Football: Monrovia trainer is a 1987 San Gabriel graduate.

Above: Dr. Richard Cheung tending to an injured Evan Sanchez in 2010.

Dr. Richard Cheung has spent the last eight years as a doctor/trainer for Monrovia's football team, helping Dr. Todd Adamson, who has been there for a decade.

Cheung, who has his own practice, Pasadena Chiro Center, is also a San Gabriel graduate.

Monrovia (10-3) hosts San Gabriel (9-3) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the CIF-Southern Section Mid-Valley Division championship game.

Cheung's affiliation goes beyond graduating from San Gabriel in 1987. He spent several seasons as an assistant on the boys and girls tennis teams and the girls basketball team in the early to mid 1990s. He also was a long-term substitute teacher.

Spending nearly a decade wearing Monrovia colors on the sidelines has swayed a bit his rooting interest, though he's still a contributing San Gabriel alum, he says.

"I'm absolutely elated that San Gabriel has made the finals again," Cheung said. "But I think talent-wise Monrovia is playing the best football right now and that's going to make it difficult for San Gabriel to win."

The pick?

I want a good game, I don't want a blowout," he said. "How's that?"