Just dropping a quick line to let you know that School House Zach hasn't forgotten where he came from — ugh. Too weird talking about myself in the third person.

Anyway, I'm swamped this week with finishing up The Californian's All-Area coverage, so I just wanted to let everyone know what we'll be doing over the summer on the blog before we begin high school football coverage in earnest in late July.

First off, we'll be doing Year-in-Review pieces on each high school sport for the 2008-09 school year — like this one done on football last year. That will start next Wednesday, July 1 (that's football day!), and I'll do one sport a day, skipping the occasional Sunday, until we've covered everything.

Then it'll be time for football coverage. Last year, I previewed a couple of the smaller schools in Kern County each day to begin and then got down to one school a day for each of the big leagues. This year's going to be a bit more tricky, since I'm getting married in August and will out of town, but my plan is to have them all done before I leave so I can have someone else past them into the blog each day while I'm away. Emphasis on plan to have them done, mind you.

So while you're (hopefully) looking forward to that, here's the All-Area release schedule for later this week:

Wednesday: All-league teams for each spring sport
Thursday: Boys and girls swimming All-Area teams
Friday: Boys tennis and boys golf All-Area teams
Saturday: Boys and girls track and field All-Area teams
Sunday: Baseball and softball All-Area teams

Some really bad news to report today that probably shouldn't come as a shock to anyone but will to a lot of people: Facing a tremendous budget deficit, the Kern High School District today announced its plans to do away with the junior varsity level in the six team sports that still have three full teams — football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.

You can read the full details here (news reporter Jeff Nachtigal did a great job gathering some info and putting together the story, and I added in some reaction from local coaches), but here's the gist: The move will save KHSD about $500,000 each year, make up for a big chunk of the $3.5M or so deficit it's facing. The move won't be official until the school board votes on it July 2, but at this point, I'd be shocked if they go any other way. They wouldn't have taken this step if they didn't plan on following through. It takes effect immediately for next school year. Those programs that have just two levels (soccer, track, wrestling, etc) will remain unchanged.

This is reality, folks: When the bottom line needs to be forced even, there are casualties, whether that's employee layoffs, reduced travel (also implemented) or cutting programs.

Of course, that doesn't make any less of a sad day for prep sports in Bakersfield. The coaches I talked to all had similar concerns:

— First and foremost, this is going to hurt high school kids and their extremely volatile lives. Sports sometimes are what keeps kids coming to class and working to get their grades up, and that's true even if they're just on JV teams or never even have hope of making the varsity. They like the games, and they like the competition. Now more kids will be cut from those team sports — which are often the most valuable ones — and the ones cut will be left to motivate themselves, and fend for themselves after school.

— It's up to each individual program to decide whether it wants to have a true frosh/soph team to feed into its varsity program or to move the F/S level to JV, where fewer incoming freshmen could be involved but the feeder system would potentially be stronger.
Either way, it's a headache for coaches who are used to having three rosters full of players. Bakersfield High coach Tom Clarke told me that instead of being able to carry the 40 or so kids he can on three teams, he'll be down to about 24. Liberty coach Tony Mills said he had about 155 tryouts for football last year, with room for more, but that if the current system were in place, he might have had to turn kids away. He already has to make cuts in baseball, and those obviously will be exacerbated.

— There's no doubt this is a huge competitive disadvantage for the KHSD schools, too. The Clovis Unified district, for instance, already puts more money into its sports programs — from elementary school on — than any other district in the section, and this is just going to widen that competitive gap. Varsity players will be less prepared because they'll be playing on weaker teams facing weaker, less experienced competition.

Sad day, everybody, but probably something that had to be done from a dollars and cents (sense?) standpoint. I know a lof of you are probably upset and feel cheated by this, so feel free to leave your thoughts below. I do ask that you keep them civil.

I was on the internet in 1995 as a fifth-grader. I've been blogging since I was a freshman in college, and though I was a bit slow to own a cell phone, I was on Facebook early enough in its existence to remember the days when counting friends was cool.

But for whatever reason, I've been resisting Twitter, the newest "New Media" phenomenon to hit the Webverse. Maybe it's because the name is so stupid (Twitter? Tweeting? Tweet tweet tweet? Seriously?), or maybe it's because you can bascially do the same thing with Facebook status updates, but even though I get the idea, I've just been slow to accept Twitter.

That changes today. The Californian sports section is starting its own Twitter account, and if you subscribe at twitter.com/bakosports you can get updates from myself and the rest of our sports staff. That will include prep football (and other sports) score updates once the school year gets rolling again.

I'll check back later this week to let you know what's going on in the slow season of prep sports. In the meantime, I have just one thing to say:

Tweet, tweet, tweet.

I'm slow in posting this, so chances are by now that you've heard this news from elsewhere, but four locals were drafted today, the second day of the Major League Baseball draft.

The story stars with Stockdale's K.C. Hobson, the best prep player in the section all year. Hobson slipped past yesterday's first three rounds but was nabbed in the sixth round today by the Toronto Blue Jays. I spoke to Hobson by phone, and he sounded pretty excited, even though he'd fallen that far.

Here's why: Hobson's asking for a pretty big contract, money that players picked in the first or second round normally would get. Once he fell past that round, it was unlikely that any team would draft him until much later, because there would be too big of a risk that they wouldn't be able to sign him.

Teams do occasionally pay "over slot" for players they pick, though, and the Blue Jays taking a risk in the sixth round by picking Hobson is a good sign they're willing to do that here. If they didn't think they could sign him, they'd wait till a later round to pick him — when wasting a pick would be much less of a risk.

Teams have till Aug. 17 to sign the players they drafted. In Hobson's case, if he's not signed, he'll likely go play college baseball at Texas A&M where he's signed a national letter of intent.

In later rounds, a couple of Bakersfield College players with local ties were picked. Marcos Reyna, a pitcher out of Delano High who has dramatically increased his velocity since coming to BC, was taken by the Pirates in the 14th round, and Jarret Martin, the Centennial outfielder/pitcher who hit a ton of home runs for the Golden Hawks over the past couple of years, was taken by the Orioles in the 18th round — Balitmore took him in the 19th round last year.

Both Reyna and Martin are freshmen, so if they don't sign, they can easily come back to BC and continue to build their draft stock for next year. But both sound like they're ready to get into pro ball. Reyna had told teams before the draft that he would sign for top-15 round money, and Martin said he's lowered his price from last year, when he and the Orioles couldn't agree on a deal.

Jared Eskew, a former Liberty pitcher who's now a junior at Cal Poly SLO, was nabbed by the Florida Marlins in the 29th round.

I'll keep you posted on if and when these guys sign.

The Major League Baseball first-year player draft begins in about half an hour, and when it does, the Washington Nationals will take San Diego State right-hander Stephen Strasburg with the first pick.

After that, it's anyone's guess. And one of the people with most invested in all that guessing is recent Stockdale graduate K.C. Hobson.

I've seen Hobson projected to go anywhere from a supplemental first-round pick (teams get extra picks between the first and second round in what's called the Sandwich Round if they lost a Type A free agent last offseason) all the way down to the fifth or sixth round.

If you'll excuse a quick MLB Draft primer, there are several reasons this is important for Hobson, whose dad, Butch, was a former MLB player and manager. Number one is money, plain and simple. The higher you get picked, the higher your slot value, i.e., the value MLB recommends teams give you as a signing bonus. They don't have to, but it's a safe bet that the number gets thrown around a lot in negotiations. MLB doesn't release slot-value numbers until after the draft starts, but first-rounders usually carry one of at least $1 million. Also, how high a player gets drafted also triggers the amount of lienency a club usually gives him. If a high-round draft pick struggles in the minor leagues, a team will give him every chance to prove himself or get better because they've got a lot of (a) money and (b) draft position invested in him.

The other reason draft position is important is because Hobson has a college scholarship waiting for him at Texas A&M, a good academic school with a rich baseball tradition. If he doesn't get drafted high enough, or isn't offered enough money, he has a great situation to fall back on. The downside to going to A&M is that players who choose to go to four-year schools must wait three years before they can re-enter the draft.

Where the magic spot is that Hobson wants to be drafted is known by only those close to him (disclosing it publicly could lose him some chips in negotiations), but we'll find out soon enough. The first three rounds of the draft are tonight (televised, starting at 3, on MLB Network). I think that if Hobson hears his name called this evening, he'll be a pro player. He makes no bones about the fact that he wants to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a pro as soon as possible. But — if he has to wait until tomorrow, it becomes more and more likely that he'll be a Texas A&M Aggie for the next three years. He'd at least have a big decision to make. Drafted players have till Aug. 15 to sign a deal with their pro organization.

Unlike the NFL or NBA Drafts, the baseball draft is incredibly hard to predict, so the only way to figure this one out is to wait and see. I'll update the blog when, or if, Hobson gets drafted tonight.

I'm going to try to give as many quick updates as i can from here at Buchanan High School, the site of the 2009 State Track and Field Championships.

UPDATE, 12:40 a.m.: What a day it turned out to be for Kern County here at the CIF State Track and Field Championships. Let's do this in bullet format:

— Anna Jelmini's double championship was expected, but she went above and beyond by setting state-meet records in both the shot put and discus.

— Matt Darr's championships weren't too shocking, either, considering that his shot put and discus marks have been near the top of the state list all year. That Darr came through in the clutch in both events to win close victories was a mild, pleasant surprise.

— Here's where we get to the surprises, and why this was such a good day for Kernites.
First off, Darr's double championship gave Frontier 20 team points. Usually, that's enough to get a team in the top 10 or so of the standings — Foothill was third last year when Dayshan Ragans won a double and Chris Schwartz was second for 28 points, and Shafter's girls have been near the top each of the past two years because of Jelmini. But Frontier took it a step further today. Competing with just ONE athlete, the Titans won a state championship.
You read it right. It's shared with three other schools — Clovis East, L.A.-Cathedral and Riverside-La Sierra — but Frontier still gets its mini state of California and is the first Kern County school to cliam a state title since Bakersfield High wrestling in 2004. Wow.

— The other surprise? Chris Schwartz. But to me, this one wasn't a real surprise. I was chatting with MaxPreps writer Mitch Stephens before the action began today and told him Schwartz was getting overlooked in the 3,200 race. The guy was a cross country state champion and had finished second in the two-mile at state track last year.
Thing is, Schwartz didn't have very good times this year. His best, about 9:20, was some 25 seconds behind the leaders in the event, so no one mentioned him when talking about favorites. But Schwartz is a special kind of runner. He craves and needs other runners to push him, and he hasn't gotten that locally or even section-wide a whole lot. He got it tonight, and it turned into a fantastic two-man race between Schwartz and Collin Jarvis of Vista-Rancho Buena Vista. Schwartz peeked ahead after four laps and held a slim lead for the next 800 meters. Then they battled for about 300 meters until Jarvis pulled ahead — for good, I thought. But Chris kicked with about 150 to go, running an astounding 59-second final lap to shock the field with an 8:51.60, his PR by some seven seconds. Jarvis finished in 8:53.78.

— Add to those five golds won by three locals the two runner-up medals — Collatz and Carter — a fourth (Kovar in the shot), a fifth (Kovar in the discus) and a sixth (Collatz in the shot) and two eighths (Jackson in the 300 hurdles and Robbins in the high jump), and this was a very impressive weekend for what should be a proud Kern County track and field community.

UPDATE, 8:38 p.m.: So by "quick," I really meant every three hours. Joking, but the fact is I just got back to the media tent from running around watching Kern County's finest do their thing.
Here's what's happened: Anna Jelmini and Matt Darr each added a second state championship in the throwing events, Jelmini in the discus and Darr in the shot put. That's eight state championships in throwing in the past two years for Kern County, four from Jelmini, who said she's having trouble wrapping her head around all of this. So are we all, Anna, so are we all.
Darr, by the way, has given Frontier 20 team points by himself, and with just three boys events to go on the track, that's tied for first. I doubt the Titans can hang on that position on the strength of one athlete, but they're likely to finish in the top five, anyway.
Also a couple of imressive runner-up finishes to report: Stockdale's Alex Collatz added a second in the discus to her sixth in the shot, and Ridgeview's Johnny Carter, on his last jump, leapt to second in the triple jump to follow his state championship as a freshman. Carter said this one actually means more to him because of all the injury problems he's had to deal with in the past year.
Frontier's Taylor Jackson took eighth in the state in the 300 hurdles. West's George Robbins lost a jump-off for a state medal and also finished eighth in the boys high jump.

UPDATE, 6:01 p.m.: Thirty-two state champions will be crowned from across the state this evening, and Kern County already has a jump (or, more accurately, a throw) on the competition. The first two titles decided — the boys discus and girls shot put — both went to locals. Anna Jelmini of Shafter, to the surprise of no one, won the shot put with a throw of 50-5-.75. that's not her best but still good enough to beat the field by a full five feet.
Matt Darr of Frontier had more competition in the discus, but his personal record of 192-0, coming on his third toss, was enough to get it done. He out-paced section rival Willy Irwin of Clovis East, who threw 188-8.
I haven't had a chance to talk to Jelmini yet, but I did grab Matt for a quick chat. You couldn't have wiped the smile off his face with a sponge. He committed to punt at USC last Sunday and that allowed him, he said, to focus on throwing all week. It paid off with a great series — he also had throws of 188-3 and 184-0, the third and fourth-best throws of the day.
West's George Robbins was eliminated in the boys high jujmp, which just finished — I'm not sure what height George stopped at, so I'm not sure if he medaled (top 6). The winners had a jump-off at 7-1.
Up next is Jelmini in the discus (with Stockdale's Alex Collatz, who was sixth in the shot already), and Darr in the shot. Johnny Carter of Ridgeview will also be triple-jumping soon.

Hello to all from Fresno. I'm sure most of you won't see this until you wake up, but it's still Friday night for me after the first day of the state track and field championships at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Clovis-Buchanan High School.

Just a quick post here because I've got to be up and at 'em again in the morning for the state finals, but I'd be neglecting my duties not to let you know what went on today.

Here's a list of local state finalists:

BOYS
Johnny Carter, Ridgeview — The first one to tell you Carter had his first bad day at a state meet was Carter. He came in as a freshman at last year's state triple jump and shocked everybody, winning the whole dang thing. This year, he jumped no better than 47-2. That's almost two feet worse than the mark he won with last year. BUT — the good news is that Carter was in seventh place after the prelims, good enough to go to today's finals and have his slate wiped clean. Is the pressure off again?

Matt Darr, Frontier — Darr's work on Friday was all of two throws — a 187-6 in the discus, good for first place in qualifying and a 60-6 in the shot put, good for second. He passed on all his other throws, content to come to the finals with another double throwing title for Kern County on his mind.

George Robbins, West — West survived a 10-way tie at 6-foot-6 in the high jump because he only missed three time on two different heights. Garces' Phillip McCullum also maxed out at 6-6 but didn't get to advance to the state finals because he missed five times. But even though he had to sneak through the qualifying, Robbins has a chance to make noise today because the leaders were only at 6-8.

Chris Schwartz, Foothill — there isn't a 3,200 meter prelim because there's no need to narrow the field, so Schwartz had the day off. He'll compete in Saturday night's final against some 25 other distance runners

GIRLS
Alex Collatz, Stockdale — It's hard to say there was a different local headliner at the state meet when Anna Jelmini set a state-meet record (see below), but what Collatz did was special. After a couple of 152-foot-and-change throws in the discus — just mediocre for her — Collatz popped off a 177-0 throw. That's three big things in one throw: (1) It was her PR by 11 feet, 7 inches. (2) It was the best throw ever by a high school sophomore in this country (and the best by a soph this year in any country. OK so that's two things in one). (3) It beat Jelmini! Well, at least in qualifying. Today the slate is wiped clean and Collatz will have to do it again.

Taylor Jackson, Frontier — Here was the most pleasant surprise of the day. Jackson came in with a good time in the 300-meter hurdles, but not something that was going to give her entry into the state finals without improvement. She got it. Jackson actually led the state leader in the event with about 60 meters to go, and though she was passed, she recorded a PR in 43.95 and finished eighth in qualifying. Now anything can happen, and Jackson has a chance at the state podium. That more than makes up for two weeks ago at the Central Section meet, where Jackson stumbled on a hurdle in the 100 hurdles and only advanced to state in one event.

Anna Jelmini, Shafter — The headliner didn't take long to live up to her billing. Her first shot put throw was a perfect arc that traveled 53-8, about eight inches short of her PR and a state-meet record. Any time you can see a meet record at the prestigious California high school meet, you feel honored, and that's no different with me watching Anna today. The discus obviously didn't work out as planned, but no one will remember that if (when?) Jelmini takes care of business today. I'll go out on a limb and say Jelmini gives us at least one national record in the finals.

Kayla Kovar, Burroughs — Not somebody we normally talk about, but out in the desert section of Kern County, Kovar also is an elite thrower. She finished in the top five in the state discus last year, and though she's had her struggles in the event this year, she reached the finals again. Today, she'll add an appearance in the shot put finals after qualifying fourth.

Notice how, at the beginning of this post, I was calling it "Saturday," and now I'm calling it "today"? That means it's late. Time for bed. I'll try to update as the day goes on tomorrow — 32 state champions will be crowned — so check back often.

Every now and then, the news editors at The Californian will see something budgeted for sports publication that interests them and ask for the story or photo to put on the front page. It's not that common, but sometimes sports crosses over to the point where it's interesting to everyone instead of just the fans of that particular sport. Local team wins championship. Local kid makes it big. Local pro team folds up shop. Local athlete in trouble.

To me, track and field has a natural advantage in this. Even if you can't tell me who's in first place in the National League Central or who led the NFL in rushing last year, it's still of natural interest to see how fast humans can run, how high or long they can jump and how far they can throw. We're all familiar with the tasks, so it's awe-inspiring and interesting to see or hear about those who can do them so well — why do you think everyone watches the Olympics?

That's why this weekend's CIF State Track and Field Championships should interest just about everyone. The high school kids who win California state championships turn out to be national champions and Olympians. It's at Buchanan High School in Clovis, only about an hour and 45 minutes away, with preliminaries today and finals Saturday.

As a bonus, you get to see some elite athletes from right here in Kern County.

Start, of course, with Anna Jelmini. There's a big story I wrote about her in Friday morning's paper, but I don't think even that does justice to how much she's accomplished. No high school girl has ever thrown the discus farther. Only once has a shot put been launched farther, and that by just six inches. She'll go for her second straight state championships in both events — and possibly to better her records — this weekend.

Here are some other locals to watch, in order of their chances at winning state titles:

Matt Darr, Frontier, shot put and discus — Darr could keep both boys and girls throwing titles in Kern County, following in the footsteps of Dayshan Ragans of Foothill, who won both last year. Darr has the state's best discus mark and second-best shot mark this year.

Johnny Carter, Ridgeview, triple jump — He won the event as a freshman, but will have to do it as an underdog again because injuries have sidelined him for much of this year. He still managed to win his second Central Section title, though.

Chris Schwartz, Foothill, 3,200 meters — One last chance for Schwartz to end a wonderful high school distance-running career with another state championship. He won the cross country title as a junior and was second in this event last year to German Fernandez of Riverbank, who set a national record in that race. Unfortunately for Schwartz, another phenom, Erik Olson of Novato, has run under nine minutes four different times. Schwartz is capable, but it'll take his absolute best race.

Alex Collatz, Stockdale, shot put and discus — Collatz also is a great triple jumper, but a heel injury and a bad day kept her from qualifying in that event for the second straight year. That's OK; Collatz will just concentrate on the throws. If it weren't for Jelmini, this sophomore is who we'd all be talking about. She has easily the state's second-best discus mark (165-3) and finished fourth in the event last year. She also qualified in the shot put even though she'd never competed in the event until last month.

Kayla Kovar, Burroughs, shot put and discus — The only Kern Countian to emerge from the Southern Section, Kovar finished third in the discus last year. Her marks have slipped a bit behind Collatz's during this season, but she's still dangerous.

George Robbins, West, and Phillip McCullum, Garces, high jump — No event is as wide-open as this one. Robbins and McCullum are two of no less than 25 competitors who had qualifying marks of either 6-foot-6 or 6-8. Robbins won the state meet with a 6-8, but McCullum has the better jump this year at 6-8.25. Several jumpers around the state have cleared 7 feet, but if none do it Saturday, it could open the door for Robbins or McCullum.

Ridgeview's 1,600 relay team — The Wolf Pack were nipped by Centennial in the section final, so give the Golden Hawks a long look in this race, too. But Ridgeview is the team that's had the state's fifth-best mark all year long and might make noise at the state meet.

Others local qualifiers, girls: Brushay Wandick, Bakersfield (100 and 200); Taylor Jackson, Frontier (300 hurdles); Amanda Klinchuch, Liberty (pole vault); Bakersfield's 400 and 1,600 relay team; Shanesha Epps, Golden Valley (long jump); Shinead McDonald, Bakersfield (300 hurdles); Lacie Rasley, Shafter (shot put).

Other local qualifiers, boys: Isiah Purvis, Ridgeview (200 and 400); Jerrid Lewis, Ridgeview (800); Marty Affentranger, Liberty (400 and long jump); Centennial's 1,600 relay team; Nathan Alade, Stockdale (100).

PREFACE: Yes, this is late. I should have posted three days ago, and then probably again since then. Feel free to call me lazy and worthless. Both of those would accurately describe my weekend (and it was wonderful, I might add).

Anyway...

You had to be there, at Stan Bledsoe Field on Clovis West's campus, to really get a feel for what Stockdale was up against in last Friday's Central Section baseball championship.

Say what you want about the Clovis Unified School District and its rabid fan base (and rabid administration, for that matter), but they know how to put on a sporting event. The stadium holds 3,000 or 4,000 people, and it was filled just about to capacity, with the Clovis West side of the crowd hooping and hollering like nobody's business. Stockdale calmly went about its business in the pregame, but the environment was nothing if not hostile.

This probably is a good time to bring up a perception that might or might not be justified but definitely is present: That Clovis is full of itself. The Clovis teams are proud, there's no doubt about that. But are they over the top? They do win an overwhelming majority of the section's Division I championships, so maybe a bit of hubris is warranted.

Whatever the case is, it wrankles a lot of the Bakersfield teams. I've had that said to me directly and indirectly many times. So when K.C. Hobson stepped into the batter's box with one man on, one out and the crowd still buzzing with every Clovis West pitch, what happened next had to be a beautiful moment for high school sports fans in Bakersfield.

Hobson drilled one. I mean drilled it. Over the right-field wall, over the trees that are beyond that wall and into the unseen abyss. 2-0 Stockdale.

Hobson didn't hush the crowd with his finger (he just put his head down and ran around the bases like he's done 14 other times this year), but he could have. It got that quiet, that fast.

And it didn't really ever get loud again, at least not on the home side. Philip Valos made sure of that. He spun a four-hitter, allowing just two unearned runs and escaping trouble with a timely strikeout or double play a few different times against CW's high-powered attack. Isaiah Turner, the Ridgeview transfer they call Zeke, and Kyle Desimone also both homered, and Stockdale rolled to a 6-2 victory that all the usual suspects had a hand in.

Valley championships don't normally come that easy, and they don't come back-to-back very often, especially in a mercurial sport like baseball. They also don't often come three years in a row to Kern County (Centennial won in '07) in a sport that Clovis fancies it dominates. So let's celebrate this special Stockdale team.

Congruatulations, boys. It was a hell of a run.

A couple of other notes:

— The Southern Cal Regional Boys Golf Championships are Wednesday morning in Murrieta. Seven locals have a chance to advance to next week's state tournament if they finish in the top six.
They are: Pete Fernandez, Stockdale (who did advance last year and finished second in state)
Manav Shah, Centennial (newly crowned section champ)
Stephen Harmer, Garces
Riley Scott, Garces
Bryce Keene, Stockdale
Richard Gilkey, Liberty
Gunner Kirschenmann, Garces

— The state track and field championships are this weekend in Clovis, in case you didn't know. We'll be talking that up on the blog and in the paper over the next several days. It's an enormous event with some very talented locals (epically so, in one case) headed up to compete.