Arizona coach comes to town

University of Arizona women’s basketball coach Joan Bonvicini has been at the school 17 seasons and became the 18th women’s coach in NCAA history to record 600 career wins last season, so why was she in the Inland Valley on Wednesday?

No, it wasn’t for recruiting purposes. It was to watch a player she’d already recruited.

I ran into Bonvicini after the Colony-Chaffey girls basketball game. She was in town to watch Colony’s Amani Butler, who signed with Arizona last fall. She told me she wanted to see how Butler’s game was progressing this season, and was able to watch  Butler against the No. 2 team in the league (and No. 3 in the division), Chaffey.

Butler had 28 points, seven rebounds and seven steals in the game. I wonder if that’s standard procedure for coaches to watch players they already have a signed letter of intent. It makes sense to do it if you can, you don’t want any surprises when the player shows up in the fall. It seems obvious that Butler is an important part of Bonvicini’s future plans for her to make the trip to Ontario, a day before hosting a conference game against Oregon.

All-“CIF” Football

You may have heard that the CIF Southern Section is clearing itself of any responsibility for the all-CIF teams. That of course is ridiculous, but the even worse part is that no one stepped up to release the information to the general public. It took a while for volleyball to come out, and now the media finally has the football teams. I’m not typing them all in, but here are the local players who made it. After that, I’m listing local all-state football players.

Inland Division

Josh Foley, Norco; Tim Hanson, Upland; A.J. Springer, Miller; Kyle Johnston, Norco; Christian Barker, Etiwanda; Michael Cole, Miller; Marvin Jones, Etiwanda; Mark Garcia, Los Osos; Damion Stafford, Norco; Cory Harkey, Chino Hills; Jared Koster, Norco; Dallas Kelley, Norco; Tre’Shawn Robinson, Upland.

Central Division

Jeff Ginolfi, Colony; Daniel Simmons, Colony; Joshua Andrews, Colony; Quashawn Buckley, Colony; Bobby Wagner, Colony (offense and defense); Elon Wyatt, Colony; Jose Chairez, Colony; Devion Washington, Chaffey.

 

Eastern Division

John Vandenraadt, Jurupa Valley; Adam Ramirez, Kaiser; Darnell Etherly, Kaiser; Simon Martinez, Kaiser.

East Valley Division

Shane Sousa, Ontario Christian; Erie Terpstra, Ontario Christian; Bobby Nigg, Ontario christian; Brett Hutter, Ontario Christian.

Northwest Division

Nico Barbone, San Dimas

CAL-HI SPORTS’ ALL-STATE FOOTBALL

2nd team offense

Marvin Jones, Etiwanda; Kyle Johnston, Norco

3rd team multi-purpose

A.J. Springer, Miller

all-state underclass, 2nd team multi-puroose

Richard Brehaut, Los Osos

 

Bonita-Diamond Ranch prep soccer musings

I was at the Bonita-Diamond Ranch girls soccer game on Thursday, and I had some thoughts. …

–If in fact Bonita does not win league this year, it will end a remarkable run of league championships, a run that was bound to end eventually, just like the league winning and league unbeaten streaks

–I hadn’t realized that Diamond Ranch coach Victoria Hentges and Bonita coach Brad Page are both alumni of the schools they coach. Although there’s nothing wrong with going elsewhere, there’s something nice about the thought of the alma mater having enough meaning that they want to go back there to coach. Of course, I’m 3,000 miles away from my high school alma mater.

–Glenn Davis Stadium needs a press box. This dawned on me as I stood in chilly, rainy conditions. Although I might have stayed on the field anyway, it seems that a stadium with an all-weather track and new artificial turf should have a press box. If you haven’t been there before, the “press box” provides the same protection from water that audiences get in the front row of Shamu’s Sea World show –none

Pressure is still on wrestling teams

There aren’t too many high school sports where a league championship is decided by each team in the league playing each other team just once.

Track and swimming are two of them. But in those leagues, there is no head-to-head team competition in CIF, so the league title carries little significance compared to how many you qualify for CIF.

In wrestling however, teams face each other just once, and there is also a dual-meet championship. So with only five league matches, you don’t get a second chance against the same team.

There was an air of that on Thursday for Alta Loma’s 37-21 wrestling victory over Los Osos. Fans were intense, knowing that a Baseline League championship could be on the line, in each teams’ second league match.

Now, that’s frequently the case in other leagues, where there are usually two clear-cut top teams in the league.

That’s not true in the Baseline League, where coach Alta Loma coach Tom Guenther knows that Rancho Cucamonga and Upland are still on the schedule and both will provide challenging roadblocks to a league title. Alta Loma may prove to be the best in the league, but no one’s conceding anything yet.