- 1954-55: The Saints Get Some Glory
St. Augustine felt better about itself, assuaging some of the long-standing frustration from thwarted attempts to secure a league affiliation.
The small, independent Catholic entity that opened its doors in North Park in 1922 enjoyed an in-your-face season and earned the first playoff berth in school history.
The hard way.
With a few community honchos in support and ...
- 2016-17: Saints Rise to No. 6 in Final Cal-Hi Sports’ Ratings
Another good season of San Diego Section basketball is in the books.
St. Augustine finished sixth in the final, expanded Cal-Hi Sports listing of the top 40 teams in the state and the Mission Hills girls were seventh in rankings of the top 35.
The Saints (28-5) were a preseason No. 21 in the newsletter’s top 25 but rolled ...
- 1953-54: Spartans Footballers Get Basketball Legs
All coach Clarence Burton and the Chula Vista Spartans needed were some fresh legs, i.e., several football players from the CIF small schools championship team needed time to get in shape.
The Spartans started slowly in December while Chet DeVore’s gridders were engaged in the postseason, which concluded with a 12-6 win over Brawley.
With Larry Armbrust, ...
- 2017: Charles Sanford, Anchor of Cavers’ Great Relay Squad
Charles Sanford finished the perfect race.
Etched in my memory: Edwards Stadium, Berkeley, 1963 state track meet, final event, 880-yard relay. San Diego High against the field at the end of the two-day program.
Sanford and teammates Walter (Buddah) Blackledge, Gordon Baker, and Raymond Dixon, were considered one of the better entries coming into the meet with a best time ...
- 1943-44: Ivan the Terrible, Not
An otherwise quiet campaign shortened by war was energized in the season’s last game.
Ivan Robinson, the younger brother of 1941-42 San Diego star Ermer Robinson, scored 38 points, including 25 in the second half of a 70-23, season-ending victory over Kearny.
News accounts reported that no prep in the area had ever rung up that many ...
- 2016-17 State Championship: Singer has seen all of Helix’ Best
John Singer has seen the greatest Helix teams from the bench.
He was an underclassman reserve on the 1969-70 squad led by Bill Walton that posted a 33-0 record and is regarded as not only the best team to come out of the La Mesa foothills but the all-time No. 1 in San Diego County.
Singer’s also the coach, ...
- 1942-43: It’s All About Victory
Galvanized Americans had Victory on their minds as the war moved into its second year.
San Diego school officials, living in the hub of the defense industry, pitched in. They created the Victory League and put the Metropolitan League in a basketball drydock.
Call theirs a New Year’s Resolution.
Coronado coach Hal Niedermeyer had announced a Metro schedule of one ...
- 2016-17 Regionals: Helix and Serra Reach Finals
The Helix boys and Serra girls are still in the hunt.
Both teams have reached the finals of the Southern California Regional playoffs, last step before the state championships March 24-25 at the Golden Center in Sacramento.
Helix (30-5), the No. 2 seed in Division IV, defeated Carson of the L.A. City Section, 56-53, for its 21st ...
- 2016-17: And Then There Were 8 as Regionals Reach Semifinals
The Southern California regional of the state playoffs reached the semifinal round after San Diego Section teams qualified eight of the 17 teams it sent to the weekend quarterfinals.
All local boys and girls teams except Helix will be on the road Tuesday night. The Highlanders (29-5), seeded No. 2 in Boys’ Division IV, play host to ...
- 2016-17 Regionals: 17 Remain in Play into Quarterfinals
With Open Division play beginning with quarterfinals tonight, seventeen of 31 San Diego Section teams still are in the Southern California regionals of the state playoffs.
Boys teams won seven of Wednesday’s 13, opening-round games, were 6-1 in road games, and 3-3 at home.
Four lower seeds, Vista, Orange Glen, Olympian, and Mission Hills won and ...
- 2016-17 Regionals: Saints, Torrey Get Rugged First Tests
Thirty-one teams from the San Diego Section begin play Wednesday and Friday nights in the Southern California regional playoffs.
Regional winners will qualify for the state championships against Northern California winners.
The CIF state committee which created the seedings and brackets based on the power ratings model didn’t think highly of the San Diego Section’s 15 boys’ teams chances ...
- 1942: Imperiled Season is Saved
The rubber didn’t hit the road.
So it was with the endangered 1942 season, buffeted by the winds of war that thrust San Diego to the forefront of the defense effort.
Gasoline rationing shortly would go from volunteered to mandatory. Night football was out. So was travel.
The long-distance conference call became a popular means of communication in ...
- 2016-17, Week 10: Happy Trails, Saints Landmark
Dougherty Gymnasium went out in a blaze…of technicals!
The final two games at St. Augustine were in keeping with the history of the 64-year-old building, a bandbox of often ear-splitting noise, tightly-packed crowds, and barnburner finishes.
Foothills Christian coach Brad Leaf will be serving a suspension when the Knights open play in the Southern California regionals of the state ...
- 1941-42: Season Survives After Pearl Harbor
San Diego High players weren’t thinking of tomorrow.
They were more interested in savoring a 27-24 victory at Coronado as the team boarded the ferry for the short ride back to the docking slip near Pacific Highway and Market Street.
The Cavers may even have been discussing the merits of crosstown rival Hoover’s 52-36 victory over Santa ...
- 2016-17 Week 9: Saints Figure to be Wary in First Round
St Augustine finished No. 1 in the Union-Tribune regular-season poll, is the San Diego Section’s No. 1 seed in the Open Division playoffs, and is 11th in the state, according to Cal-Hi Sports as the Saints await No. 8 seed La Costa Canyon in a first-round game Saturday night in perhaps the last game ever at ...
- 2016-17 Week 8: Playoffs Next as Leagues Finish
The regular season ends on Friday night and power ratings to determine divisional playoff appointments will follow on Saturday.
St. Augustine lost another first-place vote to Torrey Pines in the weekly Union-Tribune poll, but is number one in the present power ratings, with Torrey Pines third. Vista, which hasn’t played the marquee schedules of the Saints ...
- 1946-47: Cardinals, Hillers Busy Busy Busy
The CIF Southern Section was flourishing with competition.
Wartime travel restrictions were a thing of the past. There were games and more games, multiple tournaments, and big crowds.
Hoover, 13-6 in 19 games in the 1945-46 season, jumped to 34 games, with a 24-10 record. San Diego High, 19-5 in 24 contests, played 34 and was 28-6.
Teams ...
- 2016-17 Week 7: Here Come the Power Ratings
The invitationals and shootouts are complete, league play is winding down, and the CIF Power Ratings are coming to the forefront.
As happened last season and will again, the eight leading teams in the power ratings in the San Diego Section will make for competitive Open Division playoffs.
The team that wins the Open Division here likely then will ...
- 2017: George Taylor, 80, Cavers’ Hoop Standout
No one scored more than 10 points in a game against George Taylor, whose defensive commitment and offensive playmaking earned the 6-foot San Diego High guard City Prep League player-of-the-year honors in the 1953-54 season.
Taylor, who passed in San Diego on Jan. 27 at age 80, was the primary player on the 22-5 team that reached the quarterfinals of ...
- 2016-17 Week 6: St. Augustine Alone at Top
The speed bump Foothills Christian hit against Orange Glen last week was followed by a chassis-rattling pothole in a 20-point blowout by Woodland Hills Taft.
The Knights (17-4) need a front-end alignment.
They vacated their status as the No. 2 team in the Union-Tribune weekly sportswriters- broadcasters poll after losses of 61-60 and 76-56 to the above-mentioned ...
