For all of you Bishop Amat honks, this is an intriguing season. Was the first-year under coach Steve Hagerty an aberration? Do you really expect them to improve on 7-4? They came within minutes of knocking off eventual champion Long Beach Poly at Veterans Stadium, so what can they do for an encore, especially after losing the likes of Isaiah Bowens, Sheldon Price, Brent Seals, and Jesse Prieto on D? If you have been wondering the same thing, so has head coach Steve Hagerty. Here is an excerpt from our Sept. 3 Football Preview on the state of Bishop Amat.

“We know the risk after what happened last year is that we could take a step back,” Hagerty said. “The second year is always the hardest on a coaching staff. If we take a step back everyone is going to say last year was a fluke, that we got lucky. But that’s why you go to Bishop Amat, to take on that pressure and that expectation. We have no intention of taking a step back, we’re moving forward.”

By Jim McConnell
Football is a series of 6-second wars. Think about it. The average length of a play in football is six seconds. Reach down to shell a peanut and you’re liable to miss the turning point in a game. And that’s the point. Just as players must practice, spectators need to whip themselves into prime-time shape to prepare for another season of football. To continue reading, click thread

Continue reading “Jim McConnell puts you to the test, gets your ready for the high school football season” »

Reporting from Damien: The morning huffing and puffing followed by late afternoon team-bonding rally cries is a sure way to know that high school football is back. Several teams set up two-a-day camps this week in preparation for season openers the first week of September. One of the most intriguing camps is at Damien High School, where former head coaches Steve Garrison (Monrovia) and Dave Merrill (Wilson) have joined new Spartans coach Greg Gano, who left Los Altos after winning four CIF-Southern Section titles.

Continue reading “Damien Football: Ready or not, here they come” »

Check this out, in 1989 I was on Family Feud and got a text this morning saying they’re showing the reruns on the game show network (Direct TV, channel 309) the rest of the week. The five-time champion Robledo Family will also be on Thursday and Friday at 7 a.m., so set your Tivo’s for the 21-year-old version of myself. Damn, that was half a life ago, 20 years already? I was working the Trib’s front counter in private party ads when the Family Feud called to place an ad asking for contestants. I told ’em where do we sign up, because I got the perfect five to blow them away at the audition. We had some of best answers in Family Feud history. They asked my Uncle Mike, name an animal that ruins a garden? He said “a cockroach.” They asked my late aunt Carmen to name a time when people use candles? She said, “6 o’clock.” Good Times.

A few years ago I was also on the “Jamie Kennedy Experiment” pulling a prank at Brookside Golf course on my friend Tom and cousin Dan. I’m in the red shirt dancing at the end of the clip.

In today’s L.A. Times, Ben Bolch talks about Fox Sports’ new reality series in which eight high school quarterbacks, including an undisclosed player from Anaheim, compete in a new reality show in which they vie to become the nation’s best under-the-radar standout. The show, dubbed “The Ride” will be broadcast on FS West this fall, testing the theory that great quarterbacks can be made.

This is going to be brief and to the point, as things break, I will post it, but we have two weeks to get the football tab out and most teams are finally hitting the field beginning today, so I don’t have as much time to work on the blog. When the season starts, it will be back to the old routine. For those stringers wondering about covering games, we will have a meeting early next week, I will be in touch. Man, I feel like that Smokey and the Bandit song, We got a long way to go, and a short time to get there. So for now, here is how the league races will unfold in 2009.

Valle Vista
1. Baldwin Park, 2. Northview, 3. Pomona, 4. San Dimas, 5. Covina, 6. Ganesha.
Miramonte League
1. Charter Oak, 2. Diamond Ranch, 3. Los Altos, 4. Bonita, 5. Wilson
Mission Valley League
1. Arroyo, 2. Rosemead, 3. South El Monte, 4. El Monte, 5. Gabrielino, 6. Mountain View
Montview League
1. Workman, 2. La Puente, 3. Sierra Vista, 4. Duarte, 5. Azusa, 6. Gladstone, 7. Bassett
Sierra League
1. Glendora, 2. Chino Hills, 3. Damien, 4. Ayala, 5. Diamond Bar, 6. Chino
Serra League
1. Notre Dame, 2. Loyola, 3. Bishop Amat, 4. Crespi.
San Antonio League
1. South Hills, 2. West Covina, 3. Walnut, 4. Rowland, 5. Nogales