I have a few thoughts about this last friday and next friday. Congrats to the Wolf Pack!  I can testifytoday that crow tastes awful. But I must reflect and ask myself, has anyone given Ridgeview due credit? North had to pull a rabbit out of a hat (in the form of Julian Dean Johnson) to beat them, and they lost a close one to an up and coming Frontier team, and I believe they've lost a few other VERY close ones. They held the Stars high powered Wing-T to 13 points. Should we REALLY be that surprised. Stockdale runs what kind of offense??? A WING T!!!! Ridgeview saw and defended the Wing T once before with some success. Also, apparently, Stockdale has had issues moving the ball the last few weeks. Case in point: a disciplined defense will contain and even stop  the Wing T. 

This Ramos kid for South has ONE HECK OF AN ARM!!! And we saw against North that he WILL take off on you. There are very few QB's in EITHER the SWYL or SEYL that can throw off his back foot/across his body/loosing his balance/falling to the ground the way this kid can. I hope some college scout is taking a look at him.  He seems a little vulnerable whn he rolls out though. His few near bad decisions came when he rolled out.

North has the most 'polite' secondary I have EVER seen. Cotton isn't as soft.  Their front line line dominates opponents as we have seen over the last few weeks.  They seem to be ok against the run, but VERY vulnerable against the pass. For this reason, I like their chances against Stockdale. North does not give up yards on the ground and they practice against the Wing T during the week.. They are good at converging and gang tackling. The are very fast up front. Now can anyone here testify whether or not Stockdale can or will through out of the Wing T?  This will be VERY interesting. NHS is defending a VASTLY different offense this coming friday than they did last friday going from having to defend 4 or 5 receivers to having to defend ONE receiver and three or four running threats, including the QB. Well, if they practice hard against their OWN offensive unit this week, I like the way this is panning out.

I think Clovis West lost to a league rival friday (Clovis-Bullard?) which re-affirms my theory that the TRAC, being the most dominant league in the valley, will beat up on each other, after they beat up on everyone else (Clovis High, seems to be the only team struggling a bit there). So, who becomes numero uno this week?

BHS is in its own universe right now, with Liberty behind, and the two leaving everyone else in the dust...which brings me to ONE LAST POINT...what's the point in dividing schools between Division I, II, III......for the playoffs if you make them compete together for the same league titles? It's unfair to the smaller schools in the Yosemite Division. Lets just take Garces for example. They won the DIII Valley Championship last year (or the year before?) against Foothill. Yet neither of those teams were in contention for the SEYL crown-which went to BHS.  Why not organize leagues according to PLAYOFF DIVISIONS and ditch the geographic garbage. At least segregate the Div II and III schools from the Division I schools.  The way it plays now, you can win Valley and not even win your own league, or even be the runner up for that matter.

Good points all, and worthy of a discussion ... A couple of points: Stockdale does have a tendency to throw out of its offense; in fact, that fake-the-counter, roll out a receiver to the opposite field was the one play BHS could not stop in its loss to Stockdale earlier. A big factor in that game also will be the health of Emmanuel Ossai and Stephen Silva for the Mustangs.

Clovis West lost to Clovis-Buchanan this past week, meaning the assumed top three teams — Clovis West, Buchanan and Fresno-Edison — are now 1-1 against each other. I'm not sure what that means for the rankings, but I'll sort it out by tomorrow.

And I actually like the fact that leagues have teams from different divisions in them. It's not like these schools (other than Garces, which has moved up to Division II), are dissimilar in size. All of the public city schools range from about 1,900 (Highland) to about 2,700 (Ridgeview and BHS), and that's not too big of a difference. I'd rather they change the playoff structure, personally. The Central Section isn't big enough to warrant five divisions. I'd rather have three and make it so that only the top three teams in each league are playoff eligible, or something like that. Playoffs should be a reward, not a given. Not that it will ever happen. But I can dream, right?

It used to be that way a few years back. There were 8 seeds rather than 16 in each division. Expanded playoffs is actually a recent development in the Central Section. One other development to note about the number of leagues and divisions, is that until about 1996, all the Bakersfield teams minus two were in one league. When I started HS in 1992-93, Stockdale had just oppened a few years prior and was STILL SSL, Centennial openned in 1993-94 and didn't have seniors until 1995-96 (they too were SSL until 1997 or 98), Liberty and Ridgview were right about turn of the Century (possibly 98-99), Golden Valley, and then Frontier. Two more are planned to open next Fall: Independence and Mira Monte (actually, are they opened already?). As you can see, MANY schools with Football programs that may be good, but not storied like BHS. You may prefer competitiveness. I prefer parity. I liked the divisional set up, however, I admit, its flawed. They are of similar size, but not always of comparable talent pools, if that makes sense. Some of the schools have stronger and more storied programs than others. SO, I don't necessarily buy that a larger student body means you will be more competitve. Tradition and demographics play a big role.

I agree though that playoffs should not be a given and I don't think it's fair and dignified to seed the #1 seed against a team that didn't even break 500. But what doesn't make sense to me to have I,II, and III compete for the same LEAGUE championship and then segregate them come playoffs. Here's a compromise: segregate them 3 ways (as you propose) from the get-go. The league, theoretically, might look like this: Division I: BHS, Liberty, Garces, Ridgeview, Stockdale, Centennial. Division II: East, Highland, Foothill, GV, South,  West, North, Frontier. Division III: Arvin, Tehachapi, BCHS, Taft, Shafter, Wasco, Kern Valley, Delano??? OK, Divisions II and III might have to be split, but my point is, Why should Highland and Foothill have to compete for the same SEYL title when they will be separated from them by TWO DIVISIONS come playoffs? If you are a team like BHS, you're thinking Valley, but if your a team like North or Highland your shooting to JUST WIN LEAGUE.  It's all a matter of perspective I guess. When you've supported a team that is usually on the bottom of the heap looking up, the perspective changes.

The plot at Edison high school thickens.  FUSD officials have requested that Crichlow re-examine his investigation into the school.  It lloks like that grade changing accussation may be more complex than first imagined.  Coach McDonald may have forced his own hand into resigning by his professed confidence in his players' grades.  Stay tuned...

Hey Patrick, I miss the old SYL. They broke up the league in the 1994-95 year. I wish we could do something like the Clovis schools and create a league similar to the TRAC.  They were defectors of the old NYL because Clovis and Clovis West would beat the crap out of all the Fresno Schools.  It originally consisted of only 4 schools (CW, CHS, Buchanan, and Sanger) and they played a hellacious non-conference schedule.  Maybe we could have a euorpean style league system where good teams play in the upper divisions then drop down to lower divisions based on prior records.  You would occassionally get a powerhouse that might drop too low and beat every team but over time, it would work out.