- 2017 Week 3: Cavers Finding It Fun Again
Baby steps to others are leaps and bounds at San Diego High.
Save for a 13-8-2 record by the Keir Kimbrough-coached squads in 2010 and 2011, the Cavers have endured stretches of apathy and losses that extend into the misty past.
San Diego is 32-109-3 since 2002 and have had 12 winning seasons in the last 48, ...
- 2017 Week 2: Overtime, Then and Now
Palm Springs defeated Scripps Ranch, 42-35, in two overtimes and Army-Navy’s topped Perris Military, 21-20, in one overtime last week.
Both of those game results presumably were more easily reached than the first in 1976.
That was the year of imposition of the new “California Tie-Breaker”.
As noted by Steve Brand, The San Diego Union representative who covered ...
- 2017 Week 1: Helix Up, Cathedral Down, Mission Hills Cruises
Too early for trends, but Cathedral’s defending state 1-AA champion has some catching up to do and Helix is positioning itself to make a run such as the Dons’ in 2016.
The Highlanders, preseason ranked 12th in Cal-Hi Sports’ overview, eased to a 35-0 victory over Utah’s No. 15 West Herriman, and moved up to 10th ...
- 2017 Week 0: Helix starts off as No. 1
Enriched by the transfer from St. Augustine of running back-defensive back Isaac Taylor Stuart (a four- or five star recruit, according to grading services), coach Robbie Owens’ Helix Highlanders begin the season as the No. 1 team in the San Diego Section, according to the 28-member Union-Tribune voting panel.
The Scots, 10-3 a year ago, received 19 first-place ...
- 2017: John Williams, Played on Great Hoover Team
Name Hoover’s starting five in 1959-60 and Johnny (Bo) Williams probably would be the fifth to come to mind.
But Williams, a 6-foot, 1-inch guard, was an effective offensive player (269 points in 27 games) and outstanding defender for arguably the finest San Diego-area team before Bill Walton and Helix arrived a decade later.
Williams, 75, passed ...
- 2017: Dave Grayson, Legendary Caver, Hornet
David Grayson, who retired before the 1971 NFL season as one of the pro game’s all-time defensive backs, passed away recently at age 78.
Grayson intercepted 48 passes from 1961-70 in the American Football League and NFL as a member of the Dallas Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, and Oakland Raiders.
The 5-foot, 10-inch, 187-pounder with sprinter speed ...
- 1967-68: Mount Miguel on Mountain Top
They have been cast in the 6-foot, 11-inch shadow of Bill Walton and Helix’ 33-0 team of 1969-70.
History has overlooked the Mount Miguel clubs that dominated the Grossmont League and San Diego Section in the late 1960s.
The Matadors were 25-6 in 1966-67 and 32-0 this season.
But coach Dick Ridgway’s squad did not embrace an intersectional ...
- 1956-57: A Red Devils Reset
Who would have thought a team that started the season with a 1-8 record and finished 10-10 would be celebrated?
Hats off to the Sweetwater Red Devils.
An eighth loss in nine games was where coach Wells Gorman’s team stood on January 6, 1957, after a 55-50, Metropolitan League, opening-game loss at Helix.
But that score against Helix, ...
- 1955-56: Islanders Square Account
Coronado paid an old debt.
Hoover’s playoff advance was halted at the foul line.
Merrill Douglas ended a great run at San Diego High.
Lincoln showed that patience had virtue.
—John Kovac was a football coach who happened to come along at the right basketball time at Coronado.
The dour Kovac without prompting often recalled that he coached future professional ...
- 2017: 99th State Track and Field Finals
A decidedly thin year in San Diego Section track and field ended on a promising note in the 99th state meet at Clovis over the weekend.
Sophomore Karson Lippert, who came into the season with a best of: 49.77 as a freshman in the 400, crashed the big stage and will be billed as one of ...
- 2017: 19 Advance to State Track and Field Finals
CLOVIS–11 boys and 8 girls from the San Diego Section qualified yesterday for tonight’s 99th state track and field championships at Buchanan High.
Six, all-time County top 15 performances came amid gusty winds and a temperature in the high nineties when competition began at 5 p.m.
The breezes eventually eased and the thermometer had gradually cooled to the low eighties ...
- 1952-53: Gehring Leads Way to Hoop
Football, basketball, baseball, and track and field, the majors, remained seasonal sports for the best athletes, who usually participated in at least three.
Single-sport concentration and club teams were a half-century away, but a change of another kind took place in high school hoops this season.
There were many more games in which the competing teams scored ...
- 2017: Tracksters Warm Up With Weather
Top performances in seven events and 79 efforts earning 2017 top 10 distinction highlighted 11 league championships last week in San Diego Section boys’ and girls’ track and field competition.
Qualifiers from those meets will meet at Mt. Carmel High Saturday in Section trials. Finals are scheduled at the same site on May 27, followed by ...
- 1951-52: A Season Seven Times Significant
What made this campaign one to remember:
1) Hoover’s 11-1 ride through the City Prep League and 23-win campaign which stalled after an 11-point lead in the playoffs.
2) Point Loma’s rags-to-almost-riches season that ended with a call from Uncle Sam.
3) Helix, without a gymnasium, or a campus, not playing like a first-year team.
4) Chula Vista making ...
- 2017: George (Bud) Milke, Legendary South Bay Coach
Bud Milke was on the bench as a head coach for 500-plus basketball games in his career, more than half at Mar Vista High and Castle Park, and rolled with the deathless prose of Grantland Rice:
“For when the One Great Scorer comes To write against your name, He marks—not that you won or lost—but how ...
- 1953: “Brimming” With Success
Chula Vista High was in the midst of a legendary era in the school’s history, thanks to two gentlemen loosely described by their imaginary headwear, which bespoke of the respect they commanded and clout they carried.
Joe Rindone, the sports-minded school principal and president of the CIF Southern Section executive committee, was known as the “Big ...
- 2017: Tri-City Jumper Takes State Lead
Matthew DeRoos of Tri-City Christian long jumped 24 feet, 4 1/4 inches in the Coastal League finals at Orange Glen and took the state lead in that event.
Scripps Ranch’s Alex Barr was displaced as the state leader in the 1600-meter run. Barr ran 4:14.51 in an early outdoor meet and now is ninth inn that event.
Sophomore ...
- 2017: Powell Leads Raptors to Playoff Win
Norman Powell has earned a spot in the Toronto Raptors’ rotation and is making his bones on basketball’s biggest stage.
The 6-foot, 4-inch guard from Lincoln High scored a career-high 25 points in 34 minutes and shot 8 for 11 from the field to lead the Raptors to a 118-93 win over Milwaukee and put Toronto ...
- 1950-51: Travel Checklist: Thomas Brothers Map
The twists and turns of the season weren’t so much about the drama of last-minute shots and frenetic finishes but of quirky schedules, odd venues, and some World War II-like travel.
Home games often meant hitting the road.
Coronado and Chula Vista met in the Metropolitan League’s most important game…at Point Loma.
It was Chula Vista’s home game, ...
- 2017: San Diego Thinclads Rate in State
With Arcadia behind them, San Diego Section track and field athletes settle into three more weeks of dual meets, weekend invitationals, and league trials before Section trials May 20 and finals May 27 at Mt. Carmel, and the state meet in Clovis on June 2-3.
Scripps Ranch’s Alex Barr ran :4:14.51 in the 1600 meters last ...