LEAGUE PREVIEWS: League previews for every team in the Star-News, Tribune and Whittier Daily News areas, as well as rankings in Whittier and Pasadena.

COVER STORY: Bishop Amat’s Trevon Sidney, Muir’s Taeon Mason and La Mirada’s Tony Brown lead way

ARAM’S SEASON PREVIEW COLUMN: CIF football playoff groupings set the stage for new rivalries, champions

BEST GAMES: Fred Robledo’s week-by-week look at the areas best games

RECRUITING RANKINGS: Bishop Amat football’s Trevon Sidney heads list of area’s top recruits

TRIBUNE PRE-SEASON ALL-AREA TEAM: Find out who made the pre-season all-area team

TRIBUNE RANKINGS: No Surprise, Bishop Amat starts at No. 1

Welcome to the inaugural SGVN all-encompassing girls volleyball top ten poll. For the first time, we’re ranking teams from the Whittier Daily News, Pasadena Star-News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune coverage areas to create a more prestigious and tougher-to-crack, girls volleyball top ten poll from our core readership at SGVN. With social media bringing us all closer together, we thought we’d share coverage beyond print boundaries to give you a more comprehensive feel of the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier. Keith Lair will update his rankings each week on the blogs, websites and newspapers.

Above: Emily Develle, left, Kayla Lund, and Sophia Coffey, are team members of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy Girls Volleyball team Friday, August 22, 2014. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News)

By Keith Lair, Staff Reporter
It will be difficult for San Gabriel Valley and Whittier volleyball teams to top 2013.
La Salle and Whittier Christian high schools won CIF-Southern Section championships. Mayfield played
Whittier Christian for the 2A title. Flintridge Sacred Heart and St. Paul both went to the semifinals, the Tologs losing to eventual champion La Salle. Two other teams made it to the quarterfinals.
This season, however, could be just as successful. There are a lot of returning starters for the area’s top teams, but there are challenges: four of the teams in the Top 10 move up a division.

1. Flintridge Sacred Heart
The Tologs return five players who contributed heavily to the team’s CIF-SS semifinal run last year.
But coach Ernest Banaag still has questions.
“We are a lot younger that last year,” he said. “We do have a lot of experience and core knowledge.
But we’re young and that might show in some games.”
The Tologs graduated six seniors from a team that went 26-5 and lost to eventual division champion La Salle in four tough games in the semis. They return four seniors, four juniors and two sophomores who all played. Two freshmen will play this season.
“They have a lot of club experience within their age group, but they are 14-year olds now competing against 18-year olds,” Banag said.
Continue reading “Girls Volleyball: St. Lucy’s and Los Altos crack inaugural SGVN top ten poll” »

The game: In this year’s Tribskin Pick’em, Aram will I will do it a little differently. We’ll pick all games from the SGVN coverage areas of the Tribune, Whittier Daily News and Pasadena Star-News for an all-encompassing, all-out bragging right for 2014, since nobody ever pays the dinner bet. I won last year, ending Aram’s two-year win streak.

WEEK 0: Lot of great games to choose from Thursday through Saturday to start the season. Northview coach Marcel Perez was extremely confident in a conversation this summer, so I’m taking the Vikings on Thursday along with La Puente. On Friday, the tide has turned and it’s no longer an upset to take San Dimas over Monrovia, which I’m doing with confidence. Bishop Amat will turn some heads in Orange County with a victory over Santa Margarita and Charter Oak will get knocked off by some team from Nevada. Diamond Bar will get a win at Montebello for its new coach and Wilson will do the same for Greg Gano. I like Arroyo, but like San Marino better (drinking the Steve Ramirez Kool-aid). Same goes with Muir, good team but Salesian probably better. On Saturday night, South Hills is at least a three-touchdown favorite over Covina. So there you go, we’ll come back next week and find out who we did. But go ahead, make your own picks and lets play. Aram is on vacation today and will make his predictions on Tuesday.

Thursday’s games
Rosemead vs. Northview at San Dimas HS, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Northview); Aram (Rosemead)
Ralston Valley vs. La Serna, 7 p.m. — Robledo (La Serna); Aram (LS)
Verbum Dei vs. La Canada at LA Southwest, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Verbum Dei); Aram (VD)
Sierra Vista at La Puente, 7 p.m. — Robledo (La Puente); Aram (LP)
Friday’s games
Monrovia at San Dimas, 7 p.m. — Robledo (San Dimas); Aram (SD)
Bishop Amat vs. Santa Margarita at Saddleback, 7 p.m. — Robledo (BAmat); Aram (Amat)
Green Valley, NV., at Charter Oak, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Green Valley); Aram (CO)
Diamond Bar at Montebello, 7 p.m. — Robledo (DBar); Aram (DB)
Tesoro at La Mirada, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Tesoro); Aram (Tesoro)
Bonita at Schurr, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Schurr); Aram (Bonita)
El Toro at La Habra, 7 p.m. — Robledo (La Habra); Aram (LH)
Claremont at El Rancho, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Claremont); Aram (ER)
Firebaugh at St. Paul, 7 p.m. — Robledo (St. Paul); Aram (St. Paul)
Santa Fe at Santa Maria St. Joseph, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Santa Maria); Aram (SM)
Whittier vs. Sonora at California HS, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Sonora); Aram (Sonora)
Arroyo at San Marino, 7 p.m. — Robledo (SMarino); Aram (SM)
Muir at Salesian, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Salesian); Aram (Salesian)
Bassett at Maranatha, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Maranatha); Aram (Maranatha)
Alhambra at Arcadia, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Alhambra); Aram (Arcadia)
Pasadena at South El Monte, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Pasadena); Aram (Pas)
Compton at La Salle, 7 p.m. — Robledo (La Salle); Aram (LS)
Blair vs. Flintridge Prep, at Oxy, 7 p.m.– Robledo (FPrep); Aram (FP)
Duarte at Cerritos Valley Christian, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Cerritos); Aram (Duarte)
Keppel at Ganesha, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Ganesha); Aram (Ganesha)
Ribet Academy at Rio Hondo Prep, 7 p.m. — Robledo (RH Prep); Aram (RHP)
San Gabriel at Montclair, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Montclair); Aram (Montclair)
Baldwin Park at El Monte, 7 p.m. — Robledo (BPark); Aram (BP)
Workman vs. Wilson at La Puente HS, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Wilson); Aram (Wilson)
Diamond Ranch at Nogales, 7 p.m. — Robledo (DRanch); Aram (DR)
Santa Monica at Los Altos, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Los Altos); Aram (LA)
Gladstone at Jurupa Hills, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Jurupa Hills); Aram (JH)
Alta Loma at Rowland, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Alta Loma); Aram (AL)
Walnut at Don Lugo, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Walnut); Aram (Lugo)
West Covina at Colony, 7 p.m. — Robledo (Colony); Aram (WC)
Saturday’s games
Covina vs. South Hills at San Dimas HS, 7 p.m. — Robledo (SHills); Aram (SH)
Bosco Tech at Pasadena Poly, 2 p.m. — Robledo (Bosco Tech); Aram (PasPoly)

2014 TRIBUNE PREPXTRA FOOTBALL PREVIEW ONLINE

Tribune Football Pre-season Top Five (expanded to top ten)
1. Bishop Amat
2. Glendora
3. Charter Oak
4. Los Altos
5. San Dimas
6. South Hills
7. West Covina
8. Damien
9. Diamond Bar
10. Diamond Ranch

TRIBUNE PRE-SEASON ALL-AREA TEAM
OFFENSE
QB — Matt Fink, Glendora, Sr.
RB — Anthony Camargo, Bishop Amat, Sr.
RB — Zion Echols, Charter Oak, Jr.
WR — Tyler Vaughns, Bishop Amat, Jr.
WR — Raymen Barraza, Baldwin Park, Jr.
WR — Brandon Arconado, Bishop Amat, Sr.
OL — Ben Northup, Glendora, Sr.
OL — Angel Villanueva, Duarte, Sr.
OL — Steven Magallanes, Los Altos, Sr.
OL — David Tolmachoff, Los Altos, Sr.
OL — Andrew Lopez, Bishop Amat, Sr.
AP — Darreon Lockett, Pomona, Jr.
PK — Caleb Watkins, Glendora, Jr.

DEFENSE
DL — Patrick Sanchez, Damien, Sr.
DL — Robert Sanchez, Arroyo, Sr.
DL — David Jimenez, Los Altos, Sr.
LB — Zach Lewallen, Glendora, Sr.
LB — Michael Sahagun, Rosemead, Sr.
LB — Christian Wiley, Bishop Amat, Sr.
LB — Josiah Erickson, San Dimas, Jr.
DB — Tre Sidney, Bishop Amat, Jr.
DB — Antonio Hull, Diamond Bar, Sr.
DB — Malik Psalms, Ayala, Sr.
DB — Isaiah Love, West Covina, Jr.
P — Enrique Gonzalez, La Puente, Sr.

@SGVNSports Coach Johnson Impacted me! When I saw him come to practice Everyday in a Wheelchair, My complaints about practicing Evaporated

— Chris Rix (@CoachRix) August 20, 2014

By Aram Tolegian
John Johnson might be 52-years-old, but he often feels like he was born in 1984.

“And when I came down, I obviously made a mistake and cartwheeled in. I broke my neck. I don’t remember the last few seconds of the crash. What I remember is that my right wing tip hit the ground and that made me cartwheel and I made contact with my forehead with some part of the glider. Albeit I had all the equipment I should be wearing, I hit the glider so hard with my head that it caused my neck to hyper-extend.”

Must read "@SGVNSports: Bishop Amat football's John Johnson inspiration after life-changing hang gliding accident http://t.co/AoJdqsQi7M"

— Beto Duran (@DuranSports) August 20, 2014

Wow, wow, wow. Former La Verne Lutheran boys basketball coach Eric Cooper, who won some CIF-SS championships and state titles at tiny La Verne Lutheran, is now the boys basketball coach at Diamond Ranch. Boy, it didn’t take former football coach and now AD Roddy Layton to make a splash. Some will say they’ve hired the best recruiter in town who will instantly draw talent to the school. Others will simply say Eric Cooper’s track record is what attracts. You decide, either way I’m guessing Diamond Ranch will be a boys basketball power soon.

By Aram Tolegian
At 68 years old, the last thing Charter Oak High football coach Lou Farrar needed was a bucket of ice water dumped over his head.
But there the veteran coach was last week, surrounded by his team and in front of cell phone cameras, documenting his acceptance of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that’s sweeping the country.
“It was shocking,” Farrar said of the experience. “My assistant coaches were joking that they had the paddles ready to go in case my heart stopped. But I think the cause is important. If that means getting doused by some football players on a hot afternoon to raise awareness, then it’s a very small thing to do. I was very happy to bring some awareness to the issue.”
Awareness and the subsequent donations are the ultimate goal of the challenge, which has gone viral thanks to social media. Quite simply, the challenge is getting a bucket of ice water poured over your head, then posting video of the ceremony on social media and extending the challenge to somebody else.

On Wednesday, Los Altos coach Dale Ziola was latest to take the plunge …. Find out who he called out