All Posts – with Preview

  • 1993-94: Lincoln Boys, Christian Girls Dominate D-IV
    Strength in the lower divisions, boys’ and girls’, continued to be the signature of San Diego Section teams. The Christian girls followed the sensational mid-1980s stretch of four state championships by Point Loma by reaching the state Division IV championship game for the fourth season in a row. Lincoln boys won the state D-IV title and were ...
  • 2020 Weeks 4-6: Strangest Season is a Wrap
    The world pandemic almost  brought the San Diego Section to its knees, but the governing athletic body survived, thanks to determined coaches, players, and administrators.                      Thirteen of the 96 schools fielding varsity teams were able to play a maximum six games, as mandated by the ...
  • 2020 Week 5: Cathedral at Top of Final Poll
    The San Diego Union-Tribune‘s final football poll in shortened season. First place votes in parenthesis.  Points on scale of 10 points to 1 point. RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS PREVIOUS 1. Cathedral 5-0 170 1 2. Carlsbad 5-0 153 2 3. Mission Hills 5-0 136 3 4. Lincoln 4-1 105 7 5. La Jolla 5-0 102 6 6. Eastlake 4-0 57 9 7. Granite Hills 5-1 54 5 8. Ramona 5-0 50 8 9. Poway 5-0 43 NR 10. St. Augustine 2-2 36 4 Others receiving votes:  Torrey Pines (3-3, 19 points), Otay Ranch (3-1), Sweetwater (5-0, 3 each), Mater Dei (4-2, 2), El Centro Central (5-0, 1). Voting panel:  Seventeen sportswriters and ...
  • 1960: San Diego’s Final Act in Southern Section: Baseball, Track and Field.
    A couple newcomers led the shouting in a last hurrah for San Diego. Area schools were preparing to leave the Southern Section after 47 years and embark on their own, 31 institutions forming the San Diego Section in the next school year. Clairemont and El Capitan, numbers 30 and 31, ignored usually unsuccessful results for start-up programs. Clairemont’s ...
  • 1992-93: Playoffs Now Have 5 Divisions
    CIF bosses approved a fifth division for playoffs. “Those who worried that five playoff divisions would take some of the glitter off league races needed to be in the stands at Christian and San Diego High this past weekend,” wrote Steve Brand before the start of the postseason. “When Christian beat Our Lady of Peace there was ...
  • 2020 Week 2: Tough Going at Point Loma
    Point Loma canceled its season, hours after the story below was published. Joel Allen, who quarterbacked Christian to a Division IV championship in 2002 and created a brilliant coaching record at The Bishop’s (11 seasons, 100-39-1 record, .739 winning percentage) had stepped down. Allen was going to go into business with his brother and was stepping back, ...
  • 2020 Week 3: Cathedral No. 1 Here, No. 7 in California
    Comparisons are building for Cathedral. The Dons are a unanimous No. 1 in The San Diego-Union-Tribune poll and seventh for the second week in a row in the respected Cal-Hi Sports ratings. At No. 7, Cathedral is at its highest level in the Cal-Hi eye test rankings since the 2016 club finished fifth.  Coach Sean Doyle’s team ...
  • 2020: Active coaches with 50 or more wins through 2019
    Football season is just beyond the horizon in this chaotic year, but  many coaches are actively preparing for a January start (in the usual basketball season), including those who have reached 50 victories in their San Diego Section football careers. Earlier postings listed the Top 10 active football coaches in victories, and the all-time Top 27 ...
  • 2020: Bill Rainey, Crawford Football Star and CIF Track Champ
    Bill Rainey left with a couple championships when he graduated from Crawford High in 1962 and went on to the University of Southern California. Rainey, who passed away recently at his home in Seattle, was the San Diego Section football player of the year in 1961 and also was the first San Diego Section track-and-field champion ...
  • 1981: Population=New Leagues+New Names+More Games
    The CIF board of managers passed a resolution at the end of the 1980-81 school year that resulted in the dividing of three leagues and the board-approved addition of a 10th regular-season game. Cause and effect was County population, which had grown to 1.8 million in the 1980 census, with almost 1 million in the city. –The 10-team ...
  • 2020: Winningest Active Coaches, Through 2019
    Will there be a season? Even a truncated season with no playoffs and play restricted to league games will be cause for rejoicing, it says here. The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision July 20 on whether there will be games in the fall. Meanwhile, coaches and players wait. Active top 10 in career victories: NAME YEARS W-L-T PCT Rob Gilster 1989-2019 (31) 230-129-5 .639 Ron ...
  • 2020: Veteran Coaches Move On, Others Move Up
    Address changes and new names represent most of the news-making activity these days in the San Diego Section as it pushes on to a critical date and still looking for light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. The state CIF is scheduled to make a decision later in July on the 2020 future of football ...
  • 1951 Baseball & Track: Two Sports, Almost Two Champions
    Grossmont was the  champion in baseball.  San Diego High was the champion in track and field…for three days. San Diego lost a title after a review of film from the 440-yard race in the Southern Section finals revealed that Hal Espy had finished fifth and not fourth, taking away a point from the Cavemen and awarding ...
  • 1915-2020: Boys State Track and Field Champions
    They didn’t necessarily post the all-time San Diego County best in their event, or even their best, but 62 individuals have won 80 state track championships since the first meet in 1915. Pole Vaulter Bill Miller of San Diego, jumper Dokie Wiliams of El Camino, and weight specialist Darius Savage of Morse stand out as triple ...
  • 1974-2020:  Girls State Track and Field Champions
    It’s the time of year that University City’s Katrina Wright, Poway’s Ashley Callahan, and  members of Scripps Ranch’s 4×100 relay squad should be preparing to defend their San Diego Section championships Saturday and move on to the 102nd state track meet at Clovis next week. Like the prom and traditional graduation, they sadly won’t have the ...
  • 1929: Coronado Steals Some Hilltoppers Thunder
    San Diego High was on its fifth head coach in the last three seasons and found itself sharing  headlines for the first time with a team not from Long Beach. Coronado High, across San Diego Bay, was flexing muscles. Controversy would follow. John Perry left coaching after the 1926 season and was succeeded by John Hobbs in 1927 ...
  • 1940: Firestorm Over Oceanside Transfers
    Voices were raised, fists shook, and fingers pointed in a  conference room  at  the downtown YMCA on Oct. 24 in  a dustup over eligibility involving players who notoriously became  known as the “Adopted Football Stars.” Metropolitan League principals and coaches held a special meeting to consider the status of two “sensational Oceanside athletes,” Jimmy Bender and Bill ...
  • 1991-92: Legendary Pointers Coach Lee Trepanier Passes
    The basketball community lost a legend in August when Lee Trepanier, the retired, 56-year-old Point Loma coach, died in his sleep August 2, 1991. Trepanier, 56, had been battling stomach and esophagus cancer for two years. Trepanier learned of his cancer in August, 1989, but coached and taught math through the school year and retired as coach ...
  • 1991-92: “Indiana” Playoff System in Place This Season
    After restricting  playoff Divisions I and II to 16-team brackets the last two seasons, the San Diego Section board of managers went back to the ”Indiana” model of the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons in which all San Diego Section teams playing basketball were eligible for the postseason play. “I think I was one of the few ...
  • 2019-20 Week 18: La Jolla Country Day, Cathedral, Madison Girls Still Standing
    La Jolla Country Day and Cathedral are where they’re supposed to be, according to the seeds.  Madison is a welcome surprise. That’s the state of San Diego Section basketball today as the section’s final three go into tonight’s Southern California regional finals. The girls saved the day after the boys went out early, with a thud, despite ...