Three quick items to note before I get to work on this week's basketball rankings.

— Had an interesting time at the Kern County Invitational this afternoon, a new tournament hosted by Centennial that coach Mike Hicks is trying to grow into a late-season local must-see like East's Coyote Classic is early in the year. Foothill, behind championships from 130-pounder Derik Rizo and heavyweight Angel Posadas, which is great for the growing Trojans program. Here's the real story, though: Liberty's Greg Kapler had moved down to 135 pounds for the event, matching himself up with undefeated Centennial 135er Seth Hicks (the coach's son). That would have been a dynamite final. Instead, Kapler — and I was told this was his and his dad's decision, not the Liberty coaches' — decided to default out of the tournament before he faced Hicks.
I can see this one from both sides. Kapler wrestles with a funky style and probably thinks his best chance of beating Hicks when it counts — Yosemite Divisional in three weeks, Masters in four and state in five — rests with the element of surprise. Then again, why would Kapler even drop to 135 (he's been wrestling at 140 for most of the year) and/or enter the tournament if he had no intention of meeting Hicks? Strange happenings indeed, but it makes the 135-pound bracket in the postseason all the more intriguing.

— It is, in case you hadn't heard, tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. So, whether you want them or value them or not, here are my thoughts: Folks are riding Arizona as a total bandwagon pick right now. The Cardinals are hot, and they've proved everyone wrong all month long. But now it almost feels like they're favorites, even though Pittsburgh is a 6.5-point favorite in Vegas. To me, what people forget is that the Steelers have been consistently good all year long, especially on defense. And while Arizona relies mostly on its passing attack to move the ball, it has been fairly balanced during its playoff run. But they won't be able to run the ball on Pittsburgh. If the Steelers can make the Cards one-dimensional, I see Kurt Warner throwing two or three interceptions and a Pittsburgh victory of, let's say, 30-14. You all can make fun of me when I'm wrong.

— We've had multiple requests for soccer rankings, and I will deliver them sometime in the next week for both girls and boys. But be patient; I'm trying to be consistent with what day of the week the hardcourt rankings come out, so those will have to be first.

Here's the girls side of the inside look feature I tried the other day with some boys events. I'm going to have to fudge a bit on this one, because the games I'm using were played at the same time, so I obviously wasn't at one of them. In this case, that's the soccer game, but I'll do my best to offer any insight I have.

GIRLS BASKETBALL
Stockdale 72, North 41, Friday night at Stockdale
What it means: The Mustangs are still the dominant team around here, and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon. Stockdale now has a two-game lead in the Southwest Yosemite League race with five games to go and a two-game sweep of second-place North in the unlikely event of a tie. For Stockdale, it's all about the playoffs, and more specifiically, if they can get to the final and play with Clovis West.
Why it happened: Actually, North played pretty well in this game, at least for stretches of the first half. Stockdale jumped to a 10-1 lead, but Stars coach Hernan Santiago called a couple of quick timeouts and settled his team down. North started effectively handling the Stockdale press and turning that into layups and open jumpers. Stockdale also had some early trouble with turnovers of its own. But all that was only enough to get the Stars within 20-16 at one point. It was a 12-point game at the half, and in the second half, when the Mustangs started getting some more open looks, it was time to think about the drive home. Jalei Kinder hit seven 3-pointers and scored 27 points, and Alexi Smith added 19 points and 10 rebounds.
What's next: Like mentioned above, it's all about that Division I bracket for Stockdale. The Mustangs can handle anyone and everyone in the playoffs up until they travel to Fresno for the section final, almost surely against Clovis West. Last year, the Golden Eagles took a 5-point halftime lead and turned it into an 87-50 victory, the kind of beatdown Stockdale is used to giving. Can the Mustangs somehow turn it around this year? Stay tuned. Meanwhile, I was impressed with North tonight, but the Stars will face an uphill battle in the D-II bracket with Hanford, Garces and a bunch of other loaded teams waiting. Looks like second place in the SWYL might have to be enough.

GIRLS SOCCER
Centennial 2, Bakersfield 0, Friday night at Centennial
What it means: That the Big Three in girls soccer for years and years might not be that clear-cut. Bakersfield, Liberty and Stockdale are who you think of when you think girls soccer in this town, but Centennial put a big dent in that theory, at least for this season.
Why it happened: The Golden Hawks apparently dominated the second half, turning a scoreless game into a big statement victory. This could have been one of those games where a team gets a goal, packs it in defensively and then counter-attacks for the insurance score late. Bakersfield out-shot Centennial 11-7. But that doesn't mean CHS didn't deserve what they got.
What's next: In the long run, this might be a feather in Centennial's cap as far as seeding goes. But will the Central Section really seed the Golden Hawks over the Drillers because of this one result? BHS has had better results year-round. And mark this down: The Bakersfield story isn't done with this loss. Yeah, the Drillers also lost a close game to Liberty. But they beat Stockdale earlier in the year and get another crack at the Patriots in a couple of weeks. Then it'll be playoff time.

Last week I laid out a sort-of planner of big events for the rest of the regular season in the winter sports. This week I'm going to do some actual analysis, which, I'm told, is where I try to tell you what I think about some of those games.

Eh, at least I'll try. Let's go with a big game from each of the three boys winter sports that went down in the past couple of days. We'll look at a couple of girls games later in the week. I'd like to make this a semi-regular feature (as in, when I have some thoughts worth sharing and enough good games to do it with).

BOYS BASKETBALL
Centennial 67, Ridgeview 57, Wednesday night at Centennial
What it means: Centennial takes control of the SWYL race after the first round of play with a 6-0 record; Ridgeview, at 5-1, has little margin for error now if they hope to repeat a split of the title with the Golden Hawks.
Why it happened: The Wolf Pack tried to take Centennial's best scoring options away, and it actually did a pretty good job. Sophomore guard Cody Kessler and senior post Nick Jensen combined for 20 points instead of the 68 they scored against Ridgeview in the Garces tournament earlier this season. But in doing so, the Wolf Pack sagged its defense on Jensen and often played a box-and-one defense to shadow and allow double-teams on Kessler. Those two stars were acute enough to give the ball up — and guess what? Centnenial has some shooters. Drew Watson hit five 3-pointers, his brother Grant hit four and Nick Mattlin hit two. Five of those came during a 17-0 run that gave Centennial complete control just after halftime.
What's next: This was a healthy game for both sides. Both played clean basketball, with few turnovers or forced shots, though Ridgeview coach Bobby Sharp was disappointed with his team's rotations within its zone defenses. That aside, play like this should lead to another meeting at Ridgeview to end the season with the league title on the line. That time, it'll be interesting to see what moves the coaches have come up with in their on-going chess match.

WRESTLING
Bakersfield 53, East 20, Wednesday night at Bakersfield
What it means: The Drillers remain unbeaten in dual matches and can coast into the postseason worrying about the weight class and health of their best wrestlers.
Why it happened: Simply put, because Bakersfield High has more depth than East, or any other team in town except for maybe Frontier. But the Drillers have some elite wrestlers at the state level, too — you might have heard of 140-pounder Jonah Cruz, who won the Five Counties Invitational title, 152-pounder Bryce Hammond or 215-pounder Brian Schoene. But don't forget about the Drillers' youngsters: Timmy Box (130) and Adam Fierro (145) have shown they have what it takes to get to the state tournament, and a freshman, Natrelle Demison, earned his biggest victory to date against East. He knocked off Peter Gonzales, a returning state placer from 112, 7-4 in the 119-pound class. That makes him an automatic threat to place at 119; he could be even better if he drops to 112 for the postseason like he has a couple of times this year.
What's next: As Joe Triggs, East High's outspoken coach, told Californian correspondent Steve Lynch tonight — and as most wrestling coaches will tell you throughout the year — these dual meets don't matter for much of anything except a little seeding. The league title will be decided at the league championships on Valentine's Day, the section title two weeks later at East and the state title March 6-7 at Rabobank Arena. So, while you might see snippets of things to come, you'd better stay tuned if you want to know how it'll really turn out.

BOYS SOCCER
Bakersfield 2, Golden Valley 1, Tuesday night at Bakersfield
What it means: Not a whole lot in the grand scheme of the league standings. Bakersfield High is now 5-3, Golden Valley 6-1-1. Highland is in the mix at 5-1-2, but the Bulldogs should be OK as far as league goes. What this does show is that GVHS might be a little more vulnerable in the Division III playoffs than I originally thought.
Why it happened: Give a lot of the credit to BHS, which rebounded from what was kind of an ugly first half to control play for the first 25 minutes or so of the second half. They equalized on Morgan Barnes' rebound goal with about 20 minutes to play, then withstood Golden Valley's offensive attack until they found an opportunity to counter-attack. Jose Hernandez broke through the GVHS defense and flicked the game-winner over the goalkeeper and into the net with three minutes on the clock. It wasn't actually the game-winner, though, until BHS keeper Drew Clemans stopped a penalty kick in stoppage time a few minutes later.
What's next: Golden Valley coach Troy Lynch said he could see this one coming a bit because of some poor efforts in practice and a hint of cockiness after the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead early. He's instituting two-a-day practices until further notice to try to re-focus his team. Better now than in the playoffs is what I say. As for Bakersfield, this is a team that got things together late last year and won a couple of playoff games to reach the Division I semifinals. This year's team is better; with some late momentum, they could surprise again — or even more — come playoff time.

Girls rankings below, or click here.

BOYS
1. Clovis East (17-4, 2-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 1) — Friday's game with Central became much more important after the Grizzlies knocked off Clovis West in the first round of TRAC play. Clovis East knew how to respond.
LAST WEEK: W 73-67 at No. 4 Clovis, W 80-54 vs. No. 6 Fresno-Central
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. No. 6 Clovis West, Friday at Clovis-Buchanan

2. Liberty (17-3, 4-1 SEYL, Division II, last week: 5) — That'll teach me. A week after I worried that the Patriots had already peaked, they come out and beat Garces by almost the same score they did the first time. How far can this team go? There could be two more meetings with the Rams.
LAST WEEK: W 63-56 vs. Bakersfield, W 63-58 vs. No. 3 Garces
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Foothill, Thursday at No. 12 East

3. Garces (12-6, 4-1 SEYL, Division II, last week: 3) — This past week was the Rams' season in a microcosm: When they're going well (Tuesday, in blowing out East), nobody's better. But then they can't put away Liberty for the second time in as many tries.
LAST WEEK: W 82-52 vs. No. 11 East, L 63-58 at No. 5 Liberty
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Highland, Thursday vs. Golden Valley

4. Clovis (15-8, 1-1 TRAC, Division I, last week: 4) — Like Garces, the Cougars get away with a loss and don't drop with everyone else losing too. By the way, is there any doubt whatsoever that the TRAC will win the D-I title again? Outside of maybe Edison or Centennial, there's no legitimate threat anywhere else.
LAST WEEK: L 73-67 vs. No. 1 Clovis East, W 67-43 at Madera
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Clovis-Buchanan, Friday vs. No. 5 Fresno-Central

5. Fresno-Central (14-5, 1-1 TRAC, Division I, last week: 6) — A split for the Grizzlies in a brutal league-opening week is like a victory. It's hard to believe this is the same team that lost to Bakersfield and to Edison by 25 early in the year.
LAST WEEK: W 48-45 vs. No. 2 Clovis West, L 80-54 at No. 1 Clovis East
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Madera, Friday at No. 4 Clovis

6. Clovis West (11-5, 1-1 TRAC, Division I, last week: 2) — I don't think a three-point loss to a good team should result in a four-spot drop in the rankings, just like I don't think the Golden Eagles are only the sixth-best team around. But right now, after a struggle with Buchanan too, this is where CW falls. They've got a chance to rise right back up.
LAST WEEK: L 48-45 at No. 6 Fresno-Central, W 51-49 vs. Clovis-Buchanan
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at No. 1 Clovis East, Friday at Madera

7. Fresno-Edison (14-6, 2-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 7) — The County-Metro Athletic Conference is unusually weak this year, with the Tigers the clear favorites and no one else even has a .500 record. That could put a ceiling on Edison's rise — and cause a rude awakening when they run back into the TRAC come playoff time.
LAST WEEK: W 68-35 vs. Clovis North, W 63-51 at Fresno-Bullard
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Sanger, Friday at Fresno-Hoover

8. Lemoore (21-4, 5-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 8) — Both the Tigers and Hanford held up their side of the bargain, and now to add to the Clovis East-Clovis West main event, we'll have a Lemoore-Hanford undercard on Wednesday.
LAST WEEK: W 85-75 vs. Visalia-El Diamante, W 63-46 at Visalia-Golden West
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. No. 11 Hanford, Friday vs. Hanford West

9. Fresno-Sunnyside (15-5, 2-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 9) — Also on Wednesday's undercard is the North Yosemite League showdown between Sunnyside and San Joaquin Memorial, the first of two meetings that will likely decide the title.
LAST WEEK: W 54-41 at Fresno, W 70-43 vs. Fresno-McLane
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. No. 13 Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial, Friday at Madera South

10. Centennial (16-4, 5-0 SWYL, Division I, last week: 10) — And, down here in Kern County, we've got our own Wednesday fight card when Ridgeview beats Centennial in a battle of Southwest Yosemite League unbeatens. The Golden Hawks won the first meeting, in the Garces tournament, by nine.
LAST WEEK: W 79-69 at Stockdale, W 69-62 vs. Frontier
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Ridgeview

11. Hanford (15-5, 5-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 12) — The Division II playoff bracket will probably offer some juicy quarterfinal matchups no matter which way teams finish. Right now, it could be Hanford-Sunnyside, East-Lemoore, Memorial-Garces and maybe Redwood-Liberty. First, Hanford has two games of that caliber this week.
LAST WEEK: W 65-37 at Visalia-Mt. Whitney
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at No. 8 Lemoore, Friday at Visalia-Redwood

12. East (10-8, 5-1 SEYL, Division II, last week: 11) — The second half of SEYL play is going to be fun, and it's going to be more of those D-II type quarterfinal games. Can East stay at the top with big dogs Liberty and Garces? A second win against the Pats would go a long way towards answering in the affirmative.
LAST WEEK: L 82-52 at No. 3 Garces, W 63-41 vs. Foothill
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at North, Thursday vs. No. 2 Liberty

13. Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial (13-8, 2-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 14) — We'll still be hearing from this team, though it's too bad the Panthers won't stage their annual rivalry game with Garces; apparently, there was some scheduling snafu and the game, slated for last Sunday, was left off Memorial's schedule. By the time the schools figured that out, it was too late to revise plans.
LAST WEEK: W 59-47 at Fresno-Roosevelt, W 74-40 vs. Fresno
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at No. 9 Fresno-Sunnyside, Friday vs. Fresno-McLane

14. SLO-Mission Prep (13-9, freelance, Division V, last week: 13) — Like we mentioned last week, the Royals took on their local big boy, San Luis Obispo. SLO is a top-half team from the Pac-7, and Mission Prep gave 'em a run but lost.
LAST WEEK: L 50-40 vs. San Luis Obispo, W 57-51 at Ventura-St. Bonaventure
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Pebble Beach-Stevenson, Friday vs. Cambria-Coast Union, Saturday vs. Salinas-Palma

15. Visalia-Central Valley Christian (18-4, 5-0 CSL, Division V, last week: 15) — Since it's more or less apparent that a Mission Prep-CVC rematch will decide the Division V section title, who will win Divisions III and IV, both of which are noticeably absent from these rankings? In D-III, Ridgeview or league rivals El Diamante and Hanford West might duke it out, and in D-IV, Bakersfield Christian looks like the odds-on favorite in a weak division.
LAST WEEK: W 89-38 vs. Dinuba, W 81-47 at Selma
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Exeter, Friday at Coalinga

Dropped out: none
Waiting: Clovis-Buchanan, Visalia-Redwood, Visalia-El Diamante, Hanford West, Bakersfield, Ridgeview, Bakersfield Christian, Fresno-Bullard, Tulare Union

Another week gone by, another week closer to the high school version of March Madness, a little time for the playoffs I like to call ... February Frenzy.

OK, so that was really dorky. Sorry about that. Really. But I do have another set of Central Section rankings. Girls are below (with a pretty stagnant week, I might add), boys to follow.

GIRLS
1. Hanford (15-3, 5-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 1) — What does a national top-25 team do when it plays a 3-10 league doormat? Twelve players play, 11 score, and the Bullpups win by 60. Just think what might have happened if they hadn't been 5-of-20 from 3-point range.
LAST WEEK: W 85-24 vs. Visalia-Mt. Whitney
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Lemoore, Friday vs. No. 10 Visalia-Redwood

2. Clovis West (13-4, 2-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 2) — There aren't many sports where you'll see blowout after blowout in the powerful Tri-River Athletic Conference. Girls basketball, because of the Golden Eagles, is one of them.
LAST WEEK: W 89-37 vs. Fresno-Central, W 72-22 at Clovis-Buchanan
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Clovis East, Friday vs. Madera

3. Stockdale (16-4, 5-0 SWYL, Division I, last week: 3) — Well, if Bakersfield's new power league is supposed to be Kern's answer to the TRAC, girls hoops is another sport you can still expect a few lopsided results. Look what Stockdale did to current and future league rival Centennial.
LAST WEEK: W 70-22 at Centennial, W 75-34 at West
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. South, Friday vs. North

4. Fresno-Edison (16-2, 2-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 4) — If this is beginning to look repetitive week after week, that's because there's a very established order at the top of girls basketball. 1 beat 2, 2 beat 3 (last year), 3 beat 4 and 4 beat 5. There's no reason yet to think any of those results would be different today.
LAST WEEK: W 71-32 at Clovis North, W 51-27 vs. No. 12 Fresno-Bullard
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 9 Sanger, Thursday vs. Fresno-Hoover 

5. Fresno-Roosevelt (16-2, 2-0 NYL, Division III, last week: 5) — What's the chance of a Rough Riders' slip-up now that they're into North Yosemite League play? Not much, if first week is any indication, at least not until a Feb. 3 showdown with Sunnyside.
LAST WEEK: W 61-40 at Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial, W 65-25 vs. Madera South
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Fresno-McLane, Thursday at Fresno

6. Porterville (20-0, 5-0 EYL, Division III, last week: 6) — If there's anything stopping the Panthers from an undefeated regular season, it's tomorrow's game at crosstown rival Monache. Get past that, and only a bunch of traps and a return game with the Marauders are in the way of 27-0.
LAST WEEK: W 51-34 vs. Chavez, W 56-15 vs. Porterville-Granite Hills
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 11 Porterville-Monache, Friday at Tulare Western

7. Garces (19-1, 5-0 SEYL, Division II, last week: 7) — Caitlin Bernardin, the MVP of the Division IV section championship a year ago, is filling up the stat sheet again as a soph: 16.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.4 assists each time out.
LAST WEEK: W 67-28 at East, W 65-34 vs. Liberty
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Highland, Thursday at Golden Valley

8. Oakhurst-Yosemite (9-8, 2-0 NSL, Division II, last week: 8) — I'm glad the Badgers got above the .500 mark last week, because it was odd to see a losing team in the rankings. But believe it: This team belongs here, and it'll have a chance to prove it in what will be a loaded D-II playoff bracket.
LAST WEEK: W 59-41 at Tollhouse-Sierra, W 88-33 vs. Madera Ranchos-Liberty
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Fresno-Washington Union, Friday at Chowchilla

9. Sanger (16-3, 2-0 CMAC, Division II, last week: 9) — Apologies to Porterville and Monache, but the game of the week in the Central Section comes from the home of the Apaches tomorrow night.
LAST WEEK: W 65-36 at Fresno-Hoover, W 66-22 vs. Clovis North
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. No. 4 Fresno-Edison, Thursday at Reedley

10. Visalia-Redwood (19-5, 4-1 WYL, Division II, last week: 10) — There it is, a complete replica of last week's top 10. And you think you come to this blog for new information. Psych! No, it's just that the girls game in the Valley has a pretty set pecking order right now.
LAST WEEK: W 66-29 at Visalia-Golden West
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Visalia-Mt. Whitney, Friday at No. 1 Hanford

11. Porterville-Monache (17-4, 5-0 EYL, Division II, last week: 13) — Take away a pair of three-point losses to Redwood, and this is a top-10 team. Then again, if the Marauders can win a battle of EYL unbeatens this week, they will be anyway.
LAST WEEK: W 69-63 at Tulare Union
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. No. 6 Porterville, Thursday at Porterville-Granite Hills

12. Clovis (15-10, 1-1 TRAC, Division I, last week: 11) — Because of some others' losses, the Cougars aren't punished much for a slip-up against Clovis East, but the road to the top of the league — through Clovis West — appears longer and steeper than ever.
LAST WEEK: L 56-49 at Clovis East, W 57-45 vs. Madera
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Clovis-Buchanan, Friday at Fresno-Central

13. Fresno-Bullard (13-9, 1-1 CMAC, Division I, last week: 12) — Similarly for the Knights, the top of the CMAC seems a long, long way away after a beatdown at the hands of Edison. Plus, Sanger is in the way, too.
LAST WEEK: W 74-24 vs. Reedley, L 51-27 at No. 4 Fresno-Edison

14. Fresno-Sunnyside (16-5, 3-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 14) — A rough stretch to close non-conference play is forgotten when grind out a couple of wins to open league play like the Wildcats did.
LAST WEEK: W 40-23 vs. Fresno, W 36-27 at Fresno-McLane
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial, Thursday vs. Madera South

15. Bakersfield (15-6, 4-1 SEYL, Division I, last week: 15) — The Drillers don't have a signature win to speak of, but they've fought Monache to within four points, Garces to within two and Stockdale to within a respectable 17. This is not the team (ahem, Edison) you want to see in the first round of the playoffs.
LAST WEEK: W 61-36 vs. Liberty, W 60-16 at Highland
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Golden Valley

Dropped out: none
Waiting: Corcoran, Fresno Christian, Tulare Union, Clovis East, North, Kingsburg, SLO-Mission Prep, Golden Valley, Visalia-El Diamante

Here are thoughts on Bakersfield's new league structure, from myself and copy editors Ron Stapp and Todd Camps in audio form. Also a few minutes of basketball and wrestling discussion are included.

I was excited to see an e-mail in my inbox this morning with the three proposals the Central Section came up with for the new league alignment. I hurriedly printed off the proposals, went over to the printer and started looking them over on my way back.

Turns out, there was no need. The leagues in the southern part of the Valley are going to be the same no matter which proposal the section goes with, and that means a pretty major shakeup for Kern County. Here's how the leagues are going to look starting in the fall of 2010:

League 1 (none of the leagues have been named yet)
Bakersfield
Centennial
Frontier
Independence
Liberty
Stockdale

League 2
East
Foothill
Garces
Highland
North

League 3
Golden Valley
Mira Monte
Ridgeview
South
West

The South Sequoia League will remain unchanged. I've got to run for now, but I'll try to post my thoughts on this later tonight or sometime this weekend.

We've got an entire gaggle of news items to get through, and then I want to talk big hoops dates the rest of the season.

— First off, the city of Bakersfield is getting proactive about raising its high school sports profile. Bako's Convention and Visitors Bureau has placed a bid with the CIF to host the state basketball championships for three years starting in March 2010. The CVB also bid to renew its contract to host the wrestling championships, which will be in Bakersfield for the sixth year on March 6-7 of this year.
Bakersfield bid for the state football bowl championships last fall but was turned down in favor of Carson's Home Depot Center. The basketball championships will be at ARCO Arena in Sacramento for the 12th consecutive year this March.
There's no telling where the CIF will choose to have either sport — or even when a decision will be made, said director of communications Emmy Zack, but I think I speak for all of us involved in prep athletics when I say it's a good thing the city is taking an interest in bringing these events here.

— A new batch of Central Section wrestling rankings are out over at The California Wrestler, and the No. 1-ranked wrestler in six of the 14 weight classes is from Kern County. That's a pretty large percentage when you consider Kern had just one champion, Travis Rasmussen, last year.

— I pinch-hit for our college beat writer, Jeff Evans, last weekend at the BC baseball dinner while Jeff's on vacation, and it led to this fascinating story: I ran into Stockdale assistant baseball coach Greg Showers, who mentioned a story that ran in The Californian back in 1977. Here's the gist: Showers, who was at Arvin, and a bunch of other high schoolers were picked to play in a Kern County all-star game that February.
Happens every year, right? Well, yeah, but in '77, the opposing team was made up of major leaguers, including two guys — Don Sutton and Robin Yount — who ended up in the Hall of Fame. Other guys who played included Davey Lopes, Al Downing and Bakersfield's own George Culver from the Dodgers. The high schoolers were managed by another Hall of Famer, Sparky Anderson, and the major leaguers by yet another HOF shoo-in, Frank Robinson.
Can you imagine? The modern-day equivalent would be like, oh, say, Trevor Hoffman, Manny Ramirez, Ichiro and Clayton Kershaw coming to Bakersfield to play against the best player or two from each local high school. Of course, these days, that would be filled with contract disputes and pros sitting out to rest, but that's another story.

— I'm hoping a high school podcast is on the way for Friday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Finally, on to today's main topic. Stockdale and Centennial got together tonight in baskeball and soccer games of both genders, and we all know (though some might not like to admit it) that the Mustangs and Golden Hawks usually play big games no matter the size or shape of the ball. That's no exception tonight: In boys basketball, it's a meeting of defending league champ and favored Centennial and athletic, dangerous Stockdale; in girls hoops and soccer, it's the always competitive Golden Hawks trying to test Stockdale juggernauts. The Mustangs and Hawks are West's main challengers in boys soccer.

So that got me to thinking: What other games ought we to look forward to for the rest of the year? We'll start in basketball, then go to soccer and wrestling, up through all league play of each sport. This is going to get a little tedious, but you can bookmark this page as a point of reference to mark your calenders (all records through Tuesday).

Boys basketball
Thursday — Garces (4-0 SEYL) at Liberty (3-1)
Jan. 28 — Ridgeview (4-0 SWYL) at Centennial (3-0)
Jan. 29 — Liberty (3-1 SEYL) at East (4-1)
Jan. 30 — Bakersfield Christian (2-0 SSL) at Taft (2-0)
Feb. 3 — SLO-Mission Prep (12-8) at Bakersfield Christian (8-7)
Feb. 10 — Tehachapi (1-1 SSL) at Bakersfield Christian (2-0)
Feb. 11 — Ridgeview (4-0 SWYL) at Stockdale (1-2)
Feb. 12 — Liberty (3-1 SEYL) at Bakersfield (1-3); Garces (4-0) at East (4-1)
Feb. 13 — Stockdale (1-2 SWYL) at Centennial (3-0)
Feb. 17 — Liberty (3-1 SEYL) at Garces (4-0)
Feb. 20 — Centennial (3-0) at Ridgeview (4-0)

Girls basketball
Tuesday — Bakersfield (3-1 SEYL) at Golden Valley (4-1)
Jan. 29 — Golden Valley (4-1 SEYL) at Garces (4-0)
Jan. 30 — North (3-1 SWYL) at Stockdale (3-0)
Feb. 2 — Bakersfield (3-1 SEYL) at Garces (4-0)
Feb. 6 — Bakersfield Christian (2-0 SSL) at Shafter (1-1)
Feb. 11 — Stockdale (3-0 SWYL) at Ridgeview (3-2)

Boys soccer
Friday — Wasco (3-0-0 SSL) at Shafter (1-0-0); West (4-0-0 SWYL) at Stockdale (4-0-0)
Tuesday — Bakersfield (4-2-0 SEYL) at Golden Valley (5-0-0)
Feb. 4 — West (4-0-0 SWYL) at Centennial (3-1-0)
Feb. 10 — Arvin (1-1-0 SSL) at Wasco (3-0-0); Golden Valley (5-0-0 SEYL) at Liberty (3-2-1)

Girls soccer
Thursday — Liberty (6-0-0 SEYL) at Garces (3-2-0)
Feb. 2 — Bakersfield (5-1-0 SEYL) at Garces (3-2-0)
Feb. 6 — Stockdale (6-0-0 SWYL) at Frontier (4-2-0)
Feb. 12 — Bakersfield (5-1-0 SEYL) at Liberty (6-0-0)

Wrestling
Thursday — South at Frontier; Stockdale at West
Friday-Saturday — Bakersfield at Temecula tournament; Bakersfield Christian, Foothill, Frontier and Liberty at Morro Bay tournament
Jan. 28 — East at Bakersfield; Foothill at Liberty
Jan. 31 — Centennial duals tournament
Feb. 5 — Frontier at Stockdale
Feb. 12 — SSL championships at Wasco
Feb. 14 — SWYL championships, SEYL championships, TBA

Girls rankings below or at this link.

BOYS
1. Clovis East (14-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 1) — Of all the impressive things on the Timberwolves' resumé — some tough out-of-section wins and some routs of Valley teams — the best so far might have been its beatdown of a good San Joaquin Memorial team last week. Now a tough week lies ahead.
LAST WEEK: W 92-50 vs. No. 10 Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at No. 4 Clovis, Friday vs. No. 6 Fresno-Central

2. Clovis West (10-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 2) — A rare midseason off week for the Golden Eagles brings up the age-old "rest or rust" question. CW's first two TRAC games will help answer, but games against Clovis East and Clovis are still to come, too.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at No. 6 Fresno-Central, Friday vs. Clovis-Buchanan

3. Garces (11-5, 3-0 SEYL, Division II, last week: 3) — It's too bad Garces and the hosts didn't meet up at Clovis West's Nike Invitational in the early season. The Rams and Golden Eagles look pretty evenly matched if you play the common-opponents game.
LAST WEEK: W 83-56 at Foothill
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. No. 11 East, Thursday at No. 5 Liberty

4. Clovis (13-7, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 4) — The Cougars are 8-1 against Central Section teams, with seven wins in a row since an early-season loss to Garces. That trend gets tested this week in a big way.
LAST WEEK: W 69-53 vs. Fresno-Bullard
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. No. 1 Clovis East

5. Liberty (15-3, 2-1 SEYL, Division II, last week: 5) — Don't worry, Patriots: you'll get another shot this week to confirm you're better than Garces. But a couple of ho-hum games in the past couple weeks make me worry this team has already peaked.
LAST WEEK: W 77-59 at Highland, W 60-55 at Golden Valley
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Bakersfield, Thursday vs. No. 3 Garces

6. Fresno-Central (13-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 8) — With the Grizzlies' rise to No. 6, two leagues control the first six spots in the rankings. And don't be fooled when they beat up on each other in the next few weeks: The cream will rise to the top come playoff time.
LAST WEEK: W 68-51 at No. 10 Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. No. 2 Clovis West, Friday at No. 1 Clovis East

7. Fresno-Edison (12-6, 0-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 9) — The Tigers held off a gritty Bakersfield team, so I'll take this chance to explain why the Drillers fell from No. 11 to out of the rankings: Without stud inside guy Dijon Henry, that's not the same team, and it's starting to become apparent he won't be back soon.
LAST WEEK: W 60-53 at No. 11 Bakersfield
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Clovis North, Friday at Fresno-Bullard

8. Lemoore (19-4, 3-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 12) — Most victories in the section? It's a great perk. But what really has the Tigers zooming up the rankings is that eight-point win against Centennial on Saturday.
LAST WEEK: W 83-72 vs. Visalia-Redwood, W 84-42 at Visalia-Mt. Whitney, W 77-69 vs. No. 7 Centennial
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Visalia-El Diamante, Friday at Visalia-Golden West

9. Fresno-Sunnyside (12-5, 0-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 6) — The result of Sunnyside's Friday game with Fresno-Hoover wasn't reported. It's safe to assume the Wildcats won it, but they couldn't escape unranked Buchanan.
LAST WEEK: L 62-59 vs. Clovis-Buchanan, ??? at Fresno-Hoover
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Fresno, Friday vs. Fresno-McLane

10. Centennial (14-4, 3-0 SWYL, Division I, last week: 7) — Liberty, Garces, Lemoore and Corona-Santiago. None are bad losses, and sophomore Cody Kessler might be the section's best point guard. But the Golden Hawks still might have trouble fending off athletic Stockdale and Ridgeview in league play.
LAST WEEK: W 79-60 vs. South, W 66-52 vs. North, L 77-69 at Lemoore
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Stockdale, Friday vs. Frontier

11. East (9-7, 4-0 SEYL, Division II, last week: NR) — The record isn't impressive, but consider: With Mr. Everything Davon Shelton healthy, the Blades have hung with Clovis East and Oakland-Skyline and beaten Liberty and Bakersfield. Shelton is averaging 20.8 points a game on 57 percent shooting.
LAST WEEK: W 73-42 vs. Golden Valley, W 69-61 at No. 11 Bakersfield
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 3 Garces, Thursday vs. Foothill

12. Hanford (14-5, 4-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 13) — Looking at results will tell you the Bullpups are one of the section's most improved teams within the season. We'll know for sure next week when they tackle West Yosemite League rival Lemoore.
LAST WEEK: W 56-34 vs. Visalia-El Diamante, W 51-43 vs. Hanford West
THIS WEEK: Friday at Visalia-Mt. Whitney

13. San Luis Obispo-Mission Prep (12-8, freelance, Division V, last week: 14) — I love a little team that looks for big challenges, and the Royals are stepping it up a big notch in competition against 12-5 Pac-7 member San Luis Obispo. Think Bakersfield Christian scheduling Bakersfield High, and you've got the idea.
LAST WEEK: W 50-46 vs. Pacific Grove
THIS WEEK: Friday vs. San Luis Obispo, Saturday at Ventura-St. Bonaventure

14. Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial (11-8, 0-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 10) — All right, so beating Central and/or Clovis East was a tall order, but the Panthers have to be upset with themselves for not competing in either game. At least the North Yosemite League offers a nice challenge in the form of Sunnyside.
LAST WEEK: L 68-51 vs. Fresno-Central, L 92-50 at Clovis East
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Fresno-Roosevelt, Friday vs. Fresno

15. Visalia-Central Valley Christian (16-4, 3-0 CSL, Division V, last week: 15) — Wins against fellow small-school powers Bakersfield Christian and Kingsburg seemed a bit shaky, but they're valuable anyway.
LAST WEEK: W 81-77 at Bakersfield Christian, W 68-62 at Kingsburg
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Dinuba, Thursday at Selma

Dropped out: No. 11 Bakersfield
Waiting: Clovis-Buchanan, Bakersfield, Hanford West, Visalia-Redwood, Visalia-El Diamante, Bakersfield Christian, Ridgeview, Porterville-Monache

Lots of folks talking inauguration this week, and since there was a nice story on Barack Obama's basketball days in last week's Sports Illustrated, it's time to celebrate with a basketball-themed week.

Today will be power rankings. The rest of the week, I'd like to discuss big games left on the regular-season schedule, some of the top Kern County teams' chances in the playoffs and (hopefully) our second winter-sports podcast, mostly focused on basketball.

Before we get started, though, some congratulations are in order in another sport, wrestling. A School House Zach pat on the back for Bakersfield High senior Jonah Cruz, who beat Sacramento-Nacitas' Vlad Dombroski in the 140-pound championship last weekend at the Five Counties Invitational, one of the nation's premier high school wrestling events. Cruz won 4-2 in overtime against Dombroski, who was the state champion last year. He also beat him twice last season (Dombroski came from obscurity to make a Cinderella state run last year) and might, just might face him again in this year's state championship (Cruz finished seventh at the weight last year and had been wrestling at 145 this season until last weekend).

On to the girls hoops rankings (boys are to follow):

GIRLS
1. Hanford (14-3, 4-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 1) — I'm quite sure that at this point, the Bullpups weren't nearly as concerned with a couple more blowout league victories than they were in edging El Dorado Hills-Oak Ridge, ranked No. 15 in the state by MaxPreps, on Saturday.
LAST WEEK: W 72-31 at Visalia-El Diamante, W 79-35 at Hanford West, W 70-68 vs. El Dorado Hills-Oak Ridge
THIS WEEK: Friday vs. Visalia-Mt. Whitney

2. Clovis West (10-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 2) — Finally, at long last, we'll see how the Golden Eagles fare against the rest of the Tri-River Athletic Conference, as the three big-school leagues up north get going. Or, I should say, how the rest of TRAC will fare against CW.
LAST WEEK: W 68-47 vs. Sacramento-St. Francis
THIS WEEK: Monday (today) at Lynwood, Tuesday vs. Fresno-Central, Friday at Clovis-Buchanan

3. Stockdale (14-4, 3-0 SWYL, Division I, last week: 3) — It sounds funny to say this, because Stockdale has outscored section opponents by an average of 32 points a game, but it's the unfortunate truth for the Mustangs: They're just not quite other-worldly like the two teams above them.
LAST WEEK: W 91-45 vs. Frontier, W 82-55 vs. Ridgeview
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Centennial, Friday at West

4. Fresno-Edison (14-2, 0-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 4) — It's already pretty safe to assume the Tigers will be traveling to Bakersfield to play Stockdale in the Division I semifinals, with the winner facing Clovis West at Selland Arena. Stockdale won the first meeting 80-67.
LAST WEEK: W 55-47 at Clovis-Buchanan
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Clovis North, Thursday vs. No. 12 Fresno-Bullard

5. Fresno-Roosevelt (14-2, 0-0 NYL, Division III, last week: 5) — Big blog post over the weekend about a possible new league realignment based on performance level in Kern County is already reality in Fresno County. That's why it's good to see a lower-tier school like Roosevelt beating up the big boys (11-1 against TRAC and CMAC schools).
LAST WEEK: W 62-39 at Fresno-Hoover, W 66-48 vs. Fresno-Washington Union
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Fresno-SJ Memorial, Thursday vs. Madera South

6. Porterville (18-0, 3-0 EYL, Division III, last week: 8) — You'll notice I changed the Panthers' record to reflect their true unbeaten status — the only loss was a forfeit to Visalia-Redwood caused by a lack of players — only Porterville had told the tournament committee they wouldn't have enough to play at that time. Either way, Porterville is the only boys or girls team in the section that hasn't lost on the court.
LAST WEEK: W 57-37 vs. Delano, W 42-34 at Tulare Union
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Cesar Chavez, Friday vs. Porterville-Granite Hills

7. Garces (17-1, 3-0 SEYL, Division II, last week: 7) — I've boosted Porterville ahead of Garces based on a slight advantage in strength of schedule and the whole undefeated thing. Garces' only win over a ranked team was at No. 15 Bakersfield by two points.
LAST WEEK: W 70-21 vs. Foothill
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at East, Thursday vs. Liberty

8. Oakhurst-Yosemite (7-8, 0-0 NSL, Division II, last week: 6) — Fresno Christian is no slouch, but the Badgers' latest loss is a little less forgivable then some earlier ones. Still, you should see that record get a lot better now that North Sequoia League play has begun.
LAST WEEK: W 60-59 at Clovis East, L 69-61 vs. Fresno Christian
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Tollhouse-Sierra, Friday vs. Madera Ranchos-Liberty

9. Sanger (14-3, 0-0 CMAC, Division II, last week: 12) — The Apaches lost their 50-points-or-less streak on defense, but this is a consistent team. The only thing keeping the ranking from being even higher is an early loss to Hanford West.
LAST WEEK: W 41-21 at No. 10 Fresno-Sunnyside, W 59-53 at Fresno-Central
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Fresno-Hoover, Thursday vs. Clovis North

10. Visalia-Redwood (18-5, 3-1 WYL, Division II, last week: 11) — A nice rebound from the Rangers after their 76-32 shellacking at the hands of Clovis West. The Rangers have won three in a row and should take second in a tough West Yosemite League.
LAST WEEK: W 47-25 vs. Lemoore, W 63-28 vs. Visalia-El Diamante
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Visalia-Golden West

11. Clovis (14-9, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 14) — No team in the section has moved as fast as the Cougars have in the past two weeks. They were hardly on anyone's radar until racking up back-to-back wins against Bullard, plus triumphs over Corcoran and Sunnyside.
LAST WEEK: W 63-47 vs. No. 9 Fresno-Bullard, W 47-42 vs. No. 10 Fresno-Sunnyside
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Clovis East, Friday vs. Madera

12. Fresno-Bullard (12-8, 0-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 9) — With an immediate chance to redeem themselves after a tournament loss to Clovis, the Knights lost worse, probably putting themselves on the road for the Division I quarterfinals unless they can run the table in a tough County-Metro Athletic Conference.
LAST WEEK: L 63-47 at No. 14 Clovis
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Reedley, Thursday at No. 4 Fresno-Edison

13. Porterville-Monache (16-4, 4-0 EYL, Division II, last week: 13) — What's turned into a huge game is a week from Tuesday, when Monache will have a chance to give Porterville its first loss. In the meantime, the Marauders have a toughie this week.
LAST WEEK: W 48-45 vs. Tulare Western, W 62-32 at Chavez
THIS WEEK: Thursday at Tulare Union

14. Fresno-Sunnyside (14-5, 0-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 10) — Coaches are always looking for more work to do, so maybe, in a way, last week was good for the Panthers. That's quite a spin job, I know, but at least this stretch didn't come in league or playoffs.
LAST WEEK: L 41-21 vs. No. 12 Sanger, L 47-42 at No. 14 Clovis
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Fresno, Thursday at Fresno-McLane

15. Bakersfield (13-6, 2-1 SEYL, Division I, last week: 15) — The competition level obviously wasn't what BHS will be facing later, but the Drillers allowed exactly 3 points per quarter last week. That's worthy of a shout-out.
LAST WEEK: W 59-13 at Foothill, W 50-11 at East
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Liberty, Thursday at Highland

Dropped out: none
Waiting: Corcoran, Tulare Union, SLO-Mission Prep, Fresno Christian, Fresno-Central, North, Kingsburg, Clovis East, Golden Valley, Centennial

It's no secret that there are some problems with the way things are organized in the Central Section. Some of these problems are the section's own fault — seriously, do we need six watered-down playoff divisions and a universal open invitation to the playoffs?

But that is (and was) an argument for another day. Today I'm more concerned with how the section is tackling the problems inherent with high school sports just about everywhere. There are demographic and competitive disadvantages at some schools. I mean, let's face it: If 30 percent of the student body at, say, Foothill High School (and I'm just picking a school and a number; I don't have any real data) is ineligible, how can you expect the Trojans to compete with schools that have similar enrollment but only a 5 percent ineligiblility rate? Add to that the fact that kids who grow up in well-off households have better access to equipment, facilities, traveling teams and coaching, and you've got a mismatch.

So, then, what to do about it? Kern County's answer for years has been to simply split the teams up geographically, with a couple of small adjustments to make the two leagues somewhat equal (most notably moving Liberty to the Southeast Yosemite League). And while I have no big problem with that, it gets a little old to look through nightly box scores and read about Stockdale vs. South girls tennis, or Bakersfield vs. East football every night of the week. It's no secret that not all schools are on equal footing.

So here's the part about where the section might be doing something about it. I spoke with Bill Ver Heul, who's the Central Section commissioner for South Area schools, on Friday, and he clued me in on the process for league realignment. The section is reviewing four proposals for the new league system (effective in 2010-11). Keep in mind that Independence and Mira Monte would presumably be in the picture at that point.

Section commissioners will narrow those four proposals down to two on Wednesday. We'll know much, much more then, and Ver Heul was reluctant to give me many details on what any of the proposals could be (he thought there could be some last-minute changes before he disclosed anything). But because I'm impatient, and because we all like to have fun, let's speculate on what those proposals could be.

I think it's pretty clear that another league will be added. Independence and Mira Monte make 15 public city schools, and when you add Garces, that's eight a league. And Bakersfield Christian might be ready to leap to a Yosemite League too. You don't want eight or nine teams in one league.

So what's the solution? One rumor that's been floating around is that the section will split up the leagues by performance level — creating a power league, a mid-level league and a lower-level league. The Fresno area already does this, to a certain extent: The Tri-River Athletic Conference has the Clovis schools, plus Madera and Central (and I've heard one or both of those latter two is trying to get out). The County-Metro Athletic Conference is Fresno-Bullard, Fresno-Edison and a handful of other schools, and then the lower level is the North Yosemite League, which houses Fresno-Roosevelt, Sunnyside, McLane, etc.

So what would that look like in Bakersfield? Here's my idea:

Power league (should we go back to South Yosemite League, or call it something like the "Kern River Athletic Conference"?
Bakersfield
Centennial
Frontier
Liberty
Stockdale

Mid-level league (whichever of the above isn't taken)
Bakersfield Christian
East
Garces
Independence
North
Ridgeview
West

Lower-level league (I'm open to suggestions — how 'bout the Alfred Harrell Yosemite League?)
Foothill
Golden Valley
Highland
Mira Monte
South

These are just starting points, mind you — Bakersfield Christian may or may not want to leave the South Sequoia League, and you could swap some of the teams in the lower two leagues for one another, but this would basically be your alignment.

One side note: Independence, I would think, would want a couple of years in the mid-level league until it was ready to jump to the top — in 2010-11, the Falcons won't even have seniors yet. Then, for the next realignment in 2012-13, IHS could jump to the power league. At that point, there would be six teams in each of the first two leagues and five in the last — even and manageable numbers.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages? There'd be two or three great games every night in the power league, and all three leagues would be competitive, especially in given sports — that mid-level league would be a basketball power this year, and the lower level has a bunch of good boys soccer teams. The top league would also gain section-wide respect on the level of the TRAC up north.

At the same time, the lower leagues could be ignored by about everyone but themselves at times, and you might step into a situation where teams are playing all league opponents in the playoffs.

What do you think? Is it fair to relegate some schools to "lower" divisions? Is it fair to make them stay and compete with schools that have more resources and better teams? Should schools be able to choose their league? Who would win these leagues in most sports? We'll know more later in the week, but let's start talking now.

OK, OK, I thought about going with "Girls soccer, come on down" as the title today, but a joke is only funny for so long. Going to have to give that one up.

Today is the time for girls soccer, where the big three are (again) Bakersfield, Stockdale and Liberty. In what order? Well, that's mostly to be determined. Here are the head-to-head results so far:

Stockdale 1, Bakersfield 1 (at Garces tournament; Stockdale win on PKs)
Stockdale 0, Liberty 0 (at Garces tournament; Stockdale win on PKs)
Bakersfield 3, Stockdale 2 (at Bakersfield)
Liberty 3, Stockdale 3 (at Liberty)

So, that tells you ... well, it doesn't tell you much of anything. I guess if I were seeding the teams, I'd give BHS the No. 1 just because of that head-to-head win, but Stockdale did win the Garces tournament and is the defending section runner-up. Liberty has had the best results against Fresno-area competition, namely a 1-0 victory against three-time defending section champion Clovis-Buchanan. Buchanan has beaten Bakersfield twice by a combined 10-1 score. Stockdale beat Clovis West 4-0 for another coup.

The nice thing is that we'll get some closure here. Liberty plays at Bakersfield on Tuesday in the first of two showdowns, the second being on Feb. 12 to end the regular season. Then, we'll get all three of them — along with Buchanan and Clovis West and Clovis and Fresno-Bullard and everyone else — in the same playoff bracket.

The rest of the story in the Southeast Yosemite League is dimmer. Highland, the defending Division III champ, has a young team and Garces, though it was a gaudy 9-1-0 in non-league play, has taken beatings of 3-0 and 2-0 to Liberty and BHS. The Rams still might be a factor in the Division II playoffs.

As for the Southwest Yosemite League, it's still the Stockdale show, even though the Mustangs lost nine — count 'em, nine out of 11 — starters to graduation off of last year's great team. Stockdale has won its three league games by a combined 25-1, though it hasn't yet played perennial contender Centennial or surprising Ridgeview, which is 3-0-1 and travels to Stockdale tomorrow. The other school worth mentioning is Frontier, which took a 4-0-0 league record to Stockdale last night and left with a 3-1 beating.

The one other team around that should be mentioned in the same breath with at least that second tier of Frontier, Ridgeview, Centennial and Garces if not the big three is Bakersfield Christian. The Eagles look like the class of the South Sequoia League early on — BCHS has played just one league game but is 14-2-1 and has beaten Golden Valley and West easily. Tehachapi and perhaps Shafter or Taft will duke it out for second place in the SSL.

So there's lots to look forward to on the girls side of things. I should note one team I left out of yesterday's quicky glance at boys soccer was Bakersfield High. The Drillers are having a surprising season in a sport they're normally not top-notch successful in, and they beat East 5-0 tonight. So BHS is 3-2 in the SEYL and probably a solid third in the pecking order behind Golden Valley, which beat Liberty 2-0.

Also, note that there's some pretty high-level basketball going on around town tomorrow, between Stockdale's visit to Ridgeview — I'll be there to see some downright jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism — and Fresno-Edison visits Bakersfield in a matchup of  teams ranked in the section. On the girls side, Centennial visits North in a quality SWYL matchup.

And, oh by the way, wrestling fans: The Five Counties Invitational at Fountain Valley is this weekend, and Bakersfield and Tehachapi are looking to make some statewide noise. Got enough action to keep your eye on for the weekend?

I love predictive text. You know, like when your phone interprets you typing in two letters and tries to guess what word you're writing? Like "dating" turns to "eating," or "Smirnoff" turns to "smashed." (No kids, we don't condone alcohol use at School House Zach.)

Well, sometimes, predictive text does have its purpose. I don't know how many times I've been working on a blog and I'll start typing in the title, only to have the computer, with its infinite wisdom, complete my sentence for me. So I start typing "Central Section ..." and it comes up with "Central Section football rankings Week 8" or something clever like that.

Today the predictive text hit the jackpot. I couldn't think of a good title for my first boys soccer post of the year, so I just typed "Boys soccer" while I thought about it. And it comes up with what I wrote for a similar boys soccer post a year ago, "Boys soccer, come on down." Absolutely perfect. Now, I should have probably used my creativity skills and come up with something else, but this one fit exactly. So why bother?

Anyway, diatribe over. Let's get to the pitch, where things are quickly becoming serious.

We'll start in the Southeast Yosemite League, where the team to beat again is Golden Valley. The Bulldogs, in their few years of existence, have risen to the top of the Kern County area in the sport. I thought that after last season, when GV had an unlucky (read: hitting two posts and a crossbar and controlling the flow of play) 1-0 loss in the Division III Central Section championship against Fresno-Roosevelt, that this would be a down year with the loss of Noe Ramirez and Eddie Llanes to graduation. But that hasn't been the case so far. The Bulldogs have outscored opponents 54-8 behind defender Matt Clemons and forward Joel Juaregui and are 16-0-2 and 4-0-0 in the SEYL with a showdown with 3-0-1 Liberty coming tonight.

The Patriots are probably the area's second-best team, though Highland has been surprisingly good (a 1-0 win against East and a 0-0 draw with Liberty last week), and East has talent, though the Blades have struggled in league thus far.

In the Southwest Yosemite League, defending champion West is off to a fast start at 4-0-0 in the league (a December win against Stockdale isn't included as a league game in those linked standings, but it should be), but the Vikings' dynamics are changing. Amilcar Escobar, who leads all area players listed on MaxPreps with 17 goals, didn't make grades in the first semester and is done for the year. Without his offense available for West, it'll be interesting to see if the league race opens up. Centennial, Stockdale and possibly South are there to jump up if the Vikings should falter.

Another defending champion, Wasco, probably is the team to watch in the South Sequoia League. The Tigers had a huge early-season win at Liberty, though they've since lost to Bakersfield and Centennial. The other team that can challenge for a league title is Arvin, which has scored more than three goals in six games. The Bears travel to Wasco on Tuesday and get a home game against the Tigers on Feb. 10.

Girls soccer glance tomorrow, probably without the useless intro. Also, in case you were interested, some fresh wrestling rankings since the one I linked to yesterday was from before the Doc Buchanan.

It was kind of an up-and-down weekend for Kern County up at the Doc Buchanan Invitational in Clovis.

There is a lot to look forward to from local wrestlers — Greg Kapler was downright dominant through four rounds — as he had been all season — before being tripped up in the tournament championship by Ben Mandell of Orangevale-Casa Roble. Seth Hicks is the headliner, though, as he remained undefeated with a run of three pins and two major decisions.

This is nothing to sneeze at, folks. The Doc B is one of two tournaments (along with Fountain Valley's Five Counties Tournament, which is next weekend) that are often seen as the precursor to the state meet. In this case, it's also a preview of who will be the favorites to win the section titles in late February. There were two notable Central Section teams missing: Selma, ranked in the state's top 5, and East, which isn't deep but throws out three guys — Marc Collier, Peter Gonzalez and Antonio Hernandez — who could win section titles at 112, 119 and heavyweight.

There were a few disappointments. Bakersfield High was the area's top scorer as a team, as expected, but the Drillers didn't take home an individual Doc B champion for just the second time since 1999. 215-pounder Brian Schoene was closest, reaching the championship before losing to Drew Meulman of Mountain View-St. Francis. Schoene still is ranked No. 1 in the Central Section (those rankings were made before the Doc B).

Jonah Cruz, who wrestled at 145 pounds but might drop to 140 by the postseason, and Bryce Hammond at 152 both made the semifinals for the Drillers, but Cruz, a two-time state placer, lost to Lemoore's Nicholas Sierra and finished third, and Hammond injury defaulted to sixth place with a bum ankle. The Drillers' 160-pounder, Jose Ramirez, placed fourth, and 140-pounder Silas Nacita was one victory from placing (he lost in overtime). Still, it's safe to say BHS has work to do if it wants to improve on a 10th-place finish here by the time state rolls around March 6 at Rabobank Arena, where all the contenders will be present.

As for Frontier, a team I like to think of as a budding wrestling powerhouse, the Titans didn't have a single placewinner. This isn't too big of a shock, considering Frontier didn't have a seeded wrestler, but I really thought this might be the time we'd see some FHS wrestlers announce their presence. They were achingly close — four Frontier wrestlers were one win away from placing and four others were two wins away — but that didn't help the new kids on the block rise above a tie for 23rd place.

Other place-winners from Kern were Foothill's Derik Rizo, third at 130, and Angel Posadas, seventh at heavyweight; Shafter's Rene Medina, sixth at 171; and Centennial's Austin Ballard, eighth at 140.

Clovis-Buchanan nipped host Clovis for the team title, the third time the Bears have narrowly beaten the No. 1, defending state champion Cougars this year. I'd say a shakeup in the ranking might be necessary.

See girls rankings below or at this link.

BOYS
1. Clovis East (13-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 1) — The Timberwolves solidified their spot at the top with a rout of Fresno-Edison last week. They have enough tests sprinkled into the rest of the schedule to keep things interesting.
LAST WEEK: W 91-64 vs. Modesto Christian, W 91-74 vs. No. 6 Fresno-Edison
THIS WEEK: Friday vs. No. 10 Fresno-SJ Memorial

2. Clovis West (10-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 3) — A win against St. Mary's of Stockton doesn't carry the same oomph that it would in the girls game, but the Golden Eagles have done plenty enough out of the section to prove they're a team to beat in it.
LAST WEEK: W 78-36 vs. Stockton-St. Mary's
THIS WEEK: no games

3. Garces (10-5, 2-0 SEYL, Division II, last week: 4) — Can you really put the Rams ahead of Liberty when they lost to the Patriots at home just a couple of weeks ago? Let's just say I was impressed by the Rams on Thursday, when they scored three points a minute against BHS. A lot of teams don't even get a possession a minute.
LAST WEEK: W 81-58 at Golden Valley, W 96-77 vs. No. 10 Bakersfield
THIS WEEK: Thursday at Foothill

4. Clovis (13-7, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 5) — Three of the section's top four teams in the TRAC. Hmm, seems like football. But just wait until the 2010-11 school year. Word on the street is a similar power league is being planned for the Valley's southern half.
LAST WEEK: W 50-45 at Fresno-Hoover, W 61-59 at No. 9 Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial
THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Fresno-Bullard

5. Liberty (13-3, 0-1 SEYL, Division II, last week: 2) — Anyone else find it ironic that Liberty and Garces could meet for the Division II championship and it would be in Fresno? Seems like there's a problem with that system. Anyway, the team the Pats lost to this week might have something to say about it, too.
LAST WEEK: L 69-67 vs. East, W 83-76 vs. Stockdale
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Highland, Thursday at Golden Valley 

6. Fresno-Sunnyside (11-4, 0-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 8) — Here's another player for that D-II championship. Keep in mind that this was the only team able to even stay close to Oakland-McClymonds in the Clovis Elks Tournament two weeks ago.
LAST WEEK: W 67-28 vs. Sanger
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Clovis-Buchanan, Friday at Fresno-Hoover

7. Centennial (12-3, 1-0 SWYL, Division I, last week: 7) — A couple of unimpressive wins for the Golden Hawks last week, though the schedule didn't allow for any statements, other than one made by sophomore Cody Kessler (30 vs. Bullard, 21 vs. West).
LAST WEEK: W 67-64 at Fresno-Bullard, W 63-53 at West
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. South, Friday at North

8. Fresno-Central (12-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 11) — The Grizzlies are the section's mover and shaker of the week after wins against Edison (erasing a 25-point loss earlier this year) and Fresno (less impressive). Keep your eye out: This could be the TRAC's sleeper.
LAST WEEK: W 66-65 vs. Fresno-Edison, W 61-51 vs. Fresno
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 10 Fresno-SJ Memorial

9. Fresno-Edison (11-6, 0-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 6) — Neither the loss to Central nor a blowout to Clovis East is horrible, but it's hard to imagine this team making a bigtime run come playoff time unless consistency improves.
LAST WEEK: L 66-65 at No. 11 Fresno-Central, L 91-74 at No. 1 Clovis East
THIS WEEK: Friday at No. 11 Bakersfield

10. Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial (11-6, 0-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 9) — If nothing else, this is certainly a team that challenges itself, so you can trust that record. A loss to Clovis last week, games against two more ranked teams this week.
LAST WEEK: W 46-42 at Kingsburg, L 61-59 vs. No. 5 Clovis
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. No. 8 Fresno-Central, Friday at No. 1 Clovis East

11. Bakersfield (10-4, 0-1 SEYL, Division I, last week: 10) — Make no mistake: The Drillers need Dijon Henry, who's been out because of disciplinary reasons, to be in the lineup. Without him, BHS got a scrappy win against Stockdale, then tried to run-and-gun with Garces and nearly gave up 100.
LAST WEEK: W 70-66 at Stockdale, L 96-77 at No. 4 Garces
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Foothill, Thursday vs. East

12. Lemoore (16-4, 1-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 12) — The Tigers proved at Hanford West this week that they're one of two teams to beat in a so-so West Yosemite League.
LAST WEEK: W 58-50 at Hanford West, W 71-46 vs. Porterville
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Visalia-Redwood, Thursday at Visalia-Mt. Whitney

My apologies for posts being so few and far between. I'm still getting settled back into the flow of things in the office, and that includes coming up with content again when during football season, the blog was on a very tight schedule. I'm going to do better, I promise.

To that end,  I will post some thoughts on the Doc Buchanan Invitational — one of California wrestling's biggest in-season tournaments, and what we can look for from local wrestling in the next seven weeks before the state tournament. Also, I'll post a preview-of-sorts of both boys and girls soccer before too long.

We've also got some major news that looks like it's pretty close to being a reality as far as the league structure in Kern County. We'll get to that too.

For today, I owe you basketball rankings. A couple of surprises in boys and girls hoops last week. Girls rankings follow; boys rankings are in the post above this one. As always, let me know if you have suggestions, criticisms or comments on the blog.

GIRLS
1. Hanford (11-3, 2-0 WYL, Division II, last week: 1) — We mentioned last week that the Bullpups' losses have come to teams ranked in the state's top 10 and the nation's top 25. So what does that mean when they play local competition? Well, see the scores below. Oy. Don't want to say it without having been at the game, but that sure looks like running up the score to me.
LAST WEEK: W 76-32 at No. 11 Visalia-Redwood, W 108-17 vs. Visalia-Golden West
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Visalia-El Diamante, Thursday at Hanford West

2. Clovis West (9-4, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 2) — Still another week before league play starts for the Golden Eagles, who will instead play teams from outside the section to earn some style points for the Valley (after St. Francis, CW plays Lynwood on Monday.)
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Sacramento-St. Francis.

3. Stockdale (12-4, 1-0 SWYL, Division I, last week: 3) — The Mustangs haven't lost a home game since the 2006 playoffs and haven't lost a league game since that season, either. Neither streak will be in jeopardy this week.
LAST WEEK: W 64-47 at No. 15 Bakersfield, W 71-48 at North, W 71-22 at Liberty
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Frontier, Friday vs. Ridgeview

4. Fresno-Edison (13-2, 0-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 5) — Fantastic week at Buchanan's New Year's tournament for Edison, which went 5-0 with wins over three ranked teams.
LAST WEEK: W 56-47 vs. No. 12 Corcoran, W 57-34 vs. Madera, W 61-53 vs. Clovis, W 45-40 vs. No. 4 Fresno-Roosevelt, W 50-27 vs. No. 9 Fresno-Sunnyside
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Clovis-Buchanan

5. Fresno-Roosevelt (11-2, 0-0 NYL, Division III, last week: 4) — All in all, a successful week for Roosevelt at the New Year's Classic. The Roughriders beat Clovis a third time, knocked off Corcoran and escaped against host Buchanan. Now they'll turn their attention to a league that they and Sunnyside should dominate.
LAST WEEK: W 64-38 vs. Madera, W 58-26 vs. Clovis, W 45-37 vs. No. 12 Corcoran, L 45-40 vs. No. 5 Fresno-Edison, W 46-45 at Clovis-Buchanan
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Fresno-Hoover, Thursday vs. Fresno-Washington Union

6. Oakhurst-Yosemite (6-7, 0-0 NSL, Division II, last week: 7) — The Badgers justified their lofty ranking last week with a victory at San Juan Capistrano-JSerra Catholic, a Southern Section team that was 13-3. Now there's one more week of tests before league play begins.
LAST WEEK: W 49-46 at San Juan Capistrano-JSerra Catholic
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Clovis East, Thursday vs. Fresno Christian 

7. Garces (16-1, 2-0 SEYL, Division II, last week: 6) — There's two ways to look at the Rams' two-point win at main league rival Bakersfield last week: (1) there's no way a top-5 team in this section should have that much trouble with rebuilding BHS or (2) Garces just escaped was was likely its toughest remaining game in the regular season.
LAST WEEK: W 59-29 vs. Golden Valley, W 51-49 at No. 15 Bakersfield
THIS WEEK: Thursday vs. Foothill 

8. Porterville (16-1, 1-0 EYL, Division III, last week: 10) — Should be a pretty interesting East Yosemite League race between Porterville, Monache, Tulare Union and even Delano or Tulare Western, which have both shown some spunk. No reason not to think the Panthers are the favorites, though.
LAST WEEK: W 44-28 vs. Tulare Western
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Delano, Friday at Tulare Union

9. Fresno-Bullard (12-7, 0-0 CMAC, Division I, last week: 8) — The Knights took a beating at the Buchanan tournament, losing to both unranked Clovis and the unranked hosts. So why only a punishment of one spot? No one else can really claim No. 9, that's why.
LAST WEEK: W 54-26 vs. Fresno, W 39-34 vs. No. 9 Fresno-Sunnyside, L 35-27 vs. Clovis-Buchanan, W 35-33 vs. Reedley, L 51-47 vs. Clovis
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 14 Clovis

10. Fresno-Sunnyside (13-3, 0-0 NYL, Division II, last week: 9) — You're going to notice a trend here: Teams that didn't have great weeks not dropping that far. I still think the Wildcats are one of the section's 10 best teams, a couple of losses to other ranked teams or not.
LAST WEEK: W 51-19 vs. Reedley, L 39-34 vs. No. 8 Fresno-Bullard, W 39-17 vs. Fresno, W 45-38 at Clovis-Buchanan, L 50-27 vs. No. 5 Fresno-Edison, W 59-50 vs. Fresno-Central
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. No. 12 Sanger, Thursday at No. 14 Clovis

11. Visalia-Redwood (16-5, 1-1 WYL, Division II, last week: 11) — It's hard not to punish a team that lost by 44 points, but again, there's not someone else more worthy below. This is very much a year of the haves and have-nots in girls basketball. Besides, Hanford will do that to a lot of teams.
LAST WEEK: L 76-32 vs. No. 1 Hanford, W 45-39 at Hanford West
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Lemoore, Thursday vs. Visalia-El Diamante

12. Sanger (12-3, 0-0 CMAC, Division II, last week: 13) — The Apaches didn't allow double-figure points in any quarter in Friday's win against Memorial and haven't allowed more than 50 points since a loss to Roosevelt on Dec. 6. That defense will win you lots of games.
LAST WEEK: W 57-20 vs. Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 10 Fresno Sunnyside, Thursday at Fresno-Central

13. Porterville-Monache (14-4, 2-0 EYL, Division II, last week: 14) — There's a good chance for the Marauders to run their East Yosemite League record to 4-0 or even 5-0 before next week, when things get more difficult at Tulare Union and home against Porterville.
LAST WEEK: W 82-22 vs. Porterville-Granite Hills, W 45-42 at Delano

14. Clovis (12-9, 0-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: NR) — Part of me says it's too much to jump the Cougars to the rankings when they weren't even on the Waiting List last week, but that's what four of five games against ranked opponents — and a 3-2 record — will do for you. Most likely they'll either fall out or shoot further up this week.
LAST WEEK: W 61-60 vs. No. 12 Corcoran, L 58-26 vs. No. 4 Fresno-Roosevelt, L 61-53 vs. No. 5 Fresno-Edison, W 61-52 vs. Madera, W 51-47 vs. No. 8 Fresno-Bullard
THIS WEEK: vs. No. 9 Fresno-Bullard, vs. No. 10 Fresno-Sunnyside

15. Bakersfield (11-6, 0-1 SEYL, Division I, last week: 15) — Nope, not going to punish the Drillers for an 0-2 week in which they gave No. 3 Stockdale a run for a half — more than anyone else in Bakersfield has done in more than a year — and then lost by two to No. 6 Garces. Any more losses against a weak slate the rest of the month, though, and it's buh-bye.
LAST WEEK: L 64-47 vs. No. 3 Stockdale, L 51-49 vs. No. 6 Garces
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Foothill, Thursday at East

Dropped out: No. 12 Corcoran
Waiting: Corcoran, Tulare Union, Hanford West, SLO-Mission Prep, Clovis East, North, Kingsburg, Clovis-Buchanan, Fresno-Central, Fresno Christian, Visalia-El Diamante, Golden Valley, Centennial

Faithful School House Zach readers will remember a couple of weeks ago when I promised a winter sports podcast, then continually failed to deliver. Well, at long last, here it is. We had some technical problems while switching to a new Web server, but those should be in the past now.

Keep in mind as you listen that this was recorded in the middle of the Garces tournament — before Christmas, that is. I'm posting it because most of the information is still relevant and it contains a general look at most of Kern County's best boys basketball teams.

Joining me on the podcast is local boys basketball expert/Californian copy editor Ron Stapp. We'll try to get into doing this every week with some focus on girls basketball, wrestling and soccer in there as well.

The second podcast should be out by next week. In the meantime, I'll throw out this addendum: East upset Liberty 69-67 in the SEYL opener tonight, and Bakersfield beat Stockdale to avenge one of its three losses. Garces and BHS play Thursday's big game.

Also, in case you missed them, are boys and girls basketball rankings from this past weekend.

See girls rankings below or at this link.

BOYS
1. Clovis East (11-4, Division I, last year: D-I champion) — All of the Timberwolves' losses have been out of the section, and they've beaten Liberty, Porterville-Monache and East in winning the Kern Schools Federal Credit Union Lloyd Williams tournament.
LAST WEEK: W 92-83 vs. East, L 70-68 vs. Sacramento-Sheldon.
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Modesto Christian, Friday vs. No. 6 Fresno-Edison

2. Liberty (11-2, Division II, last year: lost in D-II first round) — Clovis West has played a better schedule, but for now I'm giving this spot to the Central Section team you just have to see play if you're a fan of team basketball. Every player, from leading scorer Westin Hill to the last man on the bench, is on the same page, and it showed in wins against L.A.-Crenshaw, Stockdale, Centennial and Garces.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. East, Friday at Stockdale

3. Clovis West (8-3, Division I, last year: D-I runner-up) — Three close wins against good Southern Cal teams at a tournament in Santa Barbara this week shows you this team will be a championship contender. Wins against Visalia-Central Valley Christian and Fresno-Edison are their only results against Central Section teams.
LAST WEEK: W 77-72 vs. Pacific Palisades-Palisades, W 59-56 vs. Agoura
THIS WEEK: Friday vs. Stockton-St. Mary's

4. Garces (8-5, Division II, last year: D-IV champion) — That this team is good is obvious just from watching for five minutes. What the Rams lack, at least at this early junction, is the consistency that could make them the section's best.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Golden Valley, Thursday vs. No. 10 Bakersfield

5. Clovis (11-7, Division I, last year: lost in D-I quarterfinals) — Six of those losses are against out-of-section competition, the other against Garces by six in the second game of the season. The Cougars, who are getting it done without a player taller than 6-foot-6, have comfortable wins against Visalia-Redwood, Hanford, Ridgeview and Edison.
LAST WEEK: L 83-76 vs. El Cerrito, W 80-65 vs. Cerritos-Gahr
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Fresno-Hoover, Friday at No. 9 Fresno-SJ Memorial

6. Fresno-Edison (11-4, Division I, last year: D-II champion) — The Tigers surely wish they still had Greg Smith, the section's best big man last year who transferred to Phoenix-Westwind Prep. But they're doing all right without him.
LAST WEEK: W 75-73 vs. San Diego-Hoover, L 64-36 vs. Oakland-McClymonds, W 60-59 vs. El Cerrito
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 11 Fresno-Central, Friday at No. 1 Clovis East

7. Centennial (10-3, Division I, last year: D-II runner-up) — One of a few teams taking the week off after the Garces tournament, the Golden Hawks finds themselves in Division I after losing D-II title game last year. But how has Liberty, which beat Centennial and won the Garces tourney, not joined them?
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Fresno-Bullard, Friday at West

8. Fresno-Sunnyside (10-4, Division II, last year: lost in D-I quarterfinals) — The Central Section, flashing one of its illogical bouts, has just 10 teams in Division I boy basketball. Div. II, though, will be a nice consolation prize for Liberty, Garces, Sunnyside, Memorial and Lemoore to fight over.
LAST WEEK: L 65-50 vs. Oakland-McClymonds, L 73-44 vs. San Diego-Hoover
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Sanger

9. Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial (10-5, Division II, last year: D-IV runner-up) — A bit of an ugly stretch in which the Panthers lost four of six was erased with wins against Bakersfield and Clovis-Buchanan in the Clovis Elks Tournament.
LAST WEEK: W 61-59 vs. No. 10 Bakersfield, W 58-53 vs. Clovis-Buchanan
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Kingsburg, Friday vs. No. 5 Clovis

10. Bakersfield (9-3, Division I, last year: lost in D-I quarterfinals) — The Drillers have a nice young corps, but they'll rise and fall with the performance of Dijon Henry inside. This is a big, big week.
LAST WEEK: L 61-59 vs. No. 9 Fresno-SJ Memorial, W vs. Fresno-Hoover
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at Stockdale, Thursday at Garces

11. Fresno-Central (9-4, Division I, last year: lost in D-I semifinals) — Not a great Clovis Elks tourney for the Grizzlies, who finished with a squeaker against Bullard and before that lost games to Bakersfield, 6-11 Oakland and to McClymonds by 42 (!).
LAST WEEK: L 73-70 vs. Oakland, W 72-71 vs. Bullard
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. No. 6 Fresno-Edison, Friday vs. Fresno

12. Lemoore (14-4, Division II, last year: lost in D-II quarterfinals) — This is like the Bakersfield High of basketball: The Tigers can beat anybody (Sunnyside, Memorial) or lose to anyone (Visalia-Redwood, Porterville-Monache).
LAST WEEK: W 96-47 vs. Delano, L 55-52 vs. Monache, W 84-44 vs. Porterville-Granite HIlls, W 81-66 vs. Visalia-Golden West
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at Hanford West, Friday vs. Porterville

13. Hanford (11-5, Division II, last year: D-III champion) — Football standout Cougar Williams might be even better in basketball, and the Bullpups won't shy away from anyone now that they're up in Division II.
LAST WEEK: W 64-55 vs. El Cerrito, W 75-69 vs. Cerritos-Gahr, L 72-40 vs. Oakland-McClymonds
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. Visalia-Redwood, Friday at Visalia-Golden West

14. San Luis Obispo-Mission Prep (10-8, Division V, last year: lost in D-V semifinals) — It's hard to get a read on a team that has played most of its games out of the section, but a victory against CVC is good enough for me. With Bakersfield Christian and Reedley-Immanuel out of the way, it'd be a surprise if the two didn't meet again for the D-V championship.
LAST WEEK: L 69-59 vs. Lake Balboa-Birmingham, L 54-39 vs. Tucson (Ariz)-Catalina Foothills, W 59-53 vs. No. 15 Visalia-Central Valley Christian, W 52-33 vs. Fresno Christian
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Arroyo Grande-Coastal Christian, Friday vs. Fowler

15. Visalia-Central Valley Christian (12-4, Division V, last year: lost in D-V semifinals) — This year's CVC team announced its intentions with a one-point loss at Clovis West in an early tournament. They've stayed relevant with wins against East, Redwood and El Diamante.
LAST WEEK: L 59-53 at No. 14 SLO-Mission Prep, W 66-27 at Cambria-Coast Union
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Coalinga, Friday vs. Reedley-Immanuel

Waiting (in order): Stockdale, Visalia-Redwood, Clovis-Buchanan, Bakersfield Christian, Hanford West, Visalia-El Diamante, Porterville-Monache, Ridgeview, Fresno-Bullard, East

I'm going to attempt boys and girls basketball rankings in the Central Section, just like we did at School House Zach for football in the fall.

Before I start, I need to admit that this is going to be difficult and probably somewhat controversial among area basketball fans.

Football rankings are pretty easy to do because each team plays just once a week and you rarely see a rematch, much less two teams playing three or more times. In basketball, that happens all the time.

So consider these rankings just a jumping-off point for following boys and girls basketball in the Central Section as league play starts this week. I'll update this (hopefully) every weekend, and, once we wade through some persistent technical difficulties, we'll have a winter sports podcast in the middle of every week, too.

GIRLS
1. Hanford (9-3, Division II, last year: D-III champion) — Don't doubt the Bullpups' credentials: They've lost to only San Bernardino-Cajon, Brea Olinda and Stockton-St. Mary's, teams ranked Nos. 2, 3 and 6 in the state by MaxPreps and in the top 10 nationally. Guess who checks in at No. 4 in California? Yep, Hanford, which knocked off Clovis West in an early-season showdown.
LAST WEEK: W 79-62 vs. Concord-Carondelet, W 81-74 vs. Antioch-Deer Valley, L 76-48 vs. Brea Olinda
THIS WEEK: Wednesday at No. 11 Visalia-Redwood, Friday vs. Visalia-Golden West

2. Clovis West (9-4, Division I, last year: D-I champion) — Another team that has only losses to nationally ranked teams, though in the Golden Eagles' case that includes a four-point defeat to Hanford.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: no games

3. Stockdale (9-4, Division I, last year: D-I runner-up) — Melissa Sweat, Jalei Kinder and company are back as juniors, and they won't likely be tested again until the D-I championship, where they'd love another crack at Clovis West.
LAST WEEK: W 67-34 vs. No. 14 Porterville-Monache, W 66-51 vs. San Mateo-Aragon
THIS WEEK: Tuesday at No. 15 Bakersfield, Wednesday at North, Friday vs. Liberty

4. Fresno-Roosevelt (7-1, Division III, last year: lost in D-I first round) — The Rough Riders haven't played many games, but wins against Clovis (x2), Sanger, Clovis East, Clovis-Buchanan and Fresno-Bullard are pretty impressive.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Monday vs. Madera, Monday vs. Clovis

5. Fresno-Edison (8-3, Division I, last year: D-II runner-up) — Last we heard from the Tigers, they were losing a nail-biter to Centennial in the Division II section championship. Now, they've posted some impressive wins, including two over No. 7 Oakhurst-Yosemite, and been the only Central Section team to hang with Stockdale (losing by 13).
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Monday vs. Madera, Tuesday vs. Clovis

6. Garces (14-1, Division II, last year: D-IV champion) — This was the hardest team to rank in the section by far, mostly because the Rams have beaten up everyone (except one Southern Section opponent) but played none of the other top teams. I put them here because they haven't really given me a reason not to, especially after beat North by 15 in their tournament championship. We'll know more after a game at BHS this week.
LAST WEEK: W 61-25 vs. Ridgeview, W 68-16 vs. South, W 67-38 vs. Tehachapi, W 68-23 vs. Taft, W 62-47 vs. North
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Golden Valley, Thursday at No. 15 Bakersfield

7. Oakhurst-Yosemite (5-7, Division II, last year: D-III runner-up) — Don't be fooled by the record. Yosemite has a couple of impressive wins against Hanford West and Corcoran and has played a tough non-section slate. Two losses to Edison raise question marks for a team that competes in loaded Division II.
LAST WEEK: W 59-41 vs. Brentwood-Liberty, L 58-50 vs. Chula Vista-Mater Dei, L 56-50 vs. L.A.-Windward
THIS WEEK: Saturday at San Juan Capistrano-JSerra Catholic

8. Fresno-Bullard (9-5, Division I, last year: lost in D-I semifinals) — This is one team that just kind of snugly fits in the middle of the rankings. The good: wins against Sunnyside and Redwood. The bad: losses to Tulare Union, Kingsburg and Delano? Better hope you catch the Knights on a bad day.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Monday vs. Fresno, Monday vs. No. 9 Fresno-Sunnyside, Tuesday vs. Clovis-Buchanan, Tuesday vs. Reedley

9. Fresno-Sunnyside (9-1, Division II, last year: no playoffs) — This is a slug-it-out team that will make life difficult on anyone (see: 32-28 victory against Edison). We'll see if the Wildcats can keep up a surprising start.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Monday vs. No. 8 Fresno-Bullard, Friday vs. Fresno-Central

10. Porterville (15-1, Division III, last year: lost in D-II semifinals) — The gaudy record looks even better when you consider the Panthers' only loss was a forfeit to Redwood, which they later beat by 11. Ladies and gents, your Division III challenger to Roosevelt.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Tulare Western

11. Visalia-Redwood (15-4, Division II, last year: lost in D-III semifinals) — Another grind-it-out team that continues a trend: How deep is Division II going to be this year? Clovis West and Stockdale at the top make D-I tough, but adding Hanford and Garces to D-II makes this the bracket to watch (at least until the finals) in late February.
LAST WEEK: L 51-44 vs. San Mateo-Aragon, W 34-31 vs. No. 14 Porterville-Monache
THIS WEEK: Wednesday vs. No. 1 Hanford, Friday at Hanford West

12. Corcoran (10-4, Division IV, last year: lost in D-IV semifinals) — With Garces out of the picture, the Panthers take over as D-IV favorites. Why? They invited a bunch of D-II and D-III teams to their invite and took second behind Redwood, beating main D-IV challenger Exeter by 29 in the process.
LAST WEEK: no games
THIS WEEK: Monday vs. Clovis, Tuesday at Madera

13. Sanger (11-3, Division II, last year: lost in D-II quarterfinals) — The Apaches should be on the section's radar after going 3-1 at the West Coast Jamboree against Southern Section teams.
LAST WEEK: L 50-30 vs. Santee-West Hills, W 51-31 vs. Union City-Logan, W 39-34 vs. L.A.-Venice
THIS WEEK: Friday vs. Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial

14. Porterville-Monache (12-4, Division II, last year: lost in D-II quarterfinals) — I feel like I have every Division II team in the section in these rankings. The Marauders have the best nickname of the bunch (except maybe the Bullpups), but they'll find the sledding tough in the playoffs.
LAST WEEK: L 67-34 at No. 3 Stockdale, L 34-31 vs. No. 11 Visalia-Redwood
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. Porterville-Granite Hills, Thursday at Delano

15. Bakersfield (11-4, Division I, last year: lost in D-I semifinals) — The Drillers lost Alexi Smith, who transferred to Stockdale, and Asia Wofford, who graduated, off of last year's SEYL championship team, but they're plugging along with a new coach, Jimmy Henry, and plenty of talent left over. This week might be tough, though.
LAST WEEK: W 43-24 vs. Liberty, L 44-35 vs. San Luis Obispo
THIS WEEK: Tuesday vs. No. 3 Stockdale, Thursday vs. No. 6 Garces

Waiting (in order): Hanford West, Tulare Union, North, SLO-Mission Prep, Clovis East, Kingsburg, Fresno Christian, Visalia-El Diamante, Fresno-Central, Fresno-SJ Memorial, Centennial

Yesterday, we opened 2009 at School House Zach with an off-the-top-of-my-head list of the top 10 girls and boys athletes in Kern County high school sports in 2008. Today I'm going to do the same with coaches.

To me, this list can get really subjective. Is the best coach one who takes a talented team and does with it what he or see is supposed to, or one who enjoys moderate success with a team that you wouldn't expect to have any?

I guess I belive it's a bit of a mix. With that, enjoy, discuss and disagree with my top 10 coaches for boys sports and girls sports from 2008.

BOYS SPORTS
Honorable mention: Steven Anderson, Bakersfield track and field; Mark Camps, North football; Dave Hillestad, Stockdale tennis; Jim Keene, Stockdale golf; Tony Keller, Tehachapi wrestling; Joey Neptune, Tehachapi swimming; Randy Roberts, Centennial baseball; Adam Setser, Ridgeview cross country; Bobby Sharp, Ridgeview basketball; Robert Smith, West tennis

10. Gino Lacava, Garces basketball — With its tradition, fan base and, more than anything, support, Garces boys basketball might be the best job in the city, at least this side of Bakersfield High football. And Lacava has made himself synonymous with the program, leading it to extraordinary heights. Last season was one of his finest: A co-SEYL championship, a Division IV Central Section championship and a run to the state's Division IV quarterfinals, where Campbell Hall of North Hollywood ended the run.
2009: Every key contributor from last year's team is back for the Rams, who might have one of their best teams ever.

9. Troy Lynch, Golden Valley soccer — The end result wasn't exactly what Lynch wanted — a 1-0 loss to Fresno-Roosevelt in the Division III section title game, but he had his Bulldogs playing lights-out defense by the end of the year on their way to dominating the tough-as-nails Southeast Yosemite League.
2009: Lots of players from last year's team graduated, but Lynch has GVHS rolling again.

8. Tony Mills, Liberty baseball and football — Nobody else in the county can claim they won two Yosemite league titles last year except Mills. His baseball team was the class of the SEYL and even knocked off SWYL power Centennial once before losing a heartbreaker to Clovis East in the playoffs. His football team, in his first year, was perhaps the best team in town by the end of the year but ran into eventual champion Clovis West in a 14-6 loss in the quarterfinals.
2009: Mills' baseball team lost a few studs but should still be the class of the SEYL. The football team returns most of a defense that was its strength.

7. Mike Snow, Stockdale football — Another first-year football coach, Snow managed to completely alter Stockdale's offensive mentality and did it to the tune of an 8-2 record, a co-SWYL championship and a home game in the first round of the playoffs.
2009: As the Mustangs get more comfortable and experienced with Snow's Wing T, look out.

6. Alex Lee, Centennial basketball — One of better personality management jobs done around town was Lee's. He took a veteran team and integrated freshman point guard Cody Kessler into the lineup without bruising too many egos. The result was a co-SWYL championship and a runner-up finish in the Division II section playoffs.
2009: Kessler is now Lee's centerpiece, and the Golden Hawks have one of Bakersfield's better teams again.

5. Doug Barnett, Bakersfield Christian football — Among all the high-flying offense and blowout victories that surrounded BCHS football on its way to the Division V section title, let's not lose sight of how the season started for Barnett: Integrating Derek Carr onto a team that was already championship-caliber, then navigating it through the loss of teammate Patrick Allen.
2009: Barnett said late last season that he was excited to see what the group behind Carr, Jake Peterson, Colby Herron, Ryan Boschma et. al. would do when it was their time to shine. Consider my curiousty stoked.

4. Kirk Moore, Frontier wrestling — This is kind of an achievement placing more than what Moore did in particular last year. What he's done in three years is build Frontier from a brand-new school into the second-best wrestling program in the county (the first happens to be a state power). He's done it with a singular vision and focus.
2009: Expect the Titans to win their second straight SWYL title and then advance a couple of wrestlers to the state tournament for the first time in school history.

3. Wayne Brewer, Foothill track and field (throwing) — Brewer didn't win The Californian's Coach of the Year award last spring, mostly because he wasn't a head coach (he is now, at Independence), but the job he did with Dayshan Ragans was phenomenal over four years. He's responsible for turning him from a P.E. standout to a national-caliber thrower.
2009: We'll see if Brewer can uncover any similar diamonds in the rough as the head man of the Falcons team.

2. Steve Denman, Tehachapi football — Nobody shepherded his team through adversity like Denman. Early in the year, the Warriors were battered and beaten three of their first four games. But Denman wouldn't let them stop believing, and a victory against Hanford for Tehachapi's second straight D-III section title was the result.
2009: Tehachapi loses both of its stud running backs and some good defensive players, but I wouldn't want to be one to count the Warriors out.

1. Dan Lemon, Stockdale baseball — At long last, Lemon is a Central Section champion. And you can bet his no-big-deal, always-calm mentality had a lot to do with the fact that Stockdale one three nail-chewers against TRAC schools in the playoffs. But I also remember after one of the Mustangs' few losses seeing Lemon light into his team. For always knowing what buttons to push, Lemon tops this list.
2009: Oh, by the way. Stockdale is loaded in baseball this year. Lemon could have title No. 2 in his pocket by May.

GIRLS SPORTS
Honorable mention: Elise Bledsoe, Stockdale swimming; Tom Clarke, Bakersfield volleyball; Tom Ferralli, Highland soccer; Glenn Hager and Charles Stewart, Stockdale basketball; Janien McGowan, Stockdale soccer; Keith Perkins, Garces golf; Mac Robertson, Ridgeview swimming; Michal Robinson, Bakersfield Christian volleyball; Frank Thiessen, Bakersfield Christian tennis

10. Tony Bernardin, Frontier golf — Don't tell the Titans that Garces was supposed to be the class of Kern County girls golf last fall. Bernardin kept his young team confident and watched as they upstaged the Rams at the section championships to win the D-II title and advance to the Southern Cal regionals.
2009: Not a single senior was among Frontier's key charges, so Bernardin and Co. will be back.

9. Wayne Cherry, Centennial basketball — It was clear that the Golden Hawks didn't have as much talent as league rival Stockdale, but it was Centennial that got things together in the playoffs and made its way to a Division II section title that seemed unlikely even a few weeks beforehand.
2009: Centennial lost talent and Stockdale didn't, so the gap probably is widening. Cherry really has his work cut out for him this year.

8. Tod Denison, Garces basketball — Finally, a coach who could take the Garces girls team and match what the boys did. The two-loss regular season and section championship in Division IV was great; the miracle comeback against La Habra-Whittier Christian in the first round of the state playoffs was icing on the cake.
2009: Denison's troops haven't played a tough schedule thus far, but they're 13-1 heading into their own tournament's final tonight.

7. Lean Slayton, Liberty volleyball — The Patriots lost University of the Pacific commit Natalie Robinson to injury early in the season, but still went on to dominate local competition and beat three-time defending section champion Clovis-Buchanan in the playoff semifinals before falling to Clovis West in the championship.
2009: The Pats only lose a couple of players — not counting Robinson, who will also be gone — and should be the team to beat again next year.

6. Kim Harper, Garces volleyball — Another first-year coach makes the list, this one who took a somewhat overlooked Rams team and quickly turned it into (a) the area's second-best team, at least early in the season and (b) the first section champ for Garces since the school moved up to Division II in team sports.
2009: Things will be tougher up the middle for Harper without Shelby Staab, so Harper's job gets even more demanding.

5. Mike D'Amato, Garces softball — Probably just as impressive as Garces' fourth section title in Division IV was that the Rams equaled Division I power Liberty for the SEYL title without any bigtime recruits.
2009: Another job getting harder. D'Amato will have to make do in Division II this spring without ace Shelby Alsup

4. Jayna Chapman, Centennial softball — D'Amato won the Coach of the Year award last spring, but it easily could have been Chapman, too. Granted, her Centennial team was uber-talented, but she brought them together and had them playing unbeatable softball during their 17-game winning streak to end the year with a D-I championship.
2009: And you thought last year's team was uber-talented? The biggest thing Chapman has to deal with this year is expectations.

3. Adam Setser, Ridgeview cross country — Most of these coaches do their best with what's given to them, but Setser saw that what he was given wasn't enough, so he went and scoured Ridgeview's halls until he had shaped a team in his image — tough and calculating. The result was the school's first section title in cross country and a state berth.
2009: Setser had the good fortune and/or the smarts to go after young students, so this year should be a good one, too.

2. Dave Hillestad, Stockdale tennis — It took 20 years of coaching, but Hillestad finally broke through with an individual singles section title (Jeremy Quiroz in boys play), a doubles title (Frances Ellison and Julie Hutton in girls play) and, most impressively, a team section title (the girls' seventh straight.
2009: More like the first 19 than the last one, probably. The girls graduate the bulk of their team.

1. Matt Godbehere, Shafter track (throwing) — Behind every superstar athlete is a great coach, and Godbehere was the strong, silent type who monitored and mentored Anna Jelmini into a state and national champion. His wife, Dawn Dumble-Godbehere, deserves an assist here because she trained Jelmini before she got to high school.
2009: One last season at Shafter with Jelmini before Dumble's brother takes over coaching when Jelmini goes to Arizona State.

I've been in Bakersfield off and on for a week or so at a time since Thanksgiving, but I went for a run this morning and found myself thinking this was the first time in six weeks that I actually felt like I was sliding back into my routine.

After having company for Turkey Day, I've taken trips to Vegas, Avila Beach and Illinois, scrambling to get All-Area teams done in the meantime (A short aside: If you haven't seen them, check out our cross country teams with runners of the year Chris Schwartz and Tijerra Lynch; our girls tennis team with player of the year Lyndsay Cooke; our girls golf team with player of the year Mica Guzman; our volleyball team with player of the year Lauren Holderman; and our football team with player of the year Derek Carr.)

And, to be honest, it actually feels nice to be back. I mean really back. We'll get quickly into the winter sports swing — you'll see boys and girls Central Section basketball rankings each weekend starting Saturday, and I want to do a little series recapping what we saw in 2008 — my first full year in Kern County — and what we can expect in 2009.

First, my off-the-top-of-my-head, totally subjective top 10 Kern County boys and girls prep athletes of 2008:

BOYS
Honorable mention (in alpha order): Edgar Diaz, Arvin wrestling; Michael Halaska, Tehachapi swimming; Cody Kessler, Centennial basketball and football; Alex Nichols, Bakersfield Christian tennis; Bhavik Patel, Bakersfield golf; Jake Peterson, Bakersfield Christian football; Javier Pina, East soccer; Noe Ramirez, Golden Valley soccer; Jose Ramos, South football; Dusty Robinson, Centennial football; Pat Su'a, Highland football; Philip Valos, Stockdale baseball; Ricky Wofford, Bakersfield basketball

10. Pete Fernandez, Stockdale golf — Mr. Steady throughout the spring golf season, Fernandez didn't drop off in the big postseason tournaments, when pressure is up, courses are harder and low scores are rare. His 72 at the state tournament in Santa Maria was good enough for second place.
2009: Pete has not one but two more years at Stockdale to improve on his standing. Pencil him in as the early favorite in the area and section tournaments.

9. Jarret Martin, Centennial baseball — Because of control problems, Martin's season on the mound wasn't as dominant as he would have liked. But he still set the Central Section record for home runs in a season with 18 and was selected in the 19th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Baltimore Orioles.
2009: Martin and the Orioles couldn't come to an agreement on financial terms, so Jarret will take his show to Bakersfield College, where he'll work on pitching skills and play a little more ball for locals.

8. Jeremy Quiroz, Stockdale tennis — Quiroz returned from a tennis boot camp in Indian Wells to dominate the local scene. His only Kern competition probably was Bakersfield Christian's Alex Nichols, but Nichols dropped out of the section tournament, leaving Quiroz to out-duel Visalia-El Diamante's Josh Lorentzen in the championship match.
2009: Quiroz said no to another camp, deciding instead to stay at Stockdale for his senior season. Lorentzen also returns, as does Nichols, but for now, JQ is the alpha among section tennis players.

7. Travis Rasmussen, Bakersfield wrestling — He wasn't the typically dominant wrestler, one with lightning-fast takedowns and superhuman strength. But Rasmussen was unquestionably effective. He won the Central Section grandmasters title and then reached the 145-pound state finals at Rabobank Arena, where he lost 1-0 to Clovis-Buchanan's Andrew Balch.
2009: Spending it on the beach. Well, sort of. Rasmussen signed to wrestle at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and is redshirting this season. He was 1-2 in an early exhibition tournament. He could see some official action next fall.

6. K.C. Hobson, Stockdale baseball — An effective pitcher but a better hitter, Hobson led the Mustangs to the Division I Central Section championship. He hit a monster home run, pitched six innings and then had the game-winning eighth-inning hit in a dramatic championship victory against Clovis.
2009: Stockdale brings back almost every key piece from last year's team for another run. After that, expect Hobson — who has a scholarship waiting at Texas A&M as a backup — to hear his name called rather quickly on draft day. He projects as a first basemen.

5. Johnny Carter, Ridgeview track and field — At the beginning of his freshman track and field season, Carter didn't even get his statistics published in the paper because he was still on the frosh-soph team. By the end of the year, he was a state champion, with what would have been (if not for a wind-aided designation) a state freshman record triple jump of 48 feet, 1.25 inches in the state finals.
2009: How far can Carter go? He's only 15 and will go for the gusto again this year in Clovis.

4. Stephon Carter, Garces basketball — Basketball players usually separate themselves when they can simply take over games, and Carter did that on more than a couple of occasions. His defense usually leads to a bunch of points anyway, but when his shooting touch was on, he was simply unstoppable.
2009: Another run at a section and state title with Garces, then off to Cal State Bakersfield, where he's already being heralded as the player who can shepherd the Roadrunners into the Big West and beyond.

3. Derek Carr, Bakersfield Christian football — It started with rumblings and rumors and turned into reality: The Carrs were coming back to Bakersfield with their youngest boy ready to wow Kern County like the oldest one did. Carr threw for more than 4,000 yards and 46 touchdowns against just nine interceptions in leading Bakersfield Christian to a section title and a 12-1 record.
2009: Carr will start school at Fresno State this month in hopes of winning the starting quarterback job for the Bulldogs as a true freshman.

2. Chris Schwartz, Foothill cross country and track — It becomes harder and harder to separate these athletes in their various sports as you reach the top of the list. Schwartz failed to defend his state cross country title, but he took second in the 3,200 meters in track, won the Western Regional in cross country and was top 10 in the nation. That deserves a shout-out.
2009: It's not official yet, but Schwartz has his eye on running for national power Cal Poly next fall. First, he'll go for gold at the state track titles in the mile and two-mile.

1. Dayshan Ragans, Foothill track and field — Ragans' pure athleticism was enough to turn him into a double state champion as a senior in the shot put and discus, even though he didn't start throwing until he was a freshman in P.E. class. The big, burly likable guy withstood some heavy pressure to fend off all comers in two events at the state track finals.
2009: Ragans signed with Cal State Bakersfield, where he'll likely redshirt and gain strength before competing with heavier weights. If his arc is any indication, he'll do well.

GIRLS
Honorable mention: Caitlin Bernardin, Garces basketball and volleyball; Cassie Clayton, Garces golf; Deidre Crabtree, Liberty golf; Clare Flood, Bakersfield Christian volleyball; Mica Guzman, Garces golf; Carly Hummel, Ridgeview softball; Jalei Kinder, Stockdale basketball; Tijerra Lynch, Ridgeview cross country; Jasmine Noldon, Centennial basketball; Alexi Smith, Bakersfield basketball; Shelby Staab, Garces volleyball

T10. Cassidy Bell, Liberty softball — For all the attention on area pitchers, nobody tore the cover off the ball like the Patriots shortstop. She finished with a batting average better than .500 and was an extra-base threat every time she stepped to the plate.
2009: Hope Cassidy didn't watch the Rose Bowl. She'll be a Nittany Lion in the fall, where she'll try to earn a starting spot on a Big Ten softball power. First, of course, she'll try to win a section title at Liberty as a senior, just like she did as a freshman outfielder.

T10. Lauren Holderman, Bakersfield volleyball — Not the tallest or most intimidating volleyball player in the area, Holderman was perhaps the most effective. She used her hops and her smarts to help the Drillers improve to the point where they were perhaps the area's best team.
2009: BHS coach Tom Clarke said the Cal State Bakersfield volleyball coaches were ecstatic when Holderman decided to stay home and play for the 'Runners. She could be the Stephon Carter of the volleyball team.

9. Laura Johnson and Kassi Massey, Stockdale soccer — I haven't separated these two names all year, and I don't plan on doing it now. This dynamic duo dominated the area and led Stockdale to the section championship game. Then, Massey became an instant contributor on the CSUB team.
2009: Massey will be back as a sophomore for the Roadrunners in the fall, while Johnson has chosen to focus on academics in college.

8. MacKenzie Oakes, Stockdale softball — Without the same veteran supporting cast she had as a junior, Oakes nonetheless made Stockdale a legitimate section title contender with her pitching and hitting.
2009: After a stellar prep career, Oakes will try her trade at Fresno State this spring.

7. Mariah Alvidrez, Liberty soccer and volleyball — A knee injury wiped out Alvidrez's soccer season last winter, but she made up for it in volleyball. The Patriots were the best team around for much of the volleyball season, and Alvidrez always seemed to come up with the big spike. She's also the dynamic leader of the Patriots' talented soccer team know that her knee is better.
2009: Alvidrez is a junior, so she's got two more chances in soccer and one in volleyball to chase a section title. She'll also have the college offers rolling in.

6. Lyndsay Cooke, Bakersfield Christian tennis — The Eagles' star junior didn't have a flair for the dramatic, like she did at times as a sophomore. Every time she met on of the area's other top athletes, it was lights out, usually with only a game or two (if any) dropped. She finished second in the section.
2009: Third time's the charm? Cooke has lost to Visalia-Redwood's Gabrielle Gatewood in the section championship each of the past two years. They could very well meet again as seniors.

5. Ensley Gammel, Centennial softball — As the Golden Hawks made a 17-game run to the Central Section Division I title, Gammel was the reason they took the field feeling they weren't going to lose. She was one of their best hitters and a shutdown ace, who shut out Stockdale in the semifinals and beat Madera 2-1 in the championship.
2009: First, Gammel will return to a Centennial team that is the odds-on favorite to repeat its title. Then, it's on to Florida, which made the Women's College World Series last year and hopes Gammel can be a part of another run there.

4. Emily Irvin, Stockdale swimming — Irvin completed a rare feat at last year's Central Section swimming championships by winning the 100-yard breaststroke for the fourth year in a row. She also was part of the Mustangs' winning 200-yard medley relay team.
2009: Irvin signed to swim at Boise State, where she's a big part of a budding swimming program. Irvin has already set a school record in the breaststroke there.

3. Alex Collatz, Stockdale track and field and volleyball — No one around is a more versatile athlete than Collatz, who reached the state finals in the discus and triple jump, then was one of the area's best setters for her mother's volleyball team in the fall. The name Collatz should tell you "great athlete."
2009: There's still another name on this list to come that likely will block Collatz from winning any sort of throwing title, but just enjoy seeing her name in so many different areas — sprinting too! — in the coming year.

2. Melissa Sweat, Stockdale basketball — Stockdale's swarming defense and dominant local season was a team effort, but Sweat was the one who really made the Mustangs go. Her defense, offense and presence were unparalleled in girls basketball in Kern County.
2009: College offers are already pouring in for Sweat, who in the meantime has two years left to earn Stockdale an elusive section title.

1. Anna Jelmini, Shafter track and field — I'm going to establish a rule: As long as I'm the preps writer at The Californian, any athlete who wins two state titles, a national junior title and finishes eighth in the world at anything, that name is at the top of any of these lists.
2009: This is an odd year, so Jelmini won't have all of the opportunities to go to bigger and better competitions, but there will be no bigger favorite at the state track and field championships this spring. In the fall, it's off to Arizona State to join that elite group of throwers.