New coaches, new attitude
There are five new coaches in town. Some want to change the perception of their teams and others want to continue the rich football tradition.
Below are the new coaches and my $0.02 on my impression of them. I will have more about them in a feature I'm working on that'll run with our high school football preview.
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KEPPEL
Miguel's Take: I haven't talked to Raul Solis. Our very own Andrew J. Campa wrote the Almont League preview for our football tab. The Aztecs have a 27 game losing streak so it's safe to say Solis has his work cut out for him.
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BLAIR
Miguel's Take: Coach Gary Parks spent the better part of his coaching career at Verbum Dei and he played college ball at the University of New Mexico, the new home of former preps editor Scott Galletti. He's going to make quite a lot of changes but good changes. Like starting the first annual Blair Alumni football game that he's calling Viking Family Day. There's talk about doing more fundraising to buy a scoreboard and buy bleachers. Parks envisions a Blair stadium with bleachers so they can play under the lights and use Pasadena City College no more. Among other things, Parks also hired an academic counselor for the football team and the school followed suit by hiring another academic counselor for the sports program. That has never been done before at Blair. Parks is enforcing academics first and he says he believes in being a student first. He's implemented a one hour session for academic counseling that is mandatory, and any player who doesn't make that class will not suit up. Nice.
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LA SALLE
Miguel's Take: Antoine Petersen is no stranger to the Lancers program. He has been involved with the school for nine years and now heads the football team. I don't imagine there being many changes. The Lancers will build on a 4-0 league record last season and going forward from there. Petersen sounded to me like a man with a good head on his shoulders.
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MARSHALL
Miguel's Take: Ricky Pickens has been involved with the program for a few years unofficially but now comes on board as the head coach. Pickens is a natural motivator and that's something Marshall has lacked over the last few seasons. I spent about an hour on the phone with PIckens and the words he mentioned most were "motivate" and "heart". Pickens job from the start is to get Marshall to compete. He says he CAN teach heart and if Marshall can play with heart like Pickens thinks they can then don't expect another winless season.
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MONROVIA
Miguel's Take: I wrote an earlier entry about Monrovia and new Coach Ryan Maddox. He spent about 10 years coaching at West Covina coaching various positions. He understands the tradition at Monrovia and wants to continue that with a bit of his own flavor.
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About this blog
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
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What up Philly B?
So you went to "The Ranch" well that's what the folks on Cleveland Ave get. Good Luck and look to hear/see more of you on the blogs. Here's a hint "GO BRUINS, BEAT SC"
What up Philly B?
So you went to "The Ranch" well that's what the folks on Cleveland Ave get. Good Luck and look to hear/see more of you on the blogs. Here's a hint "GO BRUINS, BEAT SC"
Philly B
Arcadia / Monrovia Sept 5, 7pm
Warm up the car man, it is almost here!
I plan on going as well, TC/El Monte has an early start time, if nothing else I can catch the 2nd half.
Maybe a Golper - Williams collision to kick off the season!!
Anybody have the dates for the Monrovia-Arcadia Game and when is the Monrovia-Duarte Game?? Im a monrovia football and girls B-ball fan. But havent been keeping up with football this summer due to work. Plus I use to work at Monrovia Hs as a music instructor, then in 06 went to Montebello h.s. for two years and now start at El rancho hs. Pretty good football team from what Ive seen at practice. BUt yeah Ive lost ties with Monrovia but want to know about the upcoming games
A question....is it the coach or the athletic director that schedule games…because if it’s Smalley, Blair’s Football team is in trouble…
It looks like Blair's new coach might have more work to do on their schedule. According to MaxPreps, Brawley's schedule shows they are playing two teams on 10/3 - Blair and someone else. Also, the "game" vs Bishop Montgomery on 9/6 looks like a scrimmage since BM already has 10 games on their schedule without this zero week contest vs Blair.
I just looked up Brawley! You weren't joking? Why is Blair going alllllllll the way to Mexico (practically) for a Pre-season game; when Marshall, Muir and PHS is in their back yard????
Observant Cat,
Thanks for the info!
Wow, Blair is going to Brawley in Imperial County??? I've been there several times. The weather is in the los 100's through the end of Sept. Brawley is a small town next to Westmoreland. Blair should do well. Good luck Vikings!
NY, I think that picture is actually 4yrs old.The reason I now is because its me in the picture.Our line coach (Fuller)always flipped the bags upside down ,he wasn't that bad.Love your takes NY...Go Cats...Go Aztecs
What's up John? Been a while. Hope you are doing well.
Played with Rick in H.S. great guy and tons of heard and love for the game. He will do well at Marshall!! Good Luck Rick!!!!!
Blair is definitely covering some geography. They will host Millenium from a town near Stockton and then take a raod trip to Brawley, down past the Salton Sea and a couple towns form the border. The gas for that bus ride may break the PUSD budget.
To Estress:
go to this link and you will see Blairs Full Schedule.
http://www.maxpreps.com/california/football/blair%20(pasadena)/schedule.aspx?ssid=2f36027d-d6f6-4509-aba9-adad5cc85b5e&schoolid=cb6a8799-e22f-4156-b02a-496b18e9f570&urpath=,local,team
Does anyone know if Coach Parks has "fixed" his schedule for Blair? Do they only have 5 or 6 games scheduled?
SM has many "new coaches" just not head coaches.
San Marino also has an interesting 4th game - pre-league matchup with Cantwell.
Cantwell has got some honkin size lineman. 280 - 320 plus pounders. I drive by their practice field almost daily and these suckers are large, at least one kid looks in 6"6 range.
Same week La Canada gets Firebaugh...an unknown entity in the football world...small school, unrated and new.
Yes, you can assume most photos are from last year.
Miguel,
Was this another Monrovia picture from a year ago (the one where the guys are LEANING on the sled)? I sure hope so. It is shocking how high they are with little knee bend and slumped backs. They are not even in pads and their pad level was too high. I hope our line coach sees this and realizes what this picture (worth 1,000+ words) is showing. These kids have so much potential.
Ricky was a strong guy back in high school too. Nice guy back then as well.
Whoops, meant to write "years" but that would have been funny if he'd just been there a few hours.
Mig,
Under Ricky Pickens you said he has been with the program for a few 'hours'. Is that supposed to be years, or literally, did he just get hired?
BTW Ricky is Pasadena's reigning strongest man. He lifted 545lbs in a competition not to long ago.