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Have team league championships lost their cachet? Shrinking newspaper space, computer and newsletter rankings, weekly “classics” and  “challenges” all appear have diminished a once-cherished achievement. Not quite. Go to a game and notice the commemorative patches and chevrons adorning the athletes’ letter jackets.  Read a coach’s resume and list of accomplishments.  Hear the reaction of players and students ...

The San Diego Section’s Big Four, listed numerically in the weekly The San Diego Union-Tribune poll below, has beaten some very good intersectional teams but not gained traction with ratings experts. Wins like Foothills Christian’s  83-74 over Sacramento Sheldon, the state’s No. 9 team according to Cal-Hi Sports and St. Augustine’s 64-49 victory over No. 12 Orange ...

Torrey Pines’ John Olive and St. Augustine’s Mike Haupt each is bearing down on career victory No. 500. Olive leads with 488 victories to Haupt’s 487. Whenever they reach 500, Oliver and Haupt will join a club that has a membersship of three in the San Diego area. El Camino’s retired Ray Johnson won 763 games. Helix’ John ...

Hoover trailed Morse, 70-50, with two minutes and 40 seconds remaining in their Eastern League game at Hoover on Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 2, 1971. Hoover won, 71-70. Let’s try that again. Hoover won, 71-70. The Cardinals scored the game’s last 21 points in arguably the most jaw-dropping finish in the history of area high school hoops. “I’m glad I’m not ...

Despite defeat, Cathedral got respect and cred in Cal-Hi Sports’  final rating of the state’s top 2018 teams. Coach Sean Doyle’s team could not take down mighty Folsom, losing, 21-14, in overtime to the Sacramento-area power that had punished San Diego clubs in the past, but Cathedral’s stout performance in the Division 1-AA final at Cerritos ...

Seasons of 9-2 and 8-4, respectively, continued to elevate Ron Hamamoto and Valley Center’s Rob Gilster in the upper strata of all-time, San Diego Section football coaches. Cathedral’s Sean Doyle is on the cusp of 200 victories. Hamamoto, who completed his 32nd season at Cathedral (nee University), Rancho Bernardo, Lincoln, and Monte Vista since 1985, completed ...

It’s been 96 years, but who’s counting when you’re having fun? San Diego High coach Charles James has reason to be enjoying the moment.  The once tradition-rich Cavers (12-2) have become relevant after a slump that spanned generations. How far the Hilltoppers have come back will continue to be measured when James’ club travels about 560 miles ...

No team could match, or come close to, the withering pace of Bill Walton and the Helix Highlanders, but individual play was at an all-time high. Eleven players, meeting a minimum of 15 games, averaged at least 23 points.  Eleven also scored more than 600 points. By comparison, just 10 players averaged 23 points or more from ...

Get your kicks on Route 101 or I-5. And be sure to pack for cool…well, maybe cold weather. That’s the forecast for 3 of the San Diego Section teams still competing in the state football playoffs. Lincoln knows that it will play next week in Division III-AA but not where after winning the Southern California regional last week, ...

Sixth and final in a series on San Diego Section state playoff matchups. VI-A After coach Rob Gilster departed to fledgling Valley Center following a 9-3 season in 1997, Orange Glen went into free fall.  They were 51-155 from 1998 until this season when fifth-season coach Jason Patterson, 1-9 in ‘17 and 15-28 overall, turned to another ...

Fifth in a series this week on San Diego Section playoff matchups. V-A San Diego coach Charles James, while returning the city’s oldest and perhaps most beloved high school to prominence, recognized tradition and greatness. After multi-generation tough sledding, which began with a gradual shift in demographics and school boundaries after Duane Maley retired following a championship in ...

Fourth in a series this week on San Diego Section teams’ playoff matchups IV-AA Morse, staggered by a late-season, 47-6 loss to St. Augustine, recharged to win its last four games and claim the Tigers’ first San Diego Section championship in 24 years. The Skyline Drive squad was rewarded with the longest trip of the Southern ...

Third in a series this week on San Diego Section teams’ Southern California playoff matchups. III-AA Lincoln rallied down the stretch with five consecutive victories and now is 10-4 after it appeared to be sliding into the abyss. Coach David Dunn explained that injuries and other problems left him without enough players to take on Cathedral in the ...

Four city schools made the final Union-Tribune Top 10, an outstanding achievement for an area, once the most powerful in the County but lately looking up. No. 1 Cathedral, 3 St. Augustine, 8 Lincoln, and 9 Morse all are in the Southern California playoffs this week, and San Diego, which accumulated a healthy amount of voting ...

Second in a series this week on San Diego Section playoff matchups: A month ago St. Augustine was an unlikely candidate for a Southern California playoff spot. The Saints were coming off a shocking, 27-24 loss to Madison in a game that had been postponed because of lightning bolts three days before, at a point in the ...

First in a series this week on San Diego Section Southern California playoff matchups. DIVISION 1-AA Two of the state’s most successful coaches will square off at Cathedral Friday night at 7:30 in this repeat of a Southern California playoff in 2016, when Cathedral defeated the Narbonne Gauchos, 35-28, en route to a 15-0 season and the ...

Bill Walton’s and Helix’ historic season, game by game, with quotes and attributions by and to Bill Center of The San Diego Union: Wednesday, Dec. 3, 1969. HELIX 74, MADISON 60. Mike Dupree scored 28 and Walton 24, off-setting a 30-point performance by Dave Smith, whose Warhawks were down, 57-36, in the third quarter. Thursday, Dec 4, 1969 HELIX 78, ...

To all our friends and visitors, we are taking the week off for Thanksgiving and will resume on Sunday, Nov. 25. Here’s to a San Diego State victory over Iowa State today. Rick Smith & Henrik Jonson.

Cathedral and Torrey Pines, 1.8 miles apart on San Diego’s Del Mar Heights Road, meet in  the region’s biggest game Saturday night at Southwestern College in Bonita, more than 30 miles away. Southwestern’s Jaguar Stadium is a terrific venue which probably could squeeze 10,000 persons into its concrete stands and is the only edifice capable of ...

Helix won its third championship in the last six seasons, but the Highlanders were just breaking ground. The best was yet to come, thanks to Bill Walton, a once-in-a-lifetime player. Meanwhile, the ball continued to swish through the net. A record twenty-three players scored at least 400 points and junior Paul Halupa of Bonita Vista averaged 28.7, ...