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San Diego had two teams in the Southern California finals and another poised to advance, but neither could get over the hurdle. Three losses by the area’s best, based on enrollment size, made for a  bitterly disappointing end to a difficult and unprecedented season, made uneven and often unimportant by the invasion of a virus known ...

A silent killer loomed. Discovered in February in a Southern China province, a virus that  became known as the Asian Flu hit area teams with full force several months later. The germ spread to Singapore, then was transported by U.S. Naval personnel, reaching the shores of the Pacific Coast in June. The virus spread across the country in the ...

Polls are great, but what do they mean come playoff time? First things first: Cathedral hung on to first place in the UT-San Diego basketball poll, but for the first time since the 2013 calendar the Dons were not  unanimous choices. Cathedral received 8 first-place votes after an uneven week in which it was surprised by Army-Navy 67-61 ...

The Handyman set aside his tools when one job was finished and was preparing to use them in another. Gene Edwards’s 29-year run as head coach at La Jolla ended with a 27-0 victory over Clairemont. He was going to continue working for the school in a role best described as “facilities fixer-upper.” Gene had accepted a position ...

January, 1958,  was  special  for Tom Shaules, for St. Augustine High, and for basketball in San Diego. That wintry month annually signals the anniversary of Shaules’  epic run through the City Prep League. The 5-foot, 8-inch senior scored a record 60 points against Crawford, led the Saints in three games in which they scored more than ...

The UT-San Diego boys’ basketball ratings deadline came a few hours early yesterday.  Disaster struck a little later for the No. 1,  and No. 5 teams. Cathedral Catholic was stunned by No. 6 Army-Navy, 67-61, as 7-foot, 1-inch Cheikh (Chay) Ndiaye (En-die) dominated the shorter but quick Dons with a 25-rebound-22-point-10-blocked-shots performance in the Martin Luther ...

Scott Webb and Jim Arnaiz weren’t joined at the hip.  It was more like at the leg. Together three varsity seasons at Helix High, they would be inducted together into the school’s  Hall of Fame  in 2005. Webb quarterbacked the Arnaiz-coached  Highlanders to a 12-1 season and the San Diego Section AAA championship in 1982. The championship in ...

Morse’s 31-28 victory over Orange Glen in the 3-A finals ranks among the most exciting of all San Diego Section championship games. And that game followed Rancho Buena Vista’s 21-10, 2-A victory over San Pasqual, climaxing Rancho’s meteoric rise in the school’s second season. Long runs, NFL-style passing, and  two of the County’s all-time coaches, David Lay ...

The play on words certainly was not original. Roger Conlee and I referred to Bob Speidel as “The Watchman”, in reference to his last name and to the company that made millions of timepiece wrist bands. But Speidel was in the forefront of basketball coaches in the early years of the San Diego Section.  He guided Helix ...

Lincoln coach Vic Player, on his 100th career victory: “It’s wonderful to reach a milestone and be considered among the elite coaches in San Diego County.  It’s great to be up there with coaches I admired when I was young and first came to San Diego from Chicago, people like Duane Maley (San Diego), Bennie Edens ...

After five weeks of nonleague games and tournaments in far-flung locations, San Diego Section basketball teams begin the run to the playoffs in earnest this week. Cathedral emerged as the frontrunner in the third UT-San Diego poll with all 13 possible first-place votes.  The Dons got a head start on most other clubs when they opened ...

To Dick Haines, the arrival of Rancho Buena Vista felt like a kick in the pelvic region. Vista, where Haines had built a program of statewide respect after his appointment in 1970, was feeling the pain of no longer being the sheriff in town. A new school on the south side of the growing North County community ...

Jack Menotti, who coached Madison to an undefeated season on the field in 1972, passed away Dec. 28, 2012. Menotti, 78, also coached at Mesa College and was head coach at Ramona.  He was introduced to coaching in the 1960s by Birt Slater, the legendary Kearny High mentor. “He didn’t have a  football background but he wanted ...

Imperial’s Royce Freeman tied for 10th in scoring among California football players in 2012 with 220 points in 12 games.  Freeman tied for 75th nationally, according to MaxPreps. Madison’s Pierre Cormier scored 176 points for a tie for 34th in California and La Jolla Country Day’s Sage Burmeister was 45th with 168. Freeman and Norwalk’s Rashaad Penny ...

St. Augustine scored an impressive victory but San Diego teams lost three of four games  in the Long Beach Jordan-hosted Public-vs.-Private showcase Saturday  at Long Beach City College. The Saints defeated high-scoring Riverside JW North, 63-54.  Cathedral was beaten by Etiwanda, 60-54.  Santa Monica topped La Jolla Country Day 60-39, and Corona Santiago edged Army-Navy, 58-53. A ...

Cal-Hi Sports has spoken. Oceanside, 12-1, and San Diego Section II champion, is 15th in the newletter’s final 2012 state rankings.  The Pirates are fourth in Southern California D-II, following Gardena Serra, West Hills Chaminade, and Huntington Beach Edison. Other San Diego Section entries were far down the list. In D-II Poway (10-3) is 41st overall and ninth in the ...

Royce Freeman’s touchdowns are as common as July’s 110-degree days in  the Great Imperial Valley. The 6-foot, 1-inch, 215-pound junior continued to make history this season at Imperial High, whose football lineage dates to 1942 and whose  list of graduates goes all the way back to 1908. Freeman led the Tigers to a 9-3 record and won the San Diego Section scoring championship ...

Lincoln remained first in the second UT-San Diego basketball poll despite losing in the Drew Gooden Showcase in El Cerrito Saturday night. San Jose Mitty, defending state champion in Division II, defeated the Hornets 71-60 in the event named for Milwaukee Bucks NBA player Gooden, who starred at El Cerrito High, near Oakland. It was the end of a grueling trip for the Hornets, ...

Down 21-0, Madison battled back to defeat Kentfield Marin Catholic 38-35 in a dramatic State III Championship game at the Stub Hub in Carson. A 50-yard touchdown pass play, which began with the center snap going over the quarterback’s head and ended with Kareem Coles’ pass to Lee Walker, ignited a 31-point Warhawks run. After Marin’s  heralded ...

Madison and Santa Fe Christian are about to break the oldest record, often tied, in  San Diego County. The Warhawks (13-1) and Eagles (11-3)  will play their 15th games of the 2012 season when the Southern champions tee up in State Bowl Championship games against Kentfield Marin Catholic and Modesto Central Catholic,  respectively, this week at Cal State Dominguez Hills in ...