Exactly which side of the Valley plays the best hoops will be decided on Apr. 26 at Damien HS in La Verne in the Tribune/Star-News All-Star Classic for local seniors.
Any senior player selected to the Star-News All-Area first or second teams is automatically to play in the game. The rest of the 15 roster spots for each team will be decided by a committee.
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Arcadia High School will request that it be transferred from the Pacific League and placed in the Rio Hondo League effective for the 2013-14 school year 2014-15 school year when members of the Foothill Area have their re-leaguing vote next Friday at Hart High School.
The Apaches’ request is contingent upon Crescenta Valley also leaving the Pacific League. Crescenta Valley wants to either join the Rio Hondo League or form a whole new league altogether. Crescenta Valley is also interested in bringing in another school or two from the Glendale Unified School District to the Rio Hondo League. Hoover, currently in the Pacific League, has also made it known that it would like to join the Rio Hondo League.
The schools that currently make up the Rio Hondo League only have one proposal, and that’s to bring in Crescenta Valley for Blair, which is reportedly down to 600 students and barely fielded a varsity football team and did not field a varsity baseball team this year. The league is not unanimous, though, with San Marino preferring not to add Crescenta Valley.
Elsewhere, there are several scenarios being bandied about for Marshall, which is currently in the Alpha League. Marshall has been suggested to either go to the Pacific, Rio Hondo or Mission Valley League. The school is reportedly evenly content with going to either Rio Hondo or Mission Valley, but the Mission Valley has requested that Marshall be put in the Rio Hondo due to competitive equity, geography and enrollment.
Monrovia 4, La Canada 3 — The Wildcats blew at 2-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, allowing La Canada to tie the game. But M-Town bounced right back with two runs in the top of the seventh. La Canada scored one in the bottom of the seventh and had the tying run at third before Chris Burkholder K’d a Spartans hitter to end it. LC and M-Town are now tied atop the RHL … but LC has the tiebreaker, winning the season series 2-1.
South Pas 5, San Marino 0 — The Tigers bounced back from Wednesday’s 11-1 loss to the Titans and avoided a season sweep behind Christian Miyamea’s complete game, five-hit gem.
It’s still probably too early to call today’s showdown between the Monrovia and La Canada baseball teams a must-win for the Wildcats. But this is about as close to that type of situation as a team can get in mid-April.
The Wildcats (12-3 overall, 3-2 in league) started the season as overwhelming favorites to win the Rio Hondo League but unexpectedly find themselves a game back of the Spartans (9-4, 4-1) for first place in the standings.
La Canada also has beaten the Wildcats twice and owns the head-to-head tiebreaker, which may come in handy come playoff seedings.
“We’ve shown the ability to answer the call when we need to and this is another game like that tomorrow,” Monrovia co-head coach Dave Moore said.
“I think we’ve had two games where we went into them knowing that we at least had to put on a good performance and that was the South Pasadena and the Tahquitz game. And in both those games, our kids went out and played good ballgames.”
Today’s game figures to be a duel between two of the area’s top pitchers. La Canada likely will start left-hander Justin Lewis, who no-nit Monrovia for 6 2/3 innings in a 2-1 win on March 15.
Monrovia counters with Joe Mata. The Wildcats lost to La Canada, 1-0, on Wednesday after leaving 10 runners on base. Against Lewis, there will be no room for error.
“With Lewis and Mata throwing tomorrow, I don’t see anything but a low-scoring game, unless one team comes out and doesn’t play well defensively,” Moore said. “But both teams have played very well defensively and both teams have pitched very well.”
BAIN ROLLING ALONG
San Marino’s Jeff Bain continues to show he has one of the top arms in not only the pitching-deep Rio Hondo League but the entire area.
Bain was dominant on Wednesday in beating South Pasadena for the second time this season with a strong five innings. Bain struck out eight.
Unfortunately for San Marino, Bain won’t be able to pitch the Titans to a win today in their second game of the week against the Tigers.
MOORS FIRING BLANKS
Alhambra has shut out its last three Almont League opponents to stay one game behind first-place Montebello.
The Moors play Schurr today and with a win will add luster to next week’s two games with Montebello.
Arcadia Invitational starts Saturday with games at both Arcadia and San Dimas.
Pool A
Arcadia
La Canada
Los Osos
West Torrance
Pool B
San Dimas
Temple City
Glendora
Diamond Ranch
Saturday’s schedule
At Arcadia
La Canada vs. West Torrance, 3 p.m.
Los Osos vs. Arcadia, 7 p.m.
At San Dimas
Temple City vs. Diamond Ranch, 3 p.m.
Glendora vs. San Dimas, 7 p.m.
Monday’s schedule
At Arcadia
La Canada vs. Los Osos, 3 p.m.
West Torrance vs. Arcadia, 7 p.m.
At San Dimas
Temple City vs. Glendora, 3.m.
Diamond Ranch vs. San Dimas, 7 p.m.
Tuesday’s schedule
At Arcadia
Los Osos vs. West Torrance, 3 p.m.
La Canada vs. Arcadia, 7 p.m.
At San Dimas
Glendora vs. Diamond Ranch, 3 p.m.
Temple City vs. San Dimas, 7 p.m.
*Wednesday’s finals
At Arcadia
Third place, 3 p.m.
Championship, 7 p.m.
At San Dimas
No. 4 vs. No. 4, 3 p.m.
No. 3 vs. No. 3, 7 p.m.
*If San Dimas is in title game, it will be played at San Dimas at 7 p.m.
If there is a La Canada-Temple City or Los Osos-Glendora matchup, gmes will be switched, unless they are playing for tournament title.
Former Charter Oak, Duarte, St. Paul, Cathedral and Alemany running back Kurt Scoby is enrolled at Monrovia High School and is following a plan to get himself eligible to play for the Wildcats in 2013.
Not exactly breaking news as this was the plan for Scoby ever since he left Alemany last month or so ago, but now this makes it official.
Obviously, lots need to happen. Scoby must get up to speed with his classes and of course be eligible grades-wise. But he is reportedly living within in the Monrovia district, which is a hurdle he’ll need to clear with CIF and will do so as long he as a valid residential change.
Aram’s take: I’ve called seeking confirmation from Monrovia officials all week and there’s a gag order in place by Principal Darvin Jackson, who himself refused to confirm whether Scoby was a student at his school. I guess they’re playing it safe and there’s supposedly some type of rule that disallows schools from confirming whether a student is enrolled. Of course, if I was to call down there today and ask baseball coach Dave Moore how Joe Mata’s arm is feeling after yesterday and he answered me, wouldn’t that be confirming he’s a student there? I asked that question and they told me that would be fine because I already knew Mata was a student there. It’s very confusing. Calls to Scoby’s guardian have not been returned. Anyway, beside staying at CO, Monrovia is probably the best place for Scoby. He will be teaming up with several of his former Duarte Hawks teammates and the coaches at M-Town appear well-suited to handle the situation. They had a touchy one two years ago with De’Shawn Ramirez and everything went off without a hitch. There are still some big questions, i.e. is he an official member of the football team NOW? If he does somehow make it to fall with full eligibility, will he be given the chance to win the starting RB job? M-Town has a nice returner in Darione Jones, but Scoby is on another level.
Monrovia 11, South Pasadena — The Tigers’ stay in first place was a brief one as Monrovia erupted early and rode Joe Mata’s five shutout innings to an easy win. Mata had three hits at the plate, as did David Perez.
La Canada 5, Temple City 1 — Sparty bounced back from last week’s loss to South Pas behind a stellar performance from lefty Justin Lewis, who went the distance. Lewis also had a two-run triple in the first inning.
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Arcadia’s search for a new varsity football head coach is ongoing. The school will be accepting applications through Apr. 8, according to AD Ryan Press and hopes to have a coach named by the start of spring practice.
Former head coach Chris Long resigned following the 2012 season, his only at the school.
Press also ended any speculation that former head coach Jon Dimalante is a candidate.
Aram’s take: As of now, there’s no teaching position. But, the school will reassess the situation after the school year once retirements and whatnot take place with the teaching staff. Not having a teaching position right away may depress the market. Have to worry about the program getting a late start. Hopefully somebody is overseeing the offseason weight training.
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The Rio Hondo League powers-that-be will vote Friday whether to bring/invite Crescenta Valley to join the league, according to a source.
It’s unclear whether Blair, which is struggling in several major sports, would stay or go. Blair reportedly wants to stay, which could mean a seven-team league.
Aram’s take: If you look at the RHL (for football) as Monrovia and everyone else, then this may do little for you. I guess it would be another speed bump for the Wildcats, but they still tower over the league. In other sports, well, that’s a different story and CV would be a pretty interesting add, especially in baseball. S