assist on that basket was the 173rd of this season for Pascoe and broke a 32-year-old school record.

Sitting in the stands that evening in Dan Della Gym was the previous record holder, John Mahloch, who happens to be the father of the young player who scored the basket, Clayton Mahloch. That the son should help break his dad’s school record is just one of several family and other ties that bind together this record-setting season for CVCHS boys basketball.

Pascoe will approach another school record Wednesday evening when his team takes the same court to face Menlo School of Atherton in the opening round of the Northern California Regionals. Head coach Eric Bamberger says that will be the 103rd game of Pascoe’s four-year high school career at Clayton Valley.

“He missed four games with a concussion as a freshman and we were on probation his sophomore year and only played 21 games,” Bamberger says. His Ugly Eagles also have set a school record with 26 wins to date, exceeding the 25-5 mark set in 1986 by Mahloch and his team that also featured Brian Sullivan, Rob Oliver and Jon Roberts, among others.

Like Pascoe, John Mahloch played four years of varsity basketball for the Eagles under legendary Hall of Fame Coach Bruce Iversen. During his career he set game, season and school records for assists and free throws. He also set the mark for 104 games played. He holds the school single season and career scoring records as well.

He didn’t set the single-game scoring record. That mark of 43 points was established in 1968 by slick scoring guard Marc Lee. That standard fell to Pascoe in January when he poured in 49 points during a double overtime 100-98 loss in Moraga to Campolindo, ending the Eagles record-breaking 18-game winning streak to open the season.

Pascoe has also passed Mahloch’s season career assist record of 413.

Sitting in the stands when the young Mahloch made the shot against Acalanes were his grandparents Gary and Linda Mahloch and aunt (and dad’s sister) Cheryl Mahloch Hammond. They were also watching John Mahloch’s record-setting games at Clayton Valley from 1982-86.

When John Mahloch was playing at Clayton Valley the girls teams were also enjoying a lot of success. Among the Eagles girls players from the class of 1986 was Kris Bell. Today she goes by her married name of Kris Pascoe, none other than the mother of Garrett Pascoe! She and John Mahloch were good friends in high school.

In his senior year, Mahloch’s team defeated Ygnacio Valley in the Diablo Valley Athletic League playoffs in an overtime game. The star for Ygnacio Valley was none other than sophomore Eric Bamberger. Yes, that Eric Bamberger. “I fouled out at the end of regulation on a terrible call made by an official who taught at Clayton Valley,” Bamberger says today. Not that he holds a grudge or anything.

Bamberger’s Warriors went on to win the Northern California championship his junior season before losing to Mater Dei in the State championship game. A year later, Ygnacio was North Coast Section Division II champion and No. 1 seed at NorCals but lost to Menlo Atherton.

After graduating, John Mahloch took his bundle of high school records with him to play at Stanislaus State in Turlock for coach Bob Thomason, perhaps the greatest basketball player ever at Clayton Valley. Mahloch made the first triple double in school history and was second-team all-league as a sophomore.

Thomason left after that season to begin a 25-year coaching career at University of the Pacific and Mahloch chose not to play his final two years under the new coach. While at college, though, he met a women’s basketball player name Pam, they got married and now are proud parents of twin sons Clayton and Quinton. John Mahloch coached his twins for St. Bonaventure CYO basketball from second to eighth grade and they won the sixth grade Diocese championship.

Kris Pascoe has also stayed close to basketball and her alma mater. She was an assistant coach for the Clayton Valley girls team for several years.

Daughter Hailey Pascoe starred at Clayton Valley with four years on varsity before going to Lehigh University. She sat out this collegiate season after suffering a knee injury in pre-season practice.

The Lehigh junior was a two-time league MVP during her four years at Clayton Valley while her teams won three league championships. In her 2015 senior year at CVCHS she was female athlete of the year, the same honor John Mahloch won for males in 1986.

Garrett Pascoe will continue his playing career at Boston University next winter for the Terriers in NCAA Division I basketball.

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