I'm not really sure I should be posting this, because maybe I'll get run out of town if I do, but I feel I have an obligation to admit my possible guilt.

There's a chance I've been jinxing Kern County high school teams (yes, I say this tongue-in-cheek, but it is interesting) by my attendance. It kind of started when Garces volleyball coach Kim Harper started jokingly telling me to stop covering the Rams' games, because, at the time, they were 24-2 when I stayed away and 0-2 when I was there. I didn't cover any of their playoff games, and they won a section title. Interesting.

Now, a coach joking around is one thing, but last week was downright weird. After The Californian ran in-depth stories on back-to-back days on two of the fall's better athletes, Foothill cross country champion Chris Schwartz and North football stud Julian Dean-Johnson, on Thursday and Friday.

Well, Friday, Dean-Johnson was ejected from a playoff game as the Stars lost to Sanger, and Saturday, Schwartz faded to a shocking seventh in the state's Division III race in Fresno.

But thinking back on it, this has been somewhat of a disturbing (at least for the locals) trend.

Take this track record:

— Way back on Sept. 5, I covered Bakersfield Christian's only loss, which came to Westlake Village-Oaks Christian. OK, nothing too shocking, considering Oaks Christian is a top-10 team in the state, regardless of division, but BCHS isn't really that far behind. They were when I was on the sideline.

— The next week, West High traveled to Visalia and was blasted 34-14 by El Diamante. Again, hardly a surprise, but last week, the teams played again — without me — and the Vikings almost pulled the upset.

— Garces was Kern's dominant team in girls golf all season, then went up to the Central Section team championships with high hopes and faded to fourth place. Frontier did turn in its best performance and make it to the SoCal regionals, though.

— Liberty, arguably playing the best football of any team in Kern County, went up to Clovis West and lost a tight one, 14-6, in the first round of the playoffs. Guess who was freezing his butt off in the press box. Yep.

— The night before that, Liberty's volleyball team was swept away by Clovis West in the Central Section championship after I made another trip up north.

— Add to that last week, when Taft was drilled by Kingsburg, North lost to Sanger and both Schwartz and favored McFarland in the Division IV race both failed to win state.

I should point out that I saw Stockdale beat Fresno-Bullard for the D-I tennis title and the Mustangs' doubles team of Frances Ellison and Julie Hutton win the section title. And Tehachapi beat Santa Ana-Segerstrom under my watch back in Week 0. That's got to count for something, right? Geez, I don't know.

Now, I've always been one of those people that says sporting events are going to come out the same way no matter what lucky clothes you wear, or where you sit, or what you predict. It doesn't really make a difference. But man oh man, it doesn't seem like that right now.