- 2023 Week 11: Hats Off! League Champions!
The advent of power ratings, leading to alteration of teams’ division and league placements and affecting playoff seeding, changed the landscape.
League championships don’t carry that once-cherished cachet.
But don’t tell that to the players, coaches, and student bodies. A league title still goes down as a matter of record and still looks great on that letterman’s ...
- 2023 Flag Football Week 10: Torrey Pines, Bonita Vista Stay on Top
Torrey Pines (13-0) remains the only undefeated team and stays put on MaxPreps’ state rankings as number 13, while Bonita Vista (14-1) buoyed to number 5 from 6 in rankings this week.
About 38 games remain in the regular season. The top 12 teams in each division will be announced with playoff pairings on Nov 2. The ...
- 2023 Week 10: Hats Off! Mater Dei’s John Joyner!
A significant accomplishment was overlooked for a few weeks. Mater Dei’s John Joyner became the 49th San Diego Section coach to win a career 100th game.
Fast-finishing for a second straight year, the Crusaders coach’s team defeated Eastlake, 36-7, for its fifth straight win after an 0-3 start and gave Joyner his 103rd victory.
Victory No. 100 ...
- 2023 Flag Football Week 9: Bonita Vista, Classical Lead Divisions
Flag football’s initial season has been a numerical and seeming artistic success, with 217 games played through eight weeks, and about 70 scheduled in the remaining two weeks of the regular season.
The 46 San Diego Section girls teams will be split into two Divisions for the playoffs, based on school enrollment. The D-I upper half ...
- 2023 Week 9: Hornets are Stinging and Streaking
Lincoln won its 21st game in a row, 42-7, over St. Augustine last week and improved to 9-0 this year. The Hornets will be seeking their first, undefeated, 10-0 campaign Saturday when they wrap the regular season at University City.
Coach Vic Player’s Hornets were undefeated in the 1979 regular season but city schools played only ...
- 2023 Week 8: San Diego Beats Hoover; Helix-Grossmont, No Change
Two of the San Diego Section’s most enduring rivalries were on display.
San Diego and Hoover met for 73rd time, Helix and Grossmont for the 70th.
San Diego ended a nine-game, non winning streak against the Cardinals with a 56-45 victory, the Cavers’ first of the season. Helix beat Grossmont for the 27th consecutive time, 57-8.
CAVERS FADE
Things ...
- 2023 Week 7: Del Norte Ties Section Record in Four-Overtime Win
Del Norte survived four overtime possessions and finally defeated Rancho Bernardo, 49-43, last week, tying a 46-44 Granite Hills victory over Helix in 2022 for the longest game ever played by a San Diego County team.
Existing rules are that each team has four downs beginning at the 25-yard line with straight football rules. Simply put, ...
- 1990 Baseball: It’s season of Foothillers, Marauders, and Eagles
Grossmont became the eighth different team since 1980 to win the San Diego Section 2-A championship. Forgotten by many, the title also was the Foothillers’ first since they claimed a larger bauble. They won the Southern Section major division crown, 5-0, over Compton in 1951.
The Foothillers also won a Southern Section minor division title in ...
- 2023 Week 6: Carlsbad-Mission Hills Headlines Avocado League Opener
The week’s schedule is loaded with potential benchmark league openers as 11 of the 18 San Diego Section loops begin play. Key games:
AVOCADO
Carlsbad (5-0), @Mission Hills (4-1).
Mission Hills leads, 4-3, since 2011 in games matching two of the section’s most successful coaches, the Grizzlies’ Chris Hauser and Carlsbad’s Thadd MacNeal…Hauser is in his 23rd season, ...
- 2023 Week 5: Can Army-Navy Do It?
The Army and Navy Academy, which has graduated future officers and gentlemen since 1910, won its fourth straight game last week, 55-0, over Francis Parker in the Coastal League opener and has not allowed a point this season, rampaging to consecutive blowouts of at least 40 points.
But it will be a huge underdog this week ...
- 2023 Week 4: Carlsbad Chips Away at Hornets’ Lead; Helix Rising
Carlsbad cut into Lincoln’s first place lead in the Union-Tribune poll for a second straight week and had 13 No. 1 votes to the Hornets’ 17.
Lincoln had 19 first-place votes two weeks ago but lost ground again despite a 54-19 win over declining state Division II-AA champion Mater Dei, while Carlsbad crowned Queen Creek Castille, ...
- 2023 Week 3: Helix Barges Into Contention
A month ago, before the games, Lincoln and Carlsbad were the likely candidates for a destination game in the Open Division playoffs, well into November.
The Hornets and Lancers have not disappointed, 6-0 combined with impressive wins against intersectional rivals.
It’s too early to rule out other contenders, but Cathedral, after an early rout of Mater Dei, ...
- 2023 Week 2: How About Helix? Next 3 Games Should Tell
After a 45-21 win at Mountain View St. Francis of the Central Coast Section the question this week is Helix back? The question last week was whether Cathedral was back. Not quite, after a 40-30 loss at L.A. Mission Hills Chaminade.
The Honor Bowl, a Sean Doyle favorite, will provide another opportunity for Doyle’s Dons this ...
- 2023 Week 1: Cathedral Takes Big Step Forward
Is Cathedral back?
The Dons, uncharacteristically uneven in 2022 despite their even 6-6 record, blasted Mater Dei, Cal-Hi Preps’ preseason state No. 34 and San Diego Section’s No. 3, 55-14, in the season opener and look for more success this week at Los Angeles West Hills Chaminade, a team coach Sean Doyle’s state Division I championship ...
- 2023 Week 0: Lincoln and Carlsbad are 1-2 Again
The San Diego Section, 63 years young, is back for its 64th season.
Lincoln and Carlsbad, which played for the Division I championship in 2022, begin play this week ranked 1 and 2 in John Maffei’s preseason Union-Tribune poll and they are close in the other major polls, Max Preps and CalPreps and Cal-Hi Sports.
Lincoln will ...
- 1940 Track: No State Meet For Contending Hilltoppers
San Diego High, which would have had four entries plus its relay team, opted not to participate in the 26th state meet at Visalia High, a 300-mile jaunt from the Border city.
The Hilltoppers were nosed out of the Southern Section championship (below) but would have been one of the teams vying for the championship and ...
- 1940 Baseball: Hilltoppers to CIF: Thanks, But No Thanks
San Diego High gave Southern Section commissioner Seth Van Patten the figurative middle-finger salute when the Hillers were denied permission to play Delano High of the Central Section for a mythical state championship.
After being told San Diego would meet Long Beach Wilson in a one-game Southern Section playoff, San Diego players voted not to participate, ...
- 1971 Track: Clairemont’s Dale Fleet Sets State Record in Two-Mile Run
San Diego Section entries totaled only a combined 10 points in the state meet, but they set one individual state meet record and provided some excellence not seen on the scoreboard.
Clairemont’s Dale Fleet set a state meet record of 8:53.8 in the two-mile run and broke Tim Danielson’s County record of 8:55.7. Helix’ Ed Mendoza ...
- 1971 Baseball: Down and Up Kearny Overcame Setbacks
A stunning Eastern League wipeout saw Crawford, Patrick Henry, and St. Augustine knocked out of the playoffs by the quarterfinals round.
No team from the that circuit had failed to advance to the semifinals in the San Diego Section’s first 10 seasons, 1961-70, and had won 8 of 10 championships.
Kearny, from the Western League, emerged this ...
- 1939 Baseball: Another Title for Mike Morrow and Hilltoppers
San Diego’s 11th CIF Southern section championship and Coach Dewey (Mike) Morrow’s sixth came at the end of a turbulent decade and on the eve of World War II.
The Great Depression that started in 1929 raged through the ‘thirties and playoffs would be affected as the CIF moved forward. San Diego did not participate in ...
