Saratoga's Burney leads the Royals to title, CCS
By Dick Sparrer
Longtime Saratoga coach Ray Burney, now the head baseball coach at Overfelt, is back in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
Burney took over the struggling Overfelt program and led the Royals to a co-championship in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League and into the CCS Division I baseball playoffs.
The Royals were 4-19 a year ago, and after a last-place finish in the Santa Teresa Division dropped to the West Valley circuit. Burney helped the Royals turn things around, and Overfelt is now 16-5 for the year and heading into the playoffs this week against No. 1 seed Wilcox (24-3). The Chargers will host the Royals on May 16, 4 p.m.
Overfelt tied with Gunderson for the division championship, but the Royals earned the playoff berth because they defeated the Grizzlies two-out-of-three in head-up competition.
Burney, a Saratoga resident, is no stranger to CCS competition. As a player, he was a member of the Saratoga CCS championship football team in 1973, and as a Saratoga coach he was a member of the football staff in 1996 and baseball staff in 1999 when the Falcons won section titles.
Burney played football and baseball during his high school days at Saratoga.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
