April 2006 Archives

They use the buddy system over at Amat.

New coach, new QB, no established leader on defense - what's going to happen to Amat's football program in '06? It doesn't take a genius to see that Amat will enter Spring training, passing league, hell week, and finally, the season with way more questions than answers.

Deepest backfield in the area?





I got the word from WestCo coach Mike Maggiore that running back William Wallace is set for knee surgery this week and he will be ready for the season.
I think Wallace's bad knee was a major reason why the Dawgs never got rolling last year. He was able to run north and south, but God forbid he made a cut. WestCo also lost lineman after lineman last season and was lacking for football IQ.

Hey Colts, get ready to travel! (Special thanks to Covina coach Kevin Glaspy for notifying me that #11 is Monti Sutton, not Jamal James.

That's Walnut's Andrew Utama. Who are the top male swimmers in the area? I need you guys to keep giving the "heads up" on the good swimming to cover!!!

Is it basically a lock that Kirsty Ferrell and Rachel Grant are going to win CIF titles this year? I am getting pumped for finals. I know there is a lot of swimming between now and then, but I love it when our area has studs in the pool.

Can the Huskies still do this to opponents?

The Huskies are likely to be up a division this coming season. No worries, they would have won Division VI this past season had they been in it. But this year might be a different story, though. Coach Steve Bogan and crew say goodbye to a dynamic senior class. The lower levels are stocked well, however, but they're going to need some seasoning. Two years ago, the Huskies really boosted their nonleague schedule. It didn't work well in '04, but last year they hung in well with everyone, including D-1 Esperanza.

GET SOME!!!

Trib MVP - Edwin Edukere (Diamond Ranch)
Star-News MVP - Kyle Austin (Pasadena)

Tribune boys team was up by double-digits seemingly the whole way and got the East side of the Valley a win in the series with a rout of the heavily favored Star-News. The game got chaotic at the end and was called with around 20 seconds left as there were some cheap shots.

WHO YOU CALLING AN UNDERDOG?!?!

Star-News 80
vs.
Tribune 69

Star-News MVP - Britney Spears (Pasadena)
Tribune MVP - Juanise Cornell (Bishop Amat)

Britney Spears (Pasadena) was outstanding tonight! She was the clear game MVP as the Star-News girls laughed at being underdogs and brought it to the Tribune team. Great job by all the girls on both sides. It was a fun game and great way for all the seniors to go out.
Coach Raymond Mayberry (Pasadena) should be congratulated for having his girls breathing fire when they took the court.

SATURDAY NIGHT AT BISHOP AMAT HS
(5:3O P.M.)

PASADENA STAR-NEWS VS. SGV TRIBUNE

TOP HS BASKETBALL SENIORS IN THE VALLEY

HERE ARE THE FINAL ROSTERS ...

Maybe the James Davis transfer doesn't hurt after all. The Conqs got a nice transfer in running back Ira Thomas, who played at Chino Hills last year. And there could be more talent coming + a good frosh class that will be sophs. Some things never change. Perhaps LA needs to be boosted up a bit in my pre-Spring practice rankings. Here's the schedule ... complete with predictions.

and the best football players from the Trib area? Is the "westside" the best side when it comes to hoops and the east a beast when it comes to football? It sure seems that way. Does anyone want to comment on this?

We just got good comments in the "... lets talk Muir" and the "...Covina hurt most" threads. KEEP CHECKING ALL THREADS TO READ WHAT EVERYONE IS SAYING. AND KEEP THE COMMENTS COMING. And stay productive on your job ... don't think that if you get fired for lack of production the newspaper industry will bail you out. Tell your friends. I am getting quite a few calls from people about this blog. Calls are nice, readers are better. GO TO THE TRIBUNE/STAR-NEWS ALL-STAR CLASSIC.

Or, lets just call it the SGV Championship. I just love how serious the Star-News teams take this game. From the coaches on down to the players, this is a statement game for them. That's what it seemed like the past two years and if these comments in Wednesday's Star-News from Blair's Ralph Monday mean anything ...

SGVN Internet coordinator Adrian Guerrero has just informed me that this blog is No. 1 (by far) in terms of hits. Something like 2,200 ... which is THREE TIMES more than any of our other new blogs. No surprise, though. Nobody in the SGV and other areas can get enough prep sports coverage. And as some of our aquatic friends have seen, this blog can useful as their requests have been heard and they will get some coverage for a good local meet this weekend.

I think the problem is that there isn't much coverage besides CIF finals. I think our coverage of that is good. This is because it isn't easy to find out what meets or league matches we should cover. I would love more dialogue with local coaches. And if anybody wants to give me a heads up and what might be some good meets to cover, I will try my best to get out there.

I've got no problem discussing Pasadena area preps.

If you're one of the lucky ladies selected to be on this year's Tribune girls all-star team, you should know that your first practice is on Monday night at 6 p.m. at Arroyo HS in beautiful uptown El Monte.

Keep referring to all topics to read the comments of other readers. We now have nine comments in the "This blog is your blog, this blog is my blog ..." entry. Some of these are very good. Feel free to comment about any of the topics on here. Remember, everybody but me is anonymous.

It happens. I had it 5-2 in my story and thanks to one angry caller, I will go public with the fact that I completely overlooked St. Lucy's getting a run late in the game.

This will be at West Covina HS at 6:30 p.m. in the house that Gary Prestesater is building (the gym). It's open to the public, so come on down and see it.

It's amazing how many people want to talk about football all flippin' year. I admit, it's never far from my mind. It seems to be what excites our office and readers most. I know it's early and this Top 10 is definitely subject to change. Here's what in my estimation is the top teams in the east SGV.

I know I've spotlighted Covina's football team as the team hurt most by the recent CIF-SS playoff re-grouping. Yes, the rest of the Valle Vista League is involved and they can't be happy either. But Covina was one of the top teams in the area last year and it returns Tribune Player of the Year Mike McDonough (QB) next season and should again be one of the Valley's best.

This is a great entry by Dan Albano on the OC Register's blog.

http://blogs.ocregister.com/ocvarsity/

There were about 35 appeals heard by CIF and I believe that only six were going to be submitted to the council. There are going to be a lot of ticked off football coaches this coming season. I wonder if this will be used an excuse by teams who exit the playoffs earlier than usual this postseason.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/la-spw-hsreport12apr12,0,3593353.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-highschool

Well, that's bad news. The league will likely have to participate in a tough, unrealistic new setting.

This is a hot topic. The LA Times recently did a great article about it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-myspace8apr08,1,6268794.story

I have to admit, I actually have an account ...

What does this have to do with anything? I don't know. But I just I'd throw it up there since people are still sour about the officiating.

I knew this one was coming. How could it not? Bad officiating (phantom 3-pointer) cost Bonita the Covina Tournament championship. Do I need to even mention the traveling call in Glendora's semifinals loss to Ventura?

I haven't confirmed this yet, but I will when I get the chance. The Colts always had a good performer or two. Speaking of good, what about Northview? What about West Covina?

... this blog was made for you and me. Was that chorus too much for you? Anyway, welcome to my prep sports blog where you will hopefully spend several hours of your work day reading about, posting about, arguing about and laughing about the ever-growing world of prep sports. Please, for the good of the economy, try to stay productive on your job.