All Posts – with Preview

  • 2019-20 Week 17A: San Diego Contingents Stumble in Regional
    Super Tuesday was essentially a Super Wipeout for San Diego Section boys teams in the first round of the State Tournament’s Southern California regional. The girls did better. The guys posted a record of 3 wins and 14 losses, the young ladies 7-8, and the overall 10-22 was in grim comparison to the 16-14 record in ...
  • 2019-20 Week 17: Road to State Championships Starts Here
    No teams in the boys’ Open Division looks like a break for San Diego Section teams, which were assigned some  favorable seeds in other divisions of first-round play that gets under way in the Southern California regional tournament Tuesday night. Two girls teams are seeded No. 1 and have byes to the quarterfinals. Open Division La ...
  • 1990-91: And the Scoreboard Blinked…and Blinked.
    The three-point basket, which became a part of the game in 1986, continued to be refined and exploited and teams’ scoring points in the 80’s and 90’s was common.  One-hundred-point totals were at a record pace. Valhalla’s Mark Dillon set a state record with 145 three-pointers and tied the state record with 12 treys in a ...
  • 1990-91: Christian Girls Almost Go All the Way.
    Christian star Tiffany Stutz played with a re-injured ankle in the state championship game after the underdogs from El Cajon mounted a late-season run through the San Diego Section and state Division V playoffs. Erik Meek of San Pasqual, headed for Duke University, averaged  30.18 points, a figure topped only by Tony Clark’s 30.3 in 1987-88 ...
  • 2019-20 Week 16: Cathedral, La Jolla Country Day Win Open Titles
    CHAMPIONSHIPS SEEDS IN ITALICS OPEN BOYS Cathedral was hot. The No. 1-seed Dons had won 14 of their last 16, but No. 2 Torrey Pines was hotter, on a 15-game winning streak. It wasn’t about heat; it was defense. The Dons, who won the Division I championship in 2018-19,  trailed, 28-25, at halftime but broke to a 39-34 lead in ...
  • 2019-20 Weeks 11-18: Cathedral Wins Final Newspaper Poll
    This is the first The San Diego Union-Tribune Top 10 we’ve posted in several weeks and is final for the 2019-20 season, including San Diego Section playoffs. *Completion of San Diego Section teams’ participation in the CIF state tournament are included in the final ratings  by Max Preps and Cal-Hi Sports. First-place votes in parenthesis. *Well-regarded teams not ...
  • 2019-20 Week 15: Favored Teams win 78% as San Diego Section Playoffs Move Into Semifinals
    Shockers, upsets, and surprises (maybe) shook up the first week of the San Diego Section playoffs, which resume Feb. 25 following 120 games in boys and girls first- round and quarterfinals competition. Twenty-seven games have been won by teams with less attractive (higher) seeds. Favorites won 93 games, a 77.5 winning percentage, according to results from ...
  • 2019-20 Week 14: Just 27 of 133 Can Claim League Superiority
    What’s in a league championship? Especially in this era of power ratings and strengths of schedules and what they mean in playoff pairings and postseason division assignments, which will be announced today? A league title represents essentially just bragging rights, but ask the players and coaches who achieved it and what they think when banners are hoisted ...
  • 1989-90 I: Coaching Icons Trepanier, Saner Step Down
    Two legendary mentors pulled the pin. Point Loma’s Lee Trepanier, whose Pointers teams dominated the state and earned national recognition throughout the decade, retired after 14 seasons, with a 331-56 record and .855 winning percentage. Neville Saner, whose Poway teams won four Division I titles in his seven seasons, retired after posting a 139-42 (.768) record. CLARK WINNER ...
  • 1989-90 II: Sports Arena Out, Golden Hall In
    For the first time in 14 years the San Diego Section championship games did not take place in the Sports Arena (13,700 capacity) on Midway Drive or Peterson Gymnasium (3,668 capacity) on the San Diego State campus. The championships were played at Golden Hall, a downtown facility of 3,200 seats that was more known as a ...
  • 2019-20 Week 11: San Ysidro Cougars Continue to Run
    San Ysidro is making noise again. Not enough to earn a top 10 ranking, but the Cougars have won five in a row and scored more than 100 points for the fifth time this season, including a post-poll vote,106-30 victory over Castle Park last night. The fall of the Trojans marked the third time in the ...
  • 1988-89: Kane Raised Cavers From Depths
    As Steve Brand of The San Diego Union wrote, Dennis Kane began preparing the day after San Diego High concluded the 1986-87 season.  The coach moved to quickly put the worst year in school history in the Cavers’ rear view mirror. San Diego had bottomed out at 0-20 in Kane’s first season. No Cavers squad, dating to ...
  • 1988-89: Valhalla’s Clark Stars in Basketball, Makes Mark in Baseball
    Tony Clark, a 6-foot, 7-inch junior at Valhalla High, set a San Diego Section record with a 30.3 scoring average and had 55 points in one game. Clark’s season seemingly could lead to future honors in college basketball, or even the NBA. Clark did play professionally, but it was in baseball and, after a 15-season career on ...
  • 2019-20 Week 10: Finally, It’s All About League Play
    Twas a time when San Diego Section teams finished their tournament and intersectional obligations as the calender moved to the New Year and league play began, determining the playoffs picture. That’s not the case today as teams continue to play nonleague games against out-of- the-area competition and make quick, weekend trips for so-called “classics.” St. Augustine still ...
  • 2019-20 Week 9: St. Augustine Still Leads
    Through games of Monday, Jan. 13. Union-Tribune Points Last Week Max Preps Cal-Hi Sports 1. St. Augustine (13) 16-3 130 1 13 14 2. Foothills Christian 12-5 117 2 29 Bubble 3. Cathedral Catholic 13-5 103 3 35 Bubble 4. Torrey Pines 13-4 90 4 83 NR 5. Mater Dei 12-3 76 5 73 NR 6. Poway 15-4 67 6 38 NR 7. Santa Fe Christian 13-5 49 7 72 NR 8. Christian 15-3 31 8 51 NR 9. Francis Parker 12-2 21 NR 50 NR 10. Carlsbad 12-5 8 NR 134 NR Others receiving votes: 11. Mission Hills (14-4, 7 points) 11. San Diego (12-5, 7), 13. San Marcos (11-3, 3), 14. Bonita Vista (13-4, 2), 14. Otay Ranch (15-3. 2), 16. San Ysidro (9-8, 1), 16. Helix (12-5, ...
  • 1987-88:  Postseason Change Means All Teams Invited
    Playoffs this year moved toward an Indiana model, used by that state’s schools for decades and which was immortalized in the basketball movie/drama “Hoosiers”, starring Gene Hackman and Helix graduate Dennis Hopper in 1986. The Indiana way meant that all teams were eligible, in one division, including many with hopeless records.  The San Diego Section positioned ...
  • 1987-88: Some Say, “We Love the Trey!”
    The “3”  game arrived in San Diego Section gymnasiums this season. The three-point basket, which  revolutionized basketball, was first used on an experimental basis at colleges in the East as far back as 1945 and was adopted by the  fledgling American Basketball Association in 1967-68. The NBA got with the program in 1979-80,  followed by international ruling ...
  • 1987-88: A Couple Hornets Come Close in State Championships.
    One San Diego County team, Lincoln, made it to a state championship final, but there were two Hornets at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.  Lincoln’s were joined by the Hornets of Calipatria, 140 miles to the East in Imperial County and since 1980 members of the San Diego Section. Scores and some recollections from the longest-ever playoff ...
  • 2019-20 Week 8: St. Augustine Separates, For Now
    “We need a rest,” St. Augustine coach Mike Haupt was heard to utter after the Saints had played in three late November and mid-December tournaments and this was before the Torrey Pines Tipoff, one of the great events in the country. The Saints (15-3) reached the New Year with 18 games already under their belts, league ...
  • 2020:  San Diego Squad Part of No. 3 All-Time College Team
    As the year ended last week USA Today listed its best 150 teams in the 150-year history of collegiate football. Standing third behind the 1943 and 1945 Army squads, was the University of California “Wonder Team” of 1920. No less than seven players from the national champion, 12-0 San Diego High Hilltoppers of 1916 played for that ...