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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, ...

The Santana Sultans, not usually compared to the St. Louis Rams’ “Greatest Show on Earth” of a generation ago, or today’s L.A. Rams, almost short-circuited the scoreboard. Coach Tim Estes’ squad defeated La Jolla Country Day, 76-55, in an opening-round game in the Division IV playoffs. This was not eight-man football. The score represented the highest total by ...

The move away from the ubiquitous and arcane “Power Ratings” to those offered by Max Preps and Cal Preps.com, preferred by the coaches, did not evoke the usual shouts of “We wuz robbed,” but still was painful to Scripps Ranch. The Falcons, who moved to the City League from the Eastern this season, are the only ...

Torrey Pines’ Mac Bingham banged Oceanside for a San Diego Section, record-tying eight touchdowns in a 71-41 win and will lead the Falcons against La Costa Canyon this week, hoping to tie up the Avocado League championship, earn a first-round bye and top seed in the playoffs, and get the Falcons to 9-0 for the ...

The Oscar Foster era was ending and so was the greatest three-year run in San Diego High’s storied basketball history. The 6-foot, 7-inch forward never was first in scoring among San Diego Section players but set a career scoring record; led the Cavers to two championships in three seasons, established a school record with 41 points ...

Friday Night Lights turned into Friday Night Lightning. Games were shortened, postponed, or called because of torrential rain and bolts from the sky. The score at the time of mass evacuations from the field and stands stood as final for many of the games.  Some, as in the Avocado League, were declared “no contest” and would not ...

“A Good Big Man Will Always Beat a Good Little Man” Sounds like an observation from that noted philosopher Aristotle. The above doesn’t mean that Cathedral will beat Christian in a battle of Division 1 and D-3 powers, but the adage will be tested when these two teams meet for the first time Friday night at Cathedral. Christian, on ...