C.I.F. playoff time

 

This is an exciting time of year if you are into high school sports, or sports in general. The Prep football season is coming to a close and many local teams are vying for CIF playoff spots while only South Hills (8-1) has played well enough to have one already guaranteed.

But it’s not just football that’s going on, volleyball and water polo are among the fall sports that are taking place and which is fielding excellent teams. In addition, the area colleges are also doing well. While Citrus has had a dissapointing football season, the Mt. SAC team is ranked No.1 in the state and is taking on Chaffey this saturday at 6 P.M. The Mounties are guaranteed a playoff birth at this point. A lot of the teams are going to the playoffs in various sports and the Mt. SAC Athletic department has captured an incredible 42 state championships and 21 since 2000.

I’m going to cover tonight’s game between Diamond Bar and Chino Hills. While it doesn’t have as many playoff implications like the Rowland-Walnut game, it should be a good send off to a great season. More people should head out to these games because like I said, it’s an exciting time of year for sports in the SGV and we should support our local athletes.

Water polo championship for Walnut?

So this is what it feels like to cover football on a Thursday night! I did my first thursday night game of the season tonight, a 21-20 victory for visiting Covina High over Ganesha. That’s in Pomona, for all of you out of that area that may not know.

Seriously, it feels like a friday night to me because I am so used to covering games then. Tomorrow it’s Chino versus Glendora High for me at Citrus College.

Also, I was covering Walnut High water polo for the Weekly this week. Check out this report  (page 16) on a CIF caliber team and some of the photos from the pool:

Walnut vs. Cathedral High on Monday Nov. 3. The Mustangs won 26-2.

 

Chargers fall on hard times at the midway point

OK so this is a break from SGV sports to talk about the only NFL football team that matters to me, the San Diego Chargers. I imagine since the Chargers are having a bad season thus far, undearachieving, or you might say struggling at 3-5 midway through the season, there are many who are going to jump off the bandwagon in the southland.

I honestly don’t know how this team is doing this considering all the talent they have, except to say it’s a dissapointment. Actually I take that back. I break down some of the key problems and provide some analysis, also I answer the question: Can the Chargers turn it around and still make the playoffs?

The Schedule: Actually, yes they can, but they are going to have to start putting a run and winning some games down the stretch, especially on the road. When you look at the fact that Denver could lose on Sunday, SD would only be one game back of the Broncos in a very weak division. Because of strength of schedule alone, the Chargers would have to win more games down the stretch and then beat Denver in the final game of the season to qualify for post season competition. The Broncos beat SD in week 2, but over a controversial call and the Chargers also have lost most of their games by close margins. All they need is to go on a run in Nov. and Dec to win the West and for Denver to fall flat on their noses.

 The Defense: This is a major negative working against the team’s chances. This unit has been horrible all season, giving up points and putting almost no pressure on opposing quarterbacks. It has been dissapointing to see that they have not stepped up following the loss of Shawn Merriman for the season. Make no mistake about it, Merriman is an impact player and IMHO the best linebacker in football, losing him has trickled down to the rest of the d, they miss the energy and play making that Merriman brings to the table, but what’s the secondary’s excuse? They are simply horrible.

The Injuries: Injuries have been the bane of this team since the AFC championship in which both Antonio Gates and Ladanian Tomlinson sat out due to serious injuries. Is there anyone who seriously thought the Chargers would not have challenged New England for the super bowl last season had all their stars been 100 percent? L.T. is just apparently getting back from a nagging toe injury and his numbers indicate his production has been lower this season. He had a 100+ yard game last week in a loss to New Orleans, but can his return to form be enough to save the season?

The Chargers have not looked remotely like the team which went to the AFC championship game last season, and this is too bad because the offense is playing well, with the exception of a bad game Phillip Rivers had against the Buffalo Bills. The talent is there, the team just needs to piece it together in the second half because a 3-5 record which should be more like 5-3 is a big dissapointment for such a talented unit.

QB tries to craft another win against Cal

Not sure how many times I will see a headline like the one above in the local papers in reference to UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft. At some point it stops becoming clever and becomes overused and very trite. Craft of course, gets a lot of coverage in the SGV because he was a standout at Mt.SAC where he played for his dad, a coach at SAC, prior to being recruited by UCLA to be their starting quarterback this season.

UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft pictured here in his Mt.SAC uniform. Photo taken by James Choy

I bring him up because the Walnut paper has me doing a follow up on an earlier story we ran about Craft going to the Bruins.  It has been a rebuilding season and thus, also an up and down year for the Bruins who are now guided by new head coach Rick Neiheisel. The Bruins are taking on the Cal Bears today coming off just their third season win last week vs. Stanford.

In other SGV sports news, the Mt. View Vikings (2-5) lost to Gabrielino 28-14 (3-4) following a three touchdown performance by Gabrielino’s running back Oscar Rivas.  As I sat in the press box watching the action unfold last night, I thought about the stark contrast in between some school districts throughout the region. Some of the more affluent areas and teams may play in better or more modern facilities, but this does not deter the El Monte faithful from coming out to the games to root for their Vikings. The spirit, joy and celebration of the Mt. View homecoming game was a truly maginficent site to behold. Everyone was having fun!

Freddy Robledo, prep editor for the San Gabriel Valley Trib always has an interesting take on all the high school match-ups so read this stuff and get up to speed with all the key games and results.

Cal Poly women’s Volleyball

I’m busy writing a story for the Weekly on Women’s volleyball at CSUPomona. Their team is really good, in fact, so good that this weekend’s matches against San Francisco State and Monterey Bay gave them their 22nd win out of 23 home matches. They are ranked 23rd in the coaches’ polls. For more on the team go here

I found out that you cannot shoot in front of the coaches’ bench. The sports info guy almost had a heart attack because I was shooting in front of the bench, he said I had to stay behind. I told him sorry I didn’t really know. My first time shooting volleyball. It was.

 It is hard, I need more practice. I shot over 150 photos but only a few came out decent. To top it off, you can’t use flash. I should probably have known that but I didn’t, although all the fans were using flash too. Now I know and like G.I. Joe used to say, knowing is half the battle.

Check out these photos and let me know what you think:

Football musings

Before I head off to Baldwin Park today to cover the game between the Sierra Vista Dons and Workman, I have decided to post some football pics. Click on them to zoom in.

Citrus quarterback is under center in their game against Mt. SAC on Oct. 11

Mt SAC quarterback Nick Lamaison gets ready to throw a touchdown pass against the Citrus College Owls on Oct. 11

Coach Bob Jastrab talks to his team following a 54-14 win at Citrus College on Oct. 11

The view from the press box at Citrus College. The Gladstone Gladiators take the field on friday Oct. 10

Sorry about the view on this last one, I wasn’t really there to take photos so I didn’t have my telephoto lense, I just decided to take a shot from above.

Welcome to the blog!

Hello and welcome to the SGV sports blog. As sports editor of the Walnut Weekly News I get the opportunity to cover sports in this area every week and decided this will be the space to discuss some of the teams, issues and stories that I am currenlty working on and might be of importance to the general public and sports teams.

The importance of athletics in our society can not be overstated and there is a plethora of young talent and stars in the making in this area practically every season. A good recent example would be Kevin Craft who currently is the starting quarterback for the UCLA Bruins. Craft came off a superb season in which he led Mt. SAC’s football team to great success, throwing a great number of touchdown passes to lead the team all the way to the championship community colleges. Not bad at all.

Besides focusing on our local athletes I would also like to use this space to comment on current stories and to allow you the reader to give your input and feedback. So relax, sit back and let’s talk about some San Gabriel Valley area sports.