Football: February 2008 Archives

Seems Notre Dame High of Sherman Oaks is a pipeline for the University of Notre Dame these days, what with Dayne Crist and Anthony McDonald signing this past season. Now Jordan Barrett, a returning linebacker, has received an offer from the Irish, according to an L.A Times blog by Austin Knoblauch.

gerry.gittelson@dailynews.com

Just wanted to pass along a little update on Oaks Christian coach Bill Redell.

He's still in a back brace after suffering a compression fracture in his back during a car accident on Dec. 30, and said he could be in the brace another 6-8 weeks, but doesn't anticipate his injuries keeping him off the sidelines this fall.

Details of the Dec. 30 accident can be found in this article in the Thousand Oaks Acorn.

``My wife and I are progressing, but we still have a ways to go,'' Redell said.

Former Taft of Woodland Hills coach Troy Starr is returning to California high school football after one season as the director of operations at the University of Florida.

After weighing several opportunities, Starr has accepted the head coaching job at Helix High in San Diego.

Helix High, that sounds familiar right?

If you're a USC fan it sure does. Because that's where Reggie Bush played his high school ball.

``I'm really excited about it,'' Starr said. ``I think we can win a state title there. The administration is great, it's a diverse student body, everything is there to win.''

Starr said he had no regrets about leaving his position at Taft after the 2006 season. If anything, he said, the year away in college football made him appreciate the high school game and the impact he can have with kids even more.

``I have no regrets,'' Starr said. ``If I wouldn't have taken the Florida job, I would've always regretted it and wondered if I made the right decision.''

Interesting follow up story to last week's strange tale about the high school football player who faked being recruited and accepted a never offered scholarship to Cal

Steve Hagerty, who won three consecutive Southern Section football championships at Paraclete in the late 1990s, has been named head coach at Bishop Amat, according to an L.A. Times blog.

-- Gerry Gittelson

Steve Hagerty, who won three consecutive Southern Section football championships at Paraclete in the late 1990s, has been named head coach at Bishop Amat, according to an L.A. Times blog.

-- Gerry Gittelson

Michael Lien, a top linebacker at Valencia, has committed to South Dakota State, according to The Signal.

-- Gerry Gittelson

Wow, crazy story out of Nevada today. Remember the college freshman who pretended she was a student at Stanford last year, even though she never got in? Well, this is the high school football version of it.

Kevin Hart, a 6-foot-5, 290-pound offensive lineman for Fernley High School in Nevada called a news conference last Friday to announced he'd committed to Cal, choosing the Bears over Oregon. One problem: neither school had ever recruited him.

Yikes!

Both schools came out pretty quickly and spilled the beans. Hart then said that a man he'd paid to help promote him to college football programs had duped him. He told authorities that the man's name was Kevin Riley.

One problem: Kevin Riley didn't exist either.

"When I realized that wasn't going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality. I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley High School, the involved universities and reporters covering the story," Hart said in a statement issued through the Lyon County school district on Wednesday.

Another problem: Lt. Rob Hall of the Lyon County police department told the Associated Press that his department would continue to investigate to see if Hart had broken any laws, such as filing a false police report.

Football coach Jeremiah Ross won’t leave Crespi of Encino to coach at state power Clovis West, despite reports he was the top candidate to fill the Clovis West vacancy created when Marty Martin (ex-Village Christian) was fired last month.

“I pulled my name out of the job. I’m staying at Crespi,” Ross said today (Tuesday). “I owed it to my family to look into it at Clovis West, but the deciding factor was I love the kids at Crespi and I love the school. It would be too hard to leave. This is where my heart is.

"I don’t plan on going anywhere soon. There are too many good people at Crespi and too many good things going on.”

In three years, Ross, 31, is 28-11, winning the Southern Section Div. X title in his first season in 2005, and finishing as the Pac-5 runner-up this past season. Standout quarterback Bryan Bennett is among Crespi's returning starters for next season.

gerry.gittelson@dailynews.com
(818) 713-3691

Birmingham tight end Rafael Lopez, an early Nevada commit, has changed his mind and has committed to Columbia, according to scout.com.

gerry.gittelson@dailynews.com
(818) 713 3691