HIGH SCHOOLS:

The first time I covered the Sage Hill School girls’ soccer team, the Lightning lost, 2-0, to Costa Mesa.

When the game ended, I looked for Coach Chino Cid, and since I’d never met the man before, I put my money on the guy I’d witnessed doing all the arm-waving and shouting during the game.

Seemed like a smart idea.

To wit: there’s a joke about former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith that falls in step with this logic.

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Sometime in the future, a man who doesn’t know anything about basketball dies and goes to heaven. He gets the royal tour from Saint Peter, and they make their rounds to the heavenly basketball courts.

“Who’s that?” the man asks, pointing at a bald guy in a Bulls jersey.

“That’s Michael Jordan, the greatest to ever play the game,” Saint Peter says.

They move on, and Saint Peter points out Spudd Wedd.

“That’s the shortest guy ever to play the game,” he says.

The two continue to walk and they see a man on the sideline of a court, waving his arms and yelling.

“Who’s that?” the dead guy asks.

“That,” Saint Peter says, “Is God. He thinks he’s Dean Smith.”

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I approached the man who’d been displaying all the typical coaching histrionics, but that turned out to be Nacho Cid. He referred me to Chino, who is listed before Nacho on the Sage Hill roster.

It took the rest of the season to learn what the heck was going on.

The two brothers took over the team after former coach Amy Ray went on maternity leave. But despite the familial bond, Nacho wasn’t really sure he’d be able to work with his older brother.

Even adult siblings have their differences.

In the end, Nacho became the tactical coach, and by some estimations, “the mean one,” while Chino handled all the administrative duties.

“When the job was offered to me, I said, ‘I want to be the assistant coach, and I want Nacho to be the head coach,’” Chino said. “Nacho had doubts about me and him coaching together. I basically said to him, ‘You’re in charge of all practices. I’ll do everything else.”

“Everything else” includes talking to the media, communicating with parents, and keeping track of paperwork.

So far, it’s been a winning combination. The Lightning are playing against Animo Leadership in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division VI championship playoffs today after winning the Academy League title for the first time in school history.

The game is at 5 p.m at Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington.

Sage Hill lost to Animo, 2-0, in the St. Margaret’s tournament, but Animo, which is making its second-round debut in the playoffs, later succumbed to St. Margaret’s, 5-0. Sage Hill beat and tied the Tartans this year.

Animo is 19-5-1, the team’s best record since the program began in 2003, and the Aztec Eagles are led by sophomore Susana Velazquez, who has scored 30 goals this season.

“Just because we beat them earlier this season, we can’t assume we can beat them again,” said fourth-year coach Jose Vasquez. “They’re a very good team. They have a lot of good players. Since we beat them, I think they’ve turned it around. That shows the character of their team.”

Nacho motivates the team, sometimes through fear, joked sophomore midfielder Louisa Whitaker, but it’s worked. The first thing he did was drop most of the running from practices and replaced it with rigorous drills that would make the girls better players and build up their stamina.

Running is now mostly reserved for punishment.

“If he’s like, ‘OK, get on the line,’ we did something wrong,” said junior midfielder Isa-Maria Taskinen. “It’s not always fun because we have to run around the goal in 15 second three times in a row. We don’t want to run. We try to avoid having the punishment of doing running.”

The other difference, Taskinen said, was Nacho’s reassessment of the team’s goals. Sage Hill went to the Division VI quarterfinals last season, but they did it as the No. 2 representative from the Academy League. There was an unspoken resignation that the Tartans were simply impossible to beat.

“He said, ‘You guys are going to win league this year. That’s our goal,’” Taskinen said. “We never had that kind of a goal before. It wasn’t really pushed on us that we have to win league and we can beat St. Margaret’s. Every time we played St. Margaret’s before, it was like, ‘OK, we know they’re better than us, but hopefully we can do it.’ Nacho believed in us and said ‘You guys really can go and beat them. You guys can go win league.’ I think that’s the difference.”

You see? Chino and Nacho had me going for a minute. But when in doubt, refer to the waving arms. They’re almost always attached to the brains of the operation.

To other schools, to MaxPreps.com, to anyone who needs a roster — Chino is the head coach. But within the Sage Hill circle, Nacho is top dog.

“He doesn’t want to speak to the parents,” Chino said. “He doesn’t want to speak to anybody. On paper, he’s the head coach. I do the dirty work. He’s doing the coaching part. He and I are on the same page.”

Chino grinned.

“He gets the bigger paycheck.”

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TODAY’S GAMES

Corona del Mar (13-7-3) will travel to Ventura County today to play at Moorpark (7-4-10), the third-place representative from the Marmonte League, at 3 p.m. in second round of the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs.

The Sea Kings advanced after winning 1-0 a physical battle Saturday at Brea Olinda.

Costa Mesa (13-7-3) will play at Riverside Poly (19-3-3), which was ranked sixth in the final Division III coach’s poll. Mesa, the Orange Coast League champions defeated Bonita, 2-1, Saturday.

Estancia (13-8-3) may have the stickiest matchup today of all the area soccer programs. The Eagles are hosting Mayfair (23-2-3), the top seed in Division III and Suburban League champion. The Eagles defeated Beverly Hills 1-0 Saturday.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.