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  San Diego Section basketball gets its most severe test. Tonight’s Southern California regional semifinals could provide the most definitive view of how local teams stack up against some of the strongest Los Angeles-area teams. The most intriguing matchups take place about 10 miles from each other in L.A.’s  Westside beach communities. Division II No. 3 seed Hoover (31-5) ...

Six San Diego Section teams, out of the original 13, still are practicing and still preparing as the Southern California regional playoffs reach a critical semifinals round. At least one of the remaining six will be eliminated in games Tuesday, March 12, and one will qualify for the finals Saturday, March 16, at Colony High in ...

Eight of 11 San Diego Section teams won first-round games and advanced to Saturday’s Southern California regional quarterfinals.  Two others which received first-round byes will swing into action. Pairings, records ( ) and seeds ): DIVISION I 5) Inglewood (19-10)  at  4) Mission Hills (27-4). II 5) La Costa Canyon (28-5)  at  4) Westlake Village Westlake (27-5). 11) San Marcos (27-5)  ...

Ted Wilson passed away in Maui, Hawaii, last month. To hundreds of San Diegans who knew him, Teddy was your basic,  friendly, next-door neighbor who would laugh at your jokes, no matter how corny, and be Johnny-on-the-Spot in times of need. Wilson, 70,  was an outstanding athlete who came from a family of athletes. Teddy was a two-year ...

St. Augustine saved its best best game for last and earned the No. 1 rating in the final UT-San Diego boys’ basketball poll. The Saints (25-4) raced to a 16-2 lead after the opening tip against Cathedral Catholic in the San Diego Section Division III finals.  They opened the second quarter with another withering burst of ...

Cheikh  N’diaye did a double-pump fist salute to the gallery of Army-Navy students sitting behind the Warriors’ basket in Viejas Arena Saturday. It was a relieved, if rare show of emotion for N’Diaye, whose team had just survived a tense struggle with a tough Mater Dei Catholic squad in the San Diego Section IV finals. Army-Navy’s 56-50 ...

The Hoover Cardinals earned their seventh trip in 10 years to the San Diego Section finals last night, overcoming the deep and long San Marcos Knights, 68-63. Hoover (28-5) takes on La Costa Canyon (27-4) Saturday in Viejas Arena for the San Diego Section II championship.  The Cardinals defeated the Mavericks 56-55 earlier in the season. After ...

Attendance for afternoon games involving city teams was noted weekly in newspaper stories, for the first time in years.  Prep writers had gotten out of the habit. An edict that forced city schools to play home games in the afternoon resulted in some actual figures, as in counting the house, one by one. A total of 326 ...

St. Augustine students residing in “The Pit,” were off their game last night. When the score reached 79-20, the vocal cheering section in a  corner of the Saints’ tiny gymnasium began serenading visiting Mar Vista players with “This game is over!  This game is over!” The game actually was over barely a minute after it began, the ...

San Diego High was in the playoffs and San Dieguito was out. Oops, San Dieguito was  in and San Diego was out. The seeds of a legislative tempest had germinated in the spring when the San Diego Section Coordinating Council requested that the County Football Coaches’ Association prepare an analysis of the 1973 playoffs. Point Loma’s Bennie Edens, ...

Will it be once every 57 years? That’s how long it took El Cajon Valley High to win its first league basketball championship, a feat not accomplished since the school opened in the 1955-56 school year. The Braves (19-8) have yet to enter the UT-San Diego basketball poll Top 10 but  their exploits have created a stir ...

It was a question never answered, because it seldom was asked. Which was the better team? The 25-1 San Dieguito Mustangs, who won the Class A championship, or the tradition-rich, 24-3 Hoover Cardinals, who won the AA title in the 1960-61,  first season of the CIF San Diego Section . Some 50 years later a reader of ...

FIRST TEAM OFFENSE Quarterback Ezell Singleton San Diego 1958 Running Backs C. R. Roberts Oceanside 1953 Tyler Gaffney Cathedral Catholic 2008 Darrin Wagner Lincoln 1987 Receivers Patrick Rowe Lincoln 1986 Art Powell San Diego 1954 Line Jack Harrington Rancho Buena Vista 1988 Lincoln Kennedy Morse 1988 Steve Riley Castle Park 1968 Robbie Coffin Mira Mesa 1983 Steve Vieria Carlsbad 1999 Athletes Deron Johnson San Diego 1955 Charlie Powell San Diego 1950 Reggie Bush Helix 2002 Bill Fudge El Capitan 1970 FIRST TEAM DEFENSE Line Ed Imo Kearny 1973 La’Roi Glover Point Loma 1991 Tamasi Amituani Vista 1988 Arthur Smith Lincoln 1963 Linebackers Junior Seau Oceanside 1986 Pisa Tinoisamoa Vista 1998 Greg Slough Point Loma 1964 Travis Hitt Grossmont 1971 Secondary Marcus Allen Lincoln 1977 Willie Buchanon Oceanside 1968 Monte Jackson St. Augustine 1970 Eric Allen Point Loma 1982 Athletes Dave Grayson Lincoln  1956 Dokie Williams El Camino 1977 Darnay ...

With nine days until the first round of San Diego Section playoffs,  Cathedral Catholic still is No. 1. UT-San Diego’s CIF basketball ratings did not change from the previous week. One through 10, no one moved up or down, although Army-Navy cleared up a nettling mark on its record. The Warriors, 21-4 and ranked second, defeated La Jolla ...

Army-Navy, gathering steam behind the long, shot-blocking, 7-foot, 1 inch Cheikh N’Diaye and slick-shooting guard Devin Watson now is second in the UT-San Diego boys’ basketball poll. N’Diaye had six blocked shots and 20 rebounds to with his 20 points and Watson scored 29 as the Warriors eased past Santa Fe Christian 64-53 in a Coastal ...

San Diego had two teams in the Southern California finals and another poised to advance, but neither could get over the hurdle. Three losses by the area’s best, based on enrollment size, made for a  bitterly disappointing end to a difficult and unprecedented season, made uneven and often unimportant by the invasion of a virus known ...

A silent killer loomed. Discovered in February in a Southern China province, a virus that  became known as the Asian Flu hit area teams with full force several months later. The germ spread to Singapore, then was transported by U.S. Naval personnel, reaching the shores of the Pacific Coast in June. The virus spread across the country in the ...

Polls are great, but what do they mean come playoff time? First things first: Cathedral hung on to first place in the UT-San Diego basketball poll, but for the first time since the 2013 calendar the Dons were not  unanimous choices. Cathedral received 8 first-place votes after an uneven week in which it was surprised by Army-Navy 67-61 ...

The Handyman set aside his tools when one job was finished and was preparing to use them in another. Gene Edwards’s 29-year run as head coach at La Jolla ended with a 27-0 victory over Clairemont. He was going to continue working for the school in a role best described as “facilities fixer-upper.” Gene had accepted a position ...

January, 1958,  was  special  for Tom Shaules, for St. Augustine High, and for basketball in San Diego. That wintry month annually signals the anniversary of Shaules’  epic run through the City Prep League. The 5-foot, 8-inch senior scored a record 60 points against Crawford, led the Saints in three games in which they scored more than ...