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Not that they give a rip, but the Cathedral Dons’ 43-point, 57-14 defeat last week at Corona Centennial didn’t represent the worst loss in school history. More decisive was a 45-point loss, 55-10 to Sacramento-area power Folsom in 2014. Almost as painful was another 43-point reversal, 56-13 to Marian in the 2003 San Diego Section playoffs. Contributing ...

Hoover, led by high jumper-hurdler Bernie Nelson, stole thunder usually heard only by San Diego High opponents. The Cardinals were 6-0 in dual meets and along with Grossmont and Point Loma won a dual meet from the usually unbeatable Hillers. Nelson, who cleared 6 feet, 4 inches, was the County’s first state champion since Grossmont’s Hal Norris ...

Walt Harvey was a football and track coach and once confessed he “didn’t know anything about baseball.” Harvey was a 1936 Hoover High classmate and friend of Les Cassie, who was a successful baseball coach at San Diego High. Cassie didn’t know it but he deserved an assist when Harvey found himself coaching the varsity at ...

Cathedral and Lincoln, each with high aspirations, leave the sanctuary of comfortable surroundings and head North to face two of the state’s bests this week. Cathedral, No. 1 in San Diego and fifth in the state, as ranked by Cal-Hi Sports, takes on No. 8 Corona Centennial.  Lincoln, No. 24, goes to No. 10 Los Alamitos. Coach ...

Call it a return to (the new) normal. Football is back in real football time, but the Covid still looms, with the likelihood of canceled games and quarantines. And the pandemic, which reduced the 2020 season to an abbreviated schedule of 2021 spring games, probably was a factor in the turnover of coaches. There will be at least ...

Hoover, as newspaper accounts and the school yearbook indicated, might have been an undefeated, 12-0 champion. Published reports in The San Diego Union show that the East San Diego team played only a couple military teams in early-season March, emerging victorious in each. Other games may not have been reported. Schools were cutting back on travel because of ...

San Diego High, under second-year coach Les Cassie, enjoyed its greatest success in a sport the Cavemen had dominated almost since the CIF Southern Section was formed in 1913. It won 35 games! And lost only two, a stunning won-loss percentage of .946! The historically powerful squads located on the beautiful campus at the South entrance to Balboa ...

Jack Mashin coached football at Grossmont from 1925-47 and posted an excellent record, 125-66-19 (.644), but he became more known as an international figure in track and field. Mashin would, under auspices of the U.S. State Department, coach the first Pakistan Olympic team in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, and his decades-long success at Grossmont led to ...

Martin Pedigo, a former University of Oregon broad jumper, became the San Diego High coach and inherited a potential powerhouse. The Cavers, representative of one of the state’s great programs—184-30-2 in dual meets since 1929—were 14-7  under longtime assistant Henry Wiegand and hadn’t beaten Lincoln, their latest rival, since 1959. Wiegand deserved another year. Coincidentally, Pedigo, the ...

San Diego Section teams won two of seven Southern California championship basketball games. Mater Dei defeated host Mission Hills Bishop Alemany, 56-42, in Division II-AA and Rancho Bernardo topped visiting San Pedro Mary Star of the Sea, 72-44, in D-IIIAA. The Crusaders were a No. 5 seed and Alemany No. 2.  Rancho Bernardo was a 2 seed ...

After winning only one of seven games in the Open, I-AAA, and I-A divisions, San Diego Section entries in the Girls’ Southern California basketball playoffs rallied in the lower divisions. At least one team is assured a place in finals on Saturday.  St. Joseph, the No. 1 seed, in Division V-AAA, plays host to neighboring Fallbrook ...

Memories-for-a-lifetime victories and crushing defeats summed up the pandemic-altered San Diego Section season. The big one eluded 30-1 Torrey Pines in the Open Division final, a 68-65 loss to Etiwanda, but area teams won 6 of 9 championships, a stunning accomplishment considering San Diego’s generally unsuccessful runs in Southern California postseason competition. There should be a special ...

The Union-Tribune ‘s final poll included only the regular season.  We’ve included San Diego Section and Southern California playoff results in teams’ records but the rankings do not change. RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS LAST WEEK 1. Torrey Pines 30-1 (13) 130 1 2. San Marcos 25-2 113 2 3. Cathedral 17-3 107 3 4. St. Augustine 14-7 82 4 5. El Camino 24-6 79 5 6. Santa Fe Christian 20-4 73 6 7. Carlsbad 14-10 33 8 8. Mission Hills 16-9 20 7 9. Mater Dei 18-4 19 NR 10. Coronado 24-5 18 nr Others receiving votes: Orange Glen (25-7, 17 points), San Ysidro (23-7, 8), San Diego (16-14, 7),  Mission ...

Sa’de-Wiley Gatewood is back in the hunt. The Victory Christian coach sends her No. 1 seed against No. 4 Playa del Rey St. Bernard Thursday in a Southern California Division VI-AA semifinals game at the Knights’ Chula Vista venue. The winner will meet  the survivor of he Corcoran-Los Angeles Franklin game for the championship. Four teams are entered ...

Seventeen teams begin one-week quests of Southern California championships and almost all eyes will be on the 29-0 Torrey Pines Falcons, seeded No. 1 in the Open Division and with a quarterfinals bye. Corona Centennial, which the Falcons defeated at home early in the season, 65-62, bypassed a chance to  turn the tables on  coach John ...

Cathedral upheld the honor of No. 1 seeds and defeated No. 3 Bonita Vista, 55-49, in the Open Division and erased the memory of two losses to the Barons in the regular season. It was not a happy ride for several of the favored seeds in the girls’ San Diego Section playoffs.. Nine upsets, or surprises, took ...

Unbeaten and 29-0 Torrey Pines continued its march toward a place where no San Diego Section boys team has gone, winning a championship in the largest division in Southern California (the 1935-36 San Diego High team won the Southern Section title but had a loss in a 15-1 season; the 1944-45 Hoover team won the ...

The typically good baseball played in the area was augmented by another stable of outstanding players. Pro teams signed dozens  and several made it to the big leagues: Dave Duncan and Eddie Herrmann were the first two of the eventual five catchers from Crawford to reach the top.  Others included Lincoln’s Lou Marone. St. Augustine’s Bob Spence, ...

We owe an apology to the starting five, Charlie Buchanan, John Walters, Bill Canning, John Schroeder, and Rick Eveleth, and coach Bill Reaves. They were the major players for another team that posted an undefeated regular season, the 1963-64 La Jolla Vikings, who were 26-0. We omitted the Vikings in our post last week. Rick Eveleth, 6 foot, ...

Torrey Pines and San Marcos are on the cusp of becoming the fifth and sixth teams in San Diego County history to complete undefeated regular seasons. (Editor’s note:  Challenges and additions to this stat welcomed.) Hoover was 24-0 in the 1959-60 regular season and got to the Southern California semifinals before bowing to Anaheim, 39-34.  Mount ...