The San Diego Section’s 65^th season opens this week with the usual fare of nonleague games, intersectionals, and interstates.

Five interesting matchups:

CARLSBAD @LAKEWOOD.

Lancers coach Thadd MacNeal will return to where he had a very successful program in the Long Beach Poly-dominated, Southern Section Moore League, posting a 41-19 record from 2006-10, including 21-4 in his last two seasons.

Why leave Lakewood?

MacNeal is a 1989 Carlsbad graduate. He replaced the retiring Bob McAllister in 2011.  The Lancers have done well on MacNeal’s watch, 96-48 overall and 46-6 since 2019.

LONG BEACH ST. ANTHONY @MOUNT MIGUEL

The Saints have not met a San Diego team since 2000, when Marian (renamed Mater Dei in 2007) visited and won, 35-6.

St. Anthony, which opened in 1920, is 7-5 vs. local teams, beginning with a 13-6 loss to St. Augustine in 1935. The two Saints were aligned in the Southland Catholic League from 1945-50.

The St. Anthony Saints beat San Diego High, 20-12, in the first round of the 1948 playoffs as CIF player-of-the-year and future NFL running back Johnny Olszewski rushed for 187 yards and two touchdowns.

Brandon Arrington, who transferred from Helix in time last year to become a double sprint winner in the state track meet, is on the Matadors’ squad.

Torrey Pines vs. Bethlehem Freedom, Pennsylvania, @Staten Island, N.Y., Tottenville.

Freedom is the “home” team, 75 miles from its campus north of Philadelphia.

SAN LUIS OBISPO MISSION PREP @SANTA FE CHRISTIAN

San Diego teams have played Central Coast Section squads in the state playoffs — Scripps Ranch 31, Santa Clara Wilcox 28, in 2021—and Helix won a regular-season game, 45-21, at Mountain View St. Francis in 2023, and plays the Lancers here in Week 2.

The Royals and Eagles are scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. Friday, meaning Mission Prep, facing a 305-mile trip, likely would leave on Thursday and guessing could stick around Saturday and go to the Zoo… catch the pandas!

‘Prep, with lineage back to 1875, will face one of the San Diego Section’s most successful schools. Eagles coach Jon Wallace embarks on his 13^th season in Solana Beach and is 81-41 (.664).

LAS VEGAS ARBOR VIEW, @LINCOLN

The Aggies were only 4-6 in ’23 but are ranked third in the Nevada preseason poll, behind Bishop Gorman and Henderson Liberty.

Lincoln is Cal-Hi Sports’ and Max Preps’ state-ranked No. 9 team and quarterback Akili Smith, Jr., son of the former Hornet and NFL veteran, have become a power under coach David Dunn, 94-58-1 since 2011.

COACHING CAROUSEL

LEAGUE CHANGES

Dallas Evans , who passed away recently, was a star end on the 1953 San Diego High football  team, a sub 49-second quarter-miler at San Diego State, and a coach and teacher more  than 30 years in the South Bay area.

Dallas earned all-City Prep League honors on the 7-3 San Diego team that won the CPL championship.  Evans scored six touchdowns, tied for third on the team in scoring  to Horace Tucker’s 40, Ermon Johnson’s 38, and with Floyd Robinson’s 36.

The Hillers lost to Anaheim, 21-7, in the 1953 Southern Section playoffs.

The jovial Evans was head track coach at St. Augustine High in 1962, when the Saints featured James Moore, one of the San Diego Section’s top 440 runners, with a best time of :49.5.

Dallas coached many years with Ed Teagle at Mar Vista, which dominated Metropolitan League dual meet teams.

Brother Steve Evans, was a star on the Hoover basketball and baseball teams from 1955-57.

Lincoln and Cathedral, traditional big shots in the Western League and San Diego Section, appear to be trying to outdo each other.

The Hornets of coach David Dunn, 24-2 over the last two seasons, are signed to play road games at Long Beach Poly, Sacramento Grant, and Coronado High of Henderson, Nevada, plus home games against San Juan Capistrano JSerra, Los Alamitos, and Las Vegas Arbor View.

It is a powerful nonleague gauntlet Lincoln will try to get through before the Hornets take on Western League rivals Cathedral, Madison, St. Augustine, and Point Loma, which is moving over from the Eastern League.

Cathedral, 12-2 and a state 1-AA Division champion in 2021, is coming off 6-6 and 4-8 seasons in 2022 and ’23.  The Dons, 227-102-0 (.690) since 1996 under head coach Sean Doyle, have scheduled nonleague encounters with San Diego Section thoroughbreds Granite Hills, Helix, and Mater Dei.

Cathedral also booked intersectional challenges with L.A. Mission Hills Chaminade, San Francisco St. Ignatius (alma mater of San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts), and Phoenix Mountain Pointe, and then jumps into the Western League.

Lincoln and Cathedral, plus about 95 percent of the 96 other football-playing schools’ schedules,  can be found here.  Additions, corrections, or deletions will be noted as the teams prepare for Week 1 Aug. 23.

Webmaster Henrik Jonson also is accumulating Flag Football schedules.

The last of John Maffei’s The San Diego Union weekly poll voting was at conclusion of the San Diego Section playoffs. Cal-Hi Sports and Cal Preps.com rankings included all games in the  CIF state postseason.  Max Preps’ entries were inclusive of San Diego Section playoffs.

Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. *First-place votes. NR–Not ranked.
Last entries in columns are previous rankings; bold entry entry is latest.
Max Preps‘ and Cal-Hi Sports‘ are state rankings.

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES
Mount Miguel (12-2, 32 points), La Jolla Country Day (11-3, 23), Torrey Pines (7-4, 17), Mater Dei (6-4, 6), La Costa Canyon (5-6, 3), La Jolla (103, 3), Cathedral (4-8, 2), Sweetwater (8-7, 1).

VOTING PANEL

Twenty-nine sportswriters, sportscasters, administrators from San Diego County, plus Max Preps.com.

• John Maffei (San Diego Union-Tribune).
• Don Norcross, Steve Brand, Rick Hoff, Eric Williams, Thomas Gutierrez , Freelance contributors.
• Brandon Stone, Allison Edmonds, John Carroll (KUSI, Channel 51).
• Rick Smith (partletonsports.com).
• Adam Paul (EastCountySports.com).
• Bodie DeSilva (ScorebookLive.com). 
• John Kentera, Braden Suprenant (97.3-FM The Fan).
• Steve (Biff) Dolan (Mountain Country 107.9-FM). 
• Christian Pedersen (San Diego Sports Association).
• Troy Hirsch, Nic Pollino (Fox 5 San Diego). 
• Joe Heinz, Todd Cassen, Ron Marquez (CIF San Diego Section).
• Mike Dolan, Rex Johnson, Bruce Ward (CIF Advisory Committee).
• Joe Evangelist (San Diego Coaching Legends Committee).
• Will Torrez (Valley Sports Network).
• Tom Ronco  (Imperial Valley Press).
• Raymond Brown  (SDfootball.net).
• Tom Helmantoler (Southern Conference Advisor).
• Max Preps.

SirDarius Autry, a 160-pound junior running back, wide receiver, and cornerback, became the 37th player in County history to score at least 200 points in a season.

“Sir” Autry also became the third running back to finish first in the County in the Hoover Cardinals’ 94-season history, according to available statistics from newspapers and Max Preps research.

Autry matched the total of Terry Rodgers of Sweetwater, the first to score 200, hitting that number in 1985.

Hoover’s Roy Engle and Oceanside’s Bobby Betoncini led County scorers with 57 points each in 1935 and the Cardinals’ Eddie Crain scored 25 points in the abbreviated, 1943 wartime campaign.

Autry bettered the reported school one-season record of 132 points by Deontray Johnson in 2008.   Bob Miller in 1947, Terrell Williams in 2000, and Damonte Holiday in 2013 each had 126.

SOME HIGH SCORERS, PRE-SAN DIEGO SECTION

(Game stats haven’t always been reported or published and individual records haven’t always been accurate .

*Includes field goal.

Lists of Top Annual Scorers and All-Time Individual Scorers.

The Coach 100 Club welcomed a new member in 2023 and the 200 club could add another in 2024.

Mater Dei coach John Joyner, who announced he was stepping down at conclusion of the season, became the 49^th to win at least 100 games, finishing the season with an all-time record of 104-69, .601 and state Division II-A championship in 2022.

Chris Hauser ended his 15^th season at Mission Hills with a record of 198-86-2, .686, stands 11^th all-time, and could continue to travel with the elite.

BENNIE IN SIGHT

Among 200-game winners, Cathedral’s Sean Doyle could make the biggest jump in 2024.

Win eight games and Doyle (231-110-0, .677) could move past Bennie Edens (238) into fourth place.

Ron Hamamoto (236-188-4, .556), who coached Doyle at earlier-named University and was succeeded by Doyle at Uni in 1996, is also likely to move past Edens.

Others who gained in 2023:

Ramona’s Damon Baldwin is 32^nd with 128 victories, up from 34^th.  Nine wins in 2024 would leapfrog Baldwin over seven others into a tie at 137 with Steve Sutton.

Point Loma’s Joel Allen succeeded Baldwin at No. 35 with 122 victories before announcing his retirement at the end of the season.

El Capitan’s Ron Burner is 40^th with 111 wins after starting the season in a tie for 43^th with Morse’s Tracy McNair, whose four victories in ’22 moved McNair to 44^th.

100 AWAITING OTHERS

At least four coaches, Tony Corley of San Pasqual; Thadd MacNeal of Carlsbad; David Dunn of Lincoln, and Kellan Cobbs of Granite Hills are within six victories of the Century mark.

Corley has 97 wins, MacNeal 96, Dunn 94, and Cobbs 93.  La Costa Canyon’s Sean Sovacool is next with 89.

The full Coach 100 Club list is here.