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2026 Football Week 0: Six Teams in Max Preps’ State Preseason Top 25
Clear the decks! Football is Back. A few late schedules have drifted in but most teams, with schools in session, have wrapped “training camp” modes after toiling under hot August skies and gearing for the 67th season of the San Diego Section, which started in 1960. First games are this week, most on Aug. 21 […]
Read More1930 Football, Looking Back: They Don’t Like Their Vintage Mascot
Originally published Aug. 16, 2014. Now wait just a grape-pickin’ minute! Students at Escondido High were up in arms. They did not cotton to the term Grape Pickers or its use to describe the school’s athletic teams, although the wine-making fruit held agricultural sway in the area and the city had hosted a Grape Day […]
Read More1978 Football, Looking Back: Where Did That Tackle Come From?
Originally published Jan. 10, 2016. John Saleamua took the handoff, cleared the first line of defense, and cut to the outside. The Sweetwater running back was running free along the Montgomery sideline when he suddenly went down. Jack Jackson, a Montgomery player, had left his bench area, came onto the field, and tackled Saleamua, short-circuiting […]
Read More1977, Looking Back: Old Friend in Trouble
Originally published Dec. 30, 2015. Balboa Stadium’s days were numbered. When construction was completed in 1915, the concrete horseshoe seating more than 23,000 was the largest municipally-owned stadium in the world, according to Don King, author of “Caver Conquest.” The 1933 magnitude 6.3 earthquake that destroyed 230 school buildings in Southern California, including many at […]
Read More1960 Football, Looking Back: For Better or (Mostly) Worse
Originally published Feb. 21, 2014. San Diego County was “free” of the giant Southern Section and on its own, twenty-eight schools strong. The formation of the local CIF section pleased administrators and assorted education honchos who wielded the sharp end of the stick. Coaches and most fans were ambivalent. The great competition against Northern schools […]
Read More1938 Baseball, Looking Back: Strange, Disappointing Ending for Hilltoppers
Originally published Oct. 25, 2024. San Diego’s march to a Southern Section championship was derailed by Glendale in the most confusing finish in the 20-season career of coach Mike Morrow. “Bait and switch” is a often-used political term for what happened to the Hilltoppers. They were told by CIF boss Seth Van Patten that a […]
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