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Ailing John Carroll, still not fully back from a late-season health scare,  wasn’t about to go hyperbolic. After all, Carroll has won 233 games  in  25 seasons at Oceanside. U-T San Diego writer Don Norcross wanted to know if the Pirates’ rally from 23 points behind at the half to a 33-30 Open Division playoff victory over ...

Props to the Open Division, which delivered the games the CIF hoped for in a terrific week of San Diego Section playoffs. But Oceanside’s stunning comeback, which ousted Eastlake, 33-30, and Mission Hills’ grinding, 24-21 win over Helix were just part of  competitive, late November action. And at most venues there was the accompaniment of a calendar ...

The seeding panel of mostly former coaches did its job. There were almost no upsets in any of the six rounds on the opening Friday of the San Diego Section playoffs. None, except in the ubiquitous and maligned Division IV, where 11 seed El Centro Southwest (3-7) defeated six seed Montgomery (4-6), 10-7, and 10 seed Clairemont ...

Cal-Hi Sports honcho Mark Tennis continues to build a case for Eastlake as the San Diego Section’s No. 1 team, although the 31 members of the U-T San Diego voting panel have re-installed Oceanside as No. 1, followed by Mission Hills. Eastlake is third. Answers should be forthcoming in the Open Division playoffs, which begin tonight.  Eastlake ...

Oceanside and Mission Hills reached the end of the 10-game regular-season race in a flatfooted tie, each earning a first-place rating after they deadlocked with 276 points in the UT-San Diego poll of sportswriters and sportscasters. Coach Chris Hauser’s Grizzlies, who shocked Oceanside, 30-6, in the regular season, are the top-seeded team in the San Diego ...

We must be in an era of entitlement. How else can you explain that 64 of 97 San Diego Section teams were invited to participate in the playoffs? And 25 don’t even have winning records. Seventeen losing teams and eight with .500 records are in. They’ll vie for 6 divisional championships. Sixty of 96 teams, including seven with losing records, ...

San Diego High’s football program has bottomed out. The Cavers forfeited to Hoover on the Monday before the Friday game this week.  The reason given was that they had less than 20 players and unable to field a full squad. There was a time when that many running backs turned out for football at San Diego High. San ...

A small item in The San Diego Union revealed that the Coliseum Arena in San Diego would be dark on Sept. 24. A scheduled boxing card  was called off, because the promoter didn’t want to compete for attendance and gate receipts with the annual City Schools’ football carnival. The carnival, kickoff to the high school season, was ...

Oceanside is back on top in the U-T San Diego football poll, despite losing 30-6 to Mission Hills, the No. 2 team, a few weeks back. I voted for Oceanside.  My thoughts were as conflicted as the total points separating Nos. 1 and 2. Oceanside compiled 276 points and 12 first-place votes following its 43-0 blowout of ...

Football is fun again at Sweetwater and Hoover is traveling in style. Sweetwater whipped Castle Park, 28-7, for its fourth victory in a row and a 5-4 record.  The Red Devils had not won 4 straight since 1996 and have not been 5-4 since 1998. Hoover is a 7-game winner for only the 12th season in the ...

Oceanside became the second San Diego County team (and the first San Diego Section squad) to participate in the state playoffs, which resumed in 2006 after an 80-year hiatus. The Pirates (11-1) of coach John Carroll, who won Carroll’s fourth Section championship and Oceanside’s 10th overall, were chosen to represent the South in the Division II ...

The suddenly topsy turvy UT-San Diego football poll saw another change at the top this week after last week’s No. 1, San Pasqual, took a surprising haymaker from Rancho Buena Vista and fell , 38-36. Mission Hills, upset two weeks ago by San Pasqual, quickly filled the void.  The Grizzlies smashed Fallbrook, 61-21. Meanwhile, Oceanside is lurking. ...

Crawford rose to 8-0 and played a home game under lights. Imperial’s Royce Freeman set a San Diego Section career rushing record as the Tigers went to 8-0. San Pasqual and Ramona dropped from the ranks of the undefeated. NEW CORRAL Crawford coach Mike Wright convinced his administration and the ruling City Conference that the Colts were more suited ...

San Pasqual this week became the third North County team to occupy the number one position in the weekly UT-San Diego football poll. The Eagles surprised Mission Hills, 13-10, in overtime, knocking out the Grizzlies, who had climbed to No. 1 in Week 7 after kayoing Oceanside, which had resided in first since the preseason poll. I ...

Terry Monahan’s story in today’s UT-San Diego about the history of San Pasqual’s football jersey No. 86 jogged my memory. Eighty-six has been worn  by Eagles linebackers almost every year since 1977, but since 1983 in honor of a former player who passed away. Barry McKeever, the son of a USC all-America, wore No. 86 in 1982 ...

Mount Miguel crashed the Top 10 with a 42-21 victory over previous No. 1o El Capitan, but UT-San Diego‘s weekly rankings otherwise remained the same in the lead-up to Week 8. Except. Cathedral, which I ranked second, stayed fifth and, contrary to some other winners, did not receive more  points after a 42-3 blowout of 4-1 Scripps ...

The Hoover Cardinals could use the helping hand of Motel 6 maven Tom Bodett, voice of the signature “we’ll leave the light on for you.” Night football is out at Hoover. More’s the pity. The Cardinals became involved in a legal action with neighboring residents and a Superior Court judge unhappily issued an injunction, forcing Hoover to play ...

Mission Hills, 5-0 and rested from a week off, rose from 19th to 16th in Cal-Hi Sports‘ weekly poll and jumped from ninth to seventh in the South Division I Bowl Rankings. The improvement is partly because of the victory over Oceanside before last week’s bye and some stumbles by other clubs in the state.  The ...

There was no change from 1-10 in the UT-San Diego’s Top 10 as several teams enjoyed a Week 6 bye. San Diego Section teams begin the turn for home and the postseason with league play beginning this week. Sometimes it pays to take that busman’s holiday. No. 2 San Pasqual picked up seven votes despite its bye and ...

Birt Slater Field on the Kearny High campus is going to be dug up and a new field will be in place by 2014. The Komets will play their remaining three, 2013 home games at Madison, versus Clairemont, Point Loma, and La Jolla. In tribute to the legendary coach, who was 89 when he passed away Sept. ...