January 2011 Archives

Here's this week's Daily News Rankings. This poll will appear in Wednesday's paper.

After a few delays, I'm more relieved than anything to announce that the Whittier Daily News football all-area awards issue is coming out Thursday, Feb. 3.

The first time the La Serna and California High girls soccer teams met, there were three red cards and several missed chances in a 0-0 tie on Jan. 7 in the Del Rio League opener.

In case you missed it, here's the story we ran on former El Rancho High School football player Jose Ramos III, who was slain on Sunday morning at his girlfriend's birthday party.

Family and coaches wanted to get the message out that Ramos' death was a tragedy and that the young man was not part of the gang violence that claimed his life.

It was confirmed on Monday afternoon that former El Rancho High School football player Jose Ramos was stabbed to death early Sunday morning at a party.

As we hit the halfway point of the league season, there are quite a few important games taking place today. Here's a few. If I missed one, please add it here.

I guess Monday was a bad day to take off as St. Paul football coach Marijon Ancich announced he would retire after the 2011 season, his third such retirement from St. Paul during his coaching tenure.

There's little question the top area boys basketball game tonight and maybe of this entire week will be played at 7 when Daily News' No. 4-ranked Whittier High School (12-7 overall, 2-0 in league) travels to No. 3-ranked La Serna (11-5, 2-0) in a key Del Rio League showdown.

St. Paul High School girls basketball coach Robert Miller said the Del Rey League would be a battle and he wasn't kidding. The Swordsmen lost three nonleague games in 17 attempts, entering last week's league opener with a stellar 15-3 mark.

Two games into league play and the Swordsmen are 0-2 after a 64-37 defeat at Bishop Amat on Thursday.

There weren't two more hotter boys soccer teams heading into Thursday than El Rancho and California High School, the only two area squads with double digit wins.

El Rancho (13-1 overall, 3-0 in league) took a small but significant step toward another Del Rio League title by defeating California 3-1.

"We were ready for this game, no doubt," El Rancho junior forward Francisco Lara said. "We have a real good team and we've beaten California the last few years, so we had to come out strong."

The CIF-Southern Section office did not produce polls last week since a large number of the section's schools were still on break.

These are the first boys and girls basketball polls of the new year. I will upload boys and girls soccer and girls water polo shortly. The polls are enclosed after the listing of the ranked area locals.

Here are our photo galleries from last week's action. Our photographers don't often get the credit or recognition for the great work they do. Honestly, you'd much rather have your photo in the paper then your name in an article, right?

I've never really put much stock into rankings (especially my own) because they really don't mean much - with the exception of the final CIF-SS poll used to determined playoff seeding. However, for whoever is interested, here is this year's first Whittier Daily News Boys Basketball Rankings of the new year. This will run in Wednesday's paper.

I've never really put much stock into rankings (especially my own) because they really don't mean much - with the exception of the final CIF-SS poll used to determined playoff seeding. However, for whoever is interested, here is this year's first Whittier Daily News Girls Basketball Rankings of the new year. This will run in Wednesday's paper.

For the three followers left on this blog, it looks like the majority of problems that have crippled this forum since mid-October have been fixed.