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  • 1980-81: Twenty-Six Seconds Took Five Minutes
    Referees’ whistles echoed throughout the Bonita Vista gymnasium. From a 1/14/81 account of a Metropolitan League game by Linda Murphy of The San Diego Union: Seven-foot, one-inch Bonita Vista center Larry Irwin was fouled by Chula Vista’s Louie Romero as Irvin went up for a rebound.  Bonita Vista led, 65-61, with 26 seconds remaining in the game ...
  • 1979-80: Three-Division Realignment Okay, But…
    The San Diego Section’s decision this school year to realign into three divisions, 3-A, 2-A, 1-A, based on enrollment and breaking from the 19-year, large school-small school arrangement, seemed like a good idea, but allocation of playoff berths left some good teams holding a bag of basketballs. The 3-A group included teams from the Eastern, Palomar, ...
  • 1978-79: L.A. Teams Still Kings, But So is Kearny
    The best of San Diego almost always does not measure up to the best of Southern California. It’s the law of geography and population. There were a little less than 2 million persons in the County this year, compared with more than 8 million in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and most of Los Angeles County, which comprise ...
  • 1977-78: Disputed Call Ends Nash’s Great Career
    Gordon Nash retired, taking with him a legacy of great teams and great players, and a sour finish. Nash’s coaching record of 259 wins against 69 losses for a won-loss of .790 was forged over 11 seasons in which Helix won two San Diego Section championships, appeared in five title games, was runner-up three times, and ...
  • 2019 Track Week 13: Five Lead State Marks as Season Comes to Close
    It was perhaps the finest track-and-field season in San Diego Section history. There not only were a record seven gold medal winners (compared to five in 1974) in last week’s state championships in Clovis but area thinclads also had state best performances in five boys and girls events. Kenon Christon was No. 1, not only in medals ...
  • 2019 Week 12: Christon Leads Terrific Section Performance in 101st State Track Meet
    It wasn’t just Kenan Christon’s powerful sweep in the 100 and 200 meters.  San Diego Section athletes earned an unprecedented 7 gold medals in the 101st state track finals at Clovis Buchanan High. –Christon equaled the 100-meter meet record of :10.30, set  by Riley Washington of San Diego Southwest in 1992, and roared down the stretch ...
  • 2019 Week 12: 101st State Track Trials
    Twenty-five San Diego Section entries qualified in 22 events for tonight’s 101st state track finals at Clovis Buchanan High. 12 boys advanced in 9 events and 11 girls in 11 events plus two relay teams. Madison’s Kenon Christon will attempt to become the section’s first winner in the 100 sionce 1993 and the first double winner ...
  • 2019 Week 11: Clovis Awaits San Diego’s Best
    The San Diego Section qualified more than 100 boys and girls athletes for the Friday-Saturday, 101st state track championships at Clovis Buchanan High. The top three finishers in the San Diego Section meet last week and others who met the state qualifying standard earned the 340-mile trip to the Fresno suburb. Coronado’s Alysha Hickey will defend the ...
  • 1941: Hillers Can’t Get Over Final Hurdle
    Those pesky uprights. San Diego High’s presumed run to a state championship was blindsided when Ed Pohl, leading as he approached the final obstacle in the 220-yard hurdles, slammed into a 30-inch barrier at San Jose State’s Spartan Stadium. Pohl stumbled and tried to recover but tripped across the rail separating the field from the track, fell ...
  • 2019 Week 10: More Sprint Explosions by Kenan Christon
    Kenan Christon sat still and endured three false starts in the 100 meters, cautiously came out of his starting blocks on the field’s fourth attempt, and still smoked a wind-assisted:10.26 in the San Diego Section trials last week at Mt. Carmel. Christon continued his monster, late-season run later in the afternoon by taking the national lead ...
  • 1976-77: Madison Welcomed the Traveling Lillys
    The arrival of San Diego County’s first 30-points-a-game scorer this year was via a curious journey, from Iceland to Pacific Beach, to Linda Vista, and to North San Diego, where Marshall and Mitchell Lilly landed at Madison High. The twins, who spent the 1974-75 school year in the near-Arctic Circle country (see 1975-76: Patrick Henry, University ...
  • 2019 Week 8: On to the San Diego Section Trials
    San Diego Section seasonal bests were recorded in four events, 2 each in girls and boys, as the 16 leagues participated in their championships last week. Scripps Ranch’s Jaymie Rustkovich logged a wind-aided 24.41 200 and ran a leg on the the Falcons’ 4×400 relay team, anchored by Brianna Sproles, daughter of Darren, the popular former ...
  • 1975-76: Patrick Henry, University Played and Played, and…
    —Patrick Henry and University struggled through a twilight zone of 8 overtimes in a season that had at least 24 games that went beyond regulation, including a four-overtime contest, a three-overtime joust, and three of two overtimes. —Grossmont League bosses were overruled after they socked Valhalla with 16 league losses, before it played a game. —Chula Vista ...
  • 2019 Week 7: Blazing Christon Starts Run to State Meet
    The Countdown to Clovis begins this week as 16 San Diego Section leagues move through trials and finals with an eye on the state championships May 24-25 at Buchanan High in the Fresno suburb, where competition will be as hot as the weather, guaranteed to offer temperatures close to or at 100 degrees. At the moment ...
  • 2019 Week 6: Christon Sizzles at ‘Sac
    Madison’s Kenan Christon blasted the San Diego Section 200-meter sprint record, vaulted to No. 1 in California, and into the top 10 in the U.S. The USC-bound senior lit up the El Camino College track in the 61st Mt. San Antonio Invitational, covering the distance in :20.90 and bettering the section record of :20.98, set in ...
  • 1973-74: All-Time and this Season’s Scoring Leaders
    Dave Moore topped with a 51-point game, but Patrick Henry’s Mark Fitzner had the most points and held off “Score” Moore for highest average among players from large schools. The breezy sobriquet for Moore, courtesy of Bill Finley of the Evening Tribune, fit the San Marcos senior, who scored 594 points in 27 games for a ...
  • 2019 Week 5: Mt. Sac Up After Valley Center and Cerveny Invites
    The Mt. San Antonio Relays, for decades hosted on campus in the community of Walnut, moved west about 30 miles to El Camino College in Inglewood a couple years ago and will headline the menu this week. Mt. Sac at one point was supposed to be the probable site of the 2020 Olympic Trials and the ...
  • 1973-74: Kearny’s Double Unbeaten Komets
    Kearny High became the second school (after Grossmont in 1971-72) in the 14-season history of the San Diego Section to win football and basketball championships in the same school year. The Komets took the Grossmont accomplishment a giant step further.  They were undefeated in both sports, football, 12-0-1, basketball, 32-0. No team has come close since. Tying it ...
  • 2019 Week 4: Fahy Fastest Ever in Section 3200
    San Diego Section runners and jumpers warmed to the competition in the Arcadia Invitational, turning in season highs in five girls events and three boys events; the young men brought the total to 9 in a City League triangular meet between Madison, Clairemont, and Christian. Christin Fahy was third in the 3200-meter run at Arcadia, but ...
  • 1929 Track: Willson Leads Hilltoppers To First State Championship
    “Willson, with two l’s.” Jimmy Willson had been correcting the spelling of his last name since he was in grade school but that changed when Willson’s family moved from Massachusetts and 11th grader Jimmy turned out for Coach Glenn Broderick’s track team at San Diego High. After a “Wilson“ or two, local sports writers got with the ...