Friday Afternoon Fiesta... sort of

The always-busy Mike Aldapa checked in this afternoon, in between his campaign for state assembly, to give some updates on the second annual Los Angeles Fiesta Bowl.

Aldapa was the chair of last year's successful game that ended in a surprising 22-21 City Section win. Some of the Southern Section stars last year included locals Joe Orduno and Julian De Lay Hay of Schurr, Andre Flores and Angel Pintado of Cantwell-Sacred Heart and Jorge Samia and Jason Sarinana of Montebello. The Southern Section squad was coached by Cantwell's Pete Smolin.

Let's start with the bad news -

The game is currently scheduled one day after the San Gabriel Valley's Hall of Fame Game at Bassett High School, just like last year. The scheduling conflict cost Smolin several stars who opted to play Friday and not Saturday. Hopefully, this won't be too much of an issue this year.

Okay, on to the good news -

Aldapa confirmed that Jones wanted to open up the all-star game to more Whittier area schools including Whittier, El Rancho and La Serna. (Don't freak out Cal-Hi and Pioneer fans, Aldapa couldn't remember all the schools in Whittier). Jones was also receiving plenty of interest from schools in the Pasadena area.

My take -

Right now, it's too early to say if this game will be as successful this year as it was last year. This year, Aldapa has already secured television rights (game to be televised on L.A. Channel 36). What I think hurts is the change in venue. Playing at ELAC was special and I'm not sure Wilson (capacity around 10,000) will be as electric.

Aldapa says a press conference is scheduled for May 7th. Before then, though, I'll get some thoughts from Jones and Martinez and/or Cid. Stay tuned.