1974 was an important year for the California Interscholastic Federation as it was the first year that girls’ high school basketball was a sanctioned sport. That meant that section champions were decided for the first time in girls’ high school basketball, and the winner of the inaugural title in the Central Section was Hoover.

Coached by Pat Boroff, Hoover went 11-1 during the 1974 season with its only loss coming in its first game to San Joaquin Memorial. The Patriots would later avenge that loss, defeating the Panthers in the section championship game

Junior Connie Gooch led Hoover with 12 points in the rematch against Memorial. The first woman from Fresno to receive a college scholarship, Gooch would go on to play at UNLV.

As would Anita Carter, a sophomore on that 1974 Hoover girls basketball team.

After winning its first section championship, Hoover would rattle off two more for a three-peat. One year after going 11-1, the Patriots went undefeated (14-0). It helped that Connie Gooch averaged a double-double that season (18 ppg, 11 rpg). She was a senior that year, and she scored 20 points in the section championship game as Hoover once again defeated San Joaquin Memorial for the title.

In 1976, Gooch was gone. However, the Patriots kept winning. Coach Boroff’s team went 16-2 overall that season, 13-1 in the league, and it once again found itself facing Memorial in the section championship game. This time it was Eva Robinson stepping up, scoring a team-high 20 points to secure the Patriots’ third straight section title.

Hoover won a total of 41 games during those three seasons (1974-1976), and only lost three times. In the league, the Patriots won 38 games and only lost once.