Baseball: Rio Hondo League taking over Top 10 poll

This blogs heavy man. They don't care, it's ok.

Speaking only for football and regarding the RHL...I feel there will be good football in 09 and despite the ethnic stew people are focusing on - good football will continue to be played in 2010 and beyond in the RHL.

The RHL has three of the SGV's best coaching staffs, in SM, M-town and TC. I say in all of the SGV, these rank with most any other HS crew you want to name. Despite the naysayers, I see Blair as hugely improved next year, So Pas far better and La Canada possibly coming alive with Yoder settling in a stronger offensive focus. In addition, Maddox and White bring new age football tudes to the RHL. In my opinion, the citizens of Monrovia might one day soon be spelling DYNASTY across their local papers...a product of combining talent pool with a relentless, smart head football coach. Of course, that is my 10 year crystal ball view - easy to argue with from many points.

Also, before giving the Apaches last rites, remember that Coach D is an outstanding, innovative and experienced motivator and understands the game - big time. He may be one of the best examples of a coach who builds to his talent, whatever that talent might be. Arcadia may not breed the same amount of giant corn-fed white boys they have in years past - but a few still travel up the food chain and put on a helmet.
When they do - the trenches become an unfriendly place to linger.

I am drooling to see what comes toward us all this football season. Lets all support our SGV kids. We did last year and they put the HURT on the East side, who claimed such a thing was impossible.
Anything is possible.

PL

You started this whole argument about Pacific vs. Rio Hondo. I quote, "if any team from the Rio Hondo league came into the Pacific league, they would have trouble even coming in 3rd or 4." You even said it yourself, Pacific is D2!! Any true Rio Hondo fan will defend our league. And now you're accusing Rio Hondo for attacking the Pacific League. Dude come on. How about you cheer for Pacific, and we'll cheer for Rio Hondo and leave it at that, since we're in 2 different divisions and all?

What exactly is the "American Culture"? And what the heck does that have to do with baseball? Take your "patriotic" comments to another blog and let's keep this one about high school sports.

i agree with u Pl.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-sondheimer1-2009may01,0,3713706.column

you guys can all say that teams in the rio hondo league tend to go farther in playoffs, but like someone said earlier, rio hondo being in D5, or now D4, is a lot different then being in D2. D2 has A LOT more quality teams and Arcadia seems to compete well with them every year by losing by one or two runs every team. Any team in the rio hondo league that played Temecula Vista (Arcadia's first round opponent last year) last year would have been swept off their feet. Especiall when Aflac All American Brooks Pounders throwing low 90's against them. All im saying is that i believe the pacific league is stronger than the Rio Hondo league, which was the original topic. Ill take Arcadia, Crescenta Valley, Burroughs, and Burbank over Temple City, Monrovia, La Canada, and San Marino anyday!

The truth is..... that America is "The great melting pot" as some people say. The only problem is, some cultures, mostly Asian, refuse to melt. They move here but hang on to their way of life. The truth is that it's killing American culture. I love this country and that and its culture and that is why I stay here. If i moved to another country It would be because I loved that country and I would expect myself to be a part of that culture and certainly learn the language. I find it very offensive that someone would call the U.S. their home and not speak the language.
Some of you might think i'm being racist. I'm not..I'm just being patriotic.

We can all let it go - but it is very important when discussing schools athletic talent and which team is better than which team - not to mention league alignment, etc.

Let it go,

That's exactly what I did.

Arcadia and TC do not have the amount of students for sports that their enrollment dictates...

Both schools are over 60 percent Chinese. There is a lack of team sports (especially football, soccer, and baseball) in the Chinese culture. Yes, there have been some exceptions, but as a whole the Chinese focus on individual sports (tennis, track, swimming, gymnastics).

I know for a fact that more people try out for tennis at TC then try out soccer or baseball combined. I know that there are more people on the cross country team then there are on the football team. That does not happen at perennial team sport powerhouses of Div 1 (Mater Dei, Santa Margarita, Esperanza, Los Alamitos, etc.).

I used to talk to Coaches at both TC and Arcadia all the time about this issue. We used to walk around both campuses see huge kids that we thought would make excellent line men. See very athletic kids who would make excellent baseball or soccer players; however, when we talked to those kids, they would tell us that their parents want them to stick to Tennis or band. Even though, we may see them play with a soccer ball or play catch on their own.

With 3700 kids, Arcadia should be the powerhouse in the valley. The fact that it is not proves my point. Arcadia is basically has a 2000 or less enrollment and TC has about 1500 or less. Look at the TC rosters for the major male sports (football, basketball, soccer, baseball). With the excption of basketball - the other three sports share more athletes than any of the 5 schools that I have been involved with or participated in.

Apache Joe

Dude, let it go. Stop bringing it up. We get it, there's too many Asians in Arcadia. And for some weird unknown reason this cuts the student body population in half. Let it go.

It actually is pretty fun to keep track of the RHL, being that its so tight this year. Your right about the PL, (Burroughs, CV, Arcadia) then very poor teams of (Hoover, Glendale, Muir).

I consider Arcadia's 3700 students to be equivalent to Monrovia's 2000 for reasons I won't go into.

Good stuff guys!

The RHL is a pretty balanced league this year with the exception of Blair. And the difference between the teams may come down to coaching and fundamentals. I've been most impressed with San Marino as their team has a vibe and their coach knows how to get his team to play well. TC looked very solid in our 4-3 loss in 10 last Friday--again very fundamental and well coached. LC will be playing Monrovia Friday & Monday so we'll see IF they can repeat on their 12-0 smackdown of us the 1st game or if our boys can rally [w/o Smith] and get the job done Fridat @ home and then win the rubber-game on Monday @ their park. South Pas may very well play the spoiler role as they gain experience with a young team looking to breakout next season. Last season's CIF play-offs showed the Titans behind Nick Wilson go the farthest. Let's see how the rest of the season plays out. Should be fun.

I am not taking anything away from the RHL. Its just this year i think that Arcadia and John Burroughs High School would win that league if they played in it.

The Playoffs will show if the Rio Hondo League is as tough as they think they are.

The RHL is Div IV as of this Year.

CIF moved the "Entire League" up from D5.

When was the last time that happened?

Not just a Team or two but the whole League?

For AJ,
RHL moved up to D4 bro. Having seen many of their teams play this year, while none would blow any top-tiered PL team out, they would definitely throw and land some hay-makers with your Apaches, CV,William Burroughs, etal... so there really isn't a huge difference. I think Arcadia probably has more arms, and that would make the difference over a series of games. I will agree with you that "james" should consider going back to the drwing board with his posts or at least mix in some CAPS and punctuation. YIKES

I think everyone got off track.

The Rio Hondo League was the subject.

Arcadia "IS" the Pacific League in our area.

They are surrounded on all sides by TC SM

Monrovia, and LC and they still manage to

find kids that can play.

However the entire PL is not that lucky

and the RHL teams have beaten other PL teams

quite often.

I am not affiliated with any school at this time to answer that question.

Arcadia is also at 3700 students while most of the RHL is around 2000, give or take a couple 100. All in all, save Blair, the RHL is very competitive and plays good baseball.

In the Pacific League you have a duality of competition, very poor (Hoover, Glendale, Muir) and rather good (Arcadia, CV, Burroughs).

Let's face it, the overall level of competition and the quality of baseball played in the WSGV is not the same as it was a decade or two ago. These schools do not have the overall depth (especially in the pitching) as they did in the past. That includes Arcadia and it 3700 students, for only 50 play baseball, about the same in most other area schools. Years ago, there would be students enrolled at Arcadia that could be all-league players at some of the other schools, but were not playing for Arcadia's teams. It is not like that anymore.

As far as Arcadia in the playoffs. Even under Meiers, their success was limited to two deep runs in two decades. CV has won a CIF title in recent history while Arcadia has never won.

On the other hand, Monrovia has made a couple of recent deep playoff runs, TC also has one in recent memory, and San Marino won multiple titles in the 1990s and has enjoyed a recent resurgence. I know the RHL is in a smaller division, but they tend to go deeper in the playoffs than Arcadia.

A few years ago I asked Coach Moore at Monrovia that they ought to play Arcadia, for it would be a fun game for the area. At that time, Arcadia had no interest in playing Monrovia or the other RHL teams. It was only last season Arcadia even began to play in the Arcadia Elks tournament, co-hosted by TC and Monrovia, which they won this season.

Arcadia, traditionally comes out of the gate strong, even wins or does very well in the opening and spring break tournaments and often wins the Pacific League. However, the Apaches tend to fritter out by the second round, no matter how good their team looked early in the season.

The last times Arcadia was in the LA times top 25 was 2005. That team had a very good chance of winning CIF championship but had to forfeit there first round win because of there idiot coach.

Also this years team has already beat 2 of the top teams in the RHL, and i can guarantee no team from the RHL would beat Burroughs which is the second place team in the Pacific league

The last times Arcadia was in the LA times top 25 was 2005. That team had a very good chance of winning CIF championship but had to forfeit there first round win because of there idiot coach.

Also this years team has already beat 2 of the top teams in the RHL, and i can guarantee no team from the RHL would beat Burroughs which is the second place team in the Pacific league

James,

Go back to english class so you don't further strain yourself from learning how to spell and type complete sentences, thanks.

Someone who knows,
I don't know what team you support but Arcadia plays in a tougher division than 75% of the schools from around here excluding SF.
Arcadia plays in Division 2 for baseball with schools like Upland, Palos Verdes, Redlands East Valley, Chino Hills, and El Toro.

They haven't won a playoff game in a while, since 02 or 03 I believe, yet the teams they have played have been fierce. In 04 and 05, they lost in the Division 1 playoffs, and 06-08 lost in the D-2 playoffs by 1 run in 06.

The RHL plays in Division 5. That's a relatively large gap from Division 2 to Division 5.

James,

Go back to english class so you don't further strain yourself from learning how to spell and type complete sentences, thanks.

Someone who knows,
I don't know what team you support but Arcadia plays in a tougher division than 75% of the schools from around here excluding SF.
Arcadia plays in Division 2 for baseball with schools like Upland, Palos Verdes, Redlands East Valley, Chino Hills, and El Toro.

They haven't won a playoff game in a while, since 02 or 03 I believe, yet the teams they have played have been fierce. In 04 and 05, they lost in the Division 1 playoffs, and 06-08 lost in the D-2 playoffs by 1 run in 06.

The RHL plays in Division 5. That's a relatively large gap from Division 2 to Division 5.

To Apaches only:

When was the last time Arcadia had any significant run in the playoffs?

arcadia is good only in the PL and can't and wont beat anybody in playoffsit a shame they through there ace for five inning a week bryce should look for arcadia to loose the rest of the games they really dont have a chance to win, but the hearts of the booster club will be happy they had a good run.

in a game i shouldnt have been at but had to because i dropped my friggin bus pass somewhere i saw arcadia mop up muir by 20-0 decision. muir walked 11, hit 6, let go of 7 stolen bases....i'll stop there.

stop hatimg on eachother..
Argueing over the internet is like being in the special olympics. Even if you win, your still retarded haha

Apaches only

Arcadia is very good, I get it. All I'm saying is don't pile everyone else in the PL on Arcadia's coattail. And I'm just wondering, other than this year, when was the last time a PL team was in the LA Times Top 25. Seems like you would know.

And speaking of refraining from blogging until you have something interesting to say. Look back at your last entry. You asked a question, made a stupid comment and then proceeded to answer your own question. Is that your definition of interesting?

APACHE Only:

Monrovia: 2005,2006, The better question is when has Arcadia Made it to the top 25! before 2009? and at this moment that ranking is hanging on to life support. It seems several teams in the RHL div. are ranked above Arcadia in the LA Times poll. It would be good to just watch the development of the season and maybe someone will win their Div. instead of wondering each day who's better than who. If Arcadia were in the RHL right now They might not win it.

To Anne Onimus and any other RHL supporter:

When was the last time any of the RHL teams have been in the LA Times Top 25???? Instead of comparing whose balls are bigger, maybe you should refrain from blogging until you have something interesting to say. By the way, there are NO RHL teams in the LA Times Top 25.

PL

Come on man. Are you serious? Take Arcadia out and the Pacific League is average at best. Didn't Burbank get spanked by San Marino 11-0? Your games against Glendale and Muir shouldn't even count. Stop trying to figure out whose balls are bigger and just enjoy the season.

only speaking for one team here but SM handly beat the pacific league 3 and 4. just letting you know

PL

You just keep telling yourself that all the way to the Losers Brackett.

if any team from the Rio Hondo league came into the Pacific league, they would have trouble even coming in 3rd or 4th

looks good