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  • 1952 Track: Grossmont Shot with Mashin’s `Putters
    Jack Mashin coached football at Grossmont from 1925-47 and posted an excellent record, 125-66-19 (.644), but he became more known as an international figure in track and field. Mashin would, under auspices of the U.S. State Department, coach the first Pakistan Olympic team in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, and his decades-long success at Grossmont led to ...
  • 1963 Track: Sensational Finishes by Cavers’ Relay Team, Madison’s Hose
    Martin Pedigo, a former University of Oregon broad jumper, became the San Diego High coach and inherited a potential powerhouse. The Cavers, representative of one of the state’s great programs—184-30-2 in dual meets since 1929—were 14-7  under longtime assistant Henry Wiegand and hadn’t beaten Lincoln, their latest rival, since 1959. Wiegand deserved another year. Coincidentally, Pedigo, the ...
  • 2020-21 Girls Week 11C: Seven Tried, Two Successful
    San Diego Section teams won two of seven Southern California championship basketball games. Mater Dei defeated host Mission Hills Bishop Alemany, 56-42, in Division II-AA and Rancho Bernardo topped visiting San Pedro Mary Star of the Sea, 72-44, in D-IIIAA. The Crusaders were a No. 5 seed and Alemany No. 2.  Rancho Bernardo was a 2 seed ...
  • 2020-21 Girls Week 11 A-B: Ten of 17 Reach Semifinals
    After winning only one of seven games in the Open, I-AAA, and I-A divisions, San Diego Section entries in the Girls’ Southern California basketball playoffs rallied in the lower divisions. At least one team is assured a place in finals on Saturday.  St. Joseph, the No. 1 seed, in Division V-AAA, plays host to neighboring Fallbrook ...
  • 2020-21 Boys Week 11B: Mater Dei Sweeps Boys’ and Girls’; Torrey Pines Comes Up Short
    Memories-for-a-lifetime victories and crushing defeats summed up the pandemic-altered San Diego Section season. The big one eluded 30-1 Torrey Pines in the Open Division final, a 68-65 loss to Etiwanda, but area teams won 6 of 9 championships, a stunning accomplishment considering San Diego’s generally unsuccessful runs in Southern California postseason competition. There should be a special ...
  • 2020-21 Week 11: Final Regular Season Union-Tribune Poll
    The Union-Tribune ‘s final poll included only the regular season.  We’ve included San Diego Section and Southern California playoff results in teams’ records but the rankings do not change. RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS LAST WEEK 1. Torrey Pines 30-1 (13) 130 1 2. San Marcos 25-2 113 2 3. Cathedral 17-3 107 3 4. St. Augustine 14-7 82 4 5. El Camino 24-6 79 5 6. Santa Fe Christian 20-4 73 6 7. Carlsbad 14-10 33 8 8. Mission Hills 16-9 20 7 9. Mater Dei 18-4 19 NR 10. Coronado 24-5 18 nr Others receiving votes: Orange Glen (25-7, 17 points), San Ysidro (23-7, 8), San Diego (16-14, 7),  Mission ...
  • 2020-21 Week 11: Victory Christian, St. Joseph Favored in Girls’ Southern California Tournament
    Sa’de-Wiley Gatewood is back in the hunt. The Victory Christian coach sends her No. 1 seed against No. 4 Playa del Rey St. Bernard Thursday in a Southern California Division VI-AA semifinals game at the Knights’ Chula Vista venue. The winner will meet  the survivor of he Corcoran-Los Angeles Franklin game for the championship. Four teams are entered ...
  • 2020-21 Week 11A: Torrey Pines, 16 Other Boys Teams Seek Gold
    Seventeen teams begin one-week quests of Southern California championships and almost all eyes will be on the 29-0 Torrey Pines Falcons, seeded No. 1 in the Open Division and with a quarterfinals bye. Corona Centennial, which the Falcons defeated at home early in the season, 65-62, bypassed a chance to  turn the tables on  coach John ...
  • 2020-21 Girls Weeks 9-10: Third Time Charm for Cathedral
    Cathedral upheld the honor of No. 1 seeds and defeated No. 3 Bonita Vista, 55-49, in the Open Division and erased the memory of two losses to the Barons in the regular season. It was not a happy ride for several of the favored seeds in the girls’ San Diego Section playoffs.. Nine upsets, or surprises, took ...
  • 2020-21 Boys Weeks 9-10: Torrey Pines Still Unbeaten; props to Sage Creek
    Unbeaten and 29-0 Torrey Pines continued its march toward a place where no San Diego Section boys team has gone, winning a championship in the largest division in Southern California (the 1935-36 San Diego High team won the Southern Section title but had a loss in a 15-1 season; the 1944-45 Hoover team won the ...
  • 1963 Baseball: East County’s Helix-El Capitan Final Steals City Thunder
    The typically good baseball played in the area was augmented by another stable of outstanding players. Pro teams signed dozens  and several made it to the big leagues: Dave Duncan and Eddie Herrmann were the first two of the eventual five catchers from Crawford to reach the top.  Others included Lincoln’s Lou Marone. St. Augustine’s Bob Spence, ...
  • 2020-21 Week 7: Add ’63-64 Vikings to Undefeated Regular Season Teams.
    We owe an apology to the starting five, Charlie Buchanan, John Walters, Bill Canning, John Schroeder, and Rick Eveleth, and coach Bill Reaves. They were the major players for another team that posted an undefeated regular season, the 1963-64 La Jolla Vikings, who were 26-0. We omitted the Vikings in our post last week. Rick Eveleth, 6 foot, ...
  • 2020-21 Week 6: Games of Truth for Torrey, San Marcos
    Torrey Pines and San Marcos are on the cusp of becoming the fifth and sixth teams in San Diego County history to complete undefeated regular seasons. (Editor’s note:  Challenges and additions to this stat welcomed.) Hoover was 24-0 in the 1959-60 regular season and got to the Southern California semifinals before bowing to Anaheim, 39-34.  Mount ...
  • 2020-21 Week 5: Torrey Pines Makes Jump in State Ratings
    Torrey Pines this week ranks second in one California poll, third in another, and a unanimous  No. 1 in San Diego. John Olive , who became head coach at Torrey Pines before the 1997-98 season and whose teams have averaged 23 victories a season, commands a Falcons squad that has reached this juncture of the season ...
  • 2020-21 Week 4: Torrey Pines’ Run Now at 19 in Row
    Coach John Olive may have passed the word around the Torrey Pines campus on Del Mar Heights Road:  Do not even think about an undefeated season. The coach would plead, “It’s too early.” Or, “We’re just thinking about our next game.” But three impressive victories last week have put the Falcons at 19-0, with a No. 2 ...
  • 1962 Track: Lincoln Gets Bad Review in State Movie
    Track and field, long a Southern California stronghold in San Diego, celebrated some powerful performances. Lincoln lost only a late-season, nonleague dual meet at Helix, 57-47, won its third straight Eastern League dual meet championship and the San Diego Section title for the second year in a row, and contended for the state team championship. The Hornets’ ...
  • 1962 Baseball: Crawford Begins Dominant Decade
    Crawford was emerging as a legendary power and would appear in the San Diego Section championship game six times, winning four, by the end of the decade. The Colts’ coach was Bill Sandback, a hockey-playing Minnesota transplant who, after seeking more agreeable weather, moved west, and taught one year at Memorial Junior High before becoming the ...
  • 2020-21: Evolution of Individual Game Most Points
    The innumerable number of games and points and lack of sustained record keeping, or reporting, in earlier years make basketball a most challenging  sport when it comes to posting stats of the “most”. The table below, which begins decades after the game came to San Diego, lists an evolution of  individual high scoring for one game.  ...
  • 2020-21 Week 3: Top 3 Teams Are Combined 37-0.
    RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS LAST WEEK 1. Torrey Pines 16-0 (10) 127 1 2. Cathedral 6-0 (2) 112 2 3. San Marcos 15-0 (1) 109 3 4. Santa Fe Christian 10-2 89 4 5. Carlsbad 10-2 71 6 6. El Camino 11-3 57 5 7. St.. Augustine 6-2 53 8 8. Orange Glen 14-2 30 9 9. Mission Hills 9-4 29 7 10. Mater Dei 5-1 21 10 Others receiving votes: Coronado (11-3, 9 points),  Bonita Vista (5-3, 4). First-place votes in parenthesis..  Points awarded on scale of 10 down to 1. Poll voters:13 sportswriters, sportscasters from around San Diego County. John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune. Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoopos.com. Terry Monahan, Steve Brand, Union-Tribune correspondents. John ...
  • 2020-21 Week 2: Power is on Del Mar Heights Road*
    San Diego Section teams have been staying close to home because of the pendemic, but the season is in full swing with usual powers Cathedral and Torrey Pines almost neck and neck. San Marcos and a few others appear to be lying in the weeds. Coach John Olive’s Torrey Pines Falcons managed to get in a ...