http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739 Here it is folks, your first installment of the 2008-09 Year in Reviews. Today we're taking a look at the most popular high school sport of all. We'll do one sport a day over the next three weeks or so, following about the same format for each:&nbsp;A quick overview, followed by a glimpse at the best team, best player, best game/event and a look ahead to next year. Throughout the reviews, I've linked to some stories that ran during the season, and at the end, a teaser to what's ahead the next day. 2008-09 Kern County FOOTBALL Overview: At the top, a tough year for Kern County, with Bakersfield rebuilding (reloading?), Centennial down, Stockdale resurgent but still learning Mike Snow&rsquo;s system and Liberty a defensive stalwart but offensively challenged. Tehachapi and Bakersfield Christian, however, both defended their Central Section titles, giving the South Sequoia League five Valley championships in the past two years. Best team: I&rsquo;m inclined to go small here and say that Bakersfield Christian could have beaten about anybody in Kern County with that high-flying offense behind QB Derek Carr and WRs Jake Peterson and Colby Herron. Carr-to-Peterson could be a common sight at Fresno State in a few years. The Eagles dominated Division V, pounding unbeaten Corcoran 49-27 for the championship. Perhaps even more impressive is that BCHS went unbeaten in the SSL, knocking off D-III Tehachapi along the way. Honorable mention: Liberty, Division III champion Tehachapi, Stockdale, Bakersfield Best player: It was going to be nearly impossible for Carr to live up to the hype that preceded him &mdash; everybody was talking about what his brother, David, did at Stockdale before becoming the NFL&rsquo;s No. 1 draft pick at Fresno State. Derek was supposed to be better. And all he did was take that pressure and hype and actually exceed it. Carr threw for 4,068 yards and 46 touchdowns, both second all-time in the Central Section. That included 544 yards against Arvin, a single-game section record, and six TD passes in two other games, second all-time. And to think, Carr and his accurate laser of an arm didn&rsquo;t even play the fourth quarter of most of BCHS games because they were blowouts. Honorable mention: Highland LB Pat Su&rsquo;a, Golden Valley RB Byron Newman, South QB Jose Ramos, Bakersfield Christian WR Jake Peterson, North RB Julian Dean-Johnson Best game: I hate to be repititive with these things, but it&rsquo;s hard to top Tehachapi at Bakersfield Christian for pure entertainment value. It was BCHS 40, Tehachapi 35, with the Eagles dominating the air in the first half to the tune of a 34-7 lead early in the third quarter and the Warriors moving the ball on the ground &mdash; and, oddly enough, also through the air &mdash; to cut the lead all the way down to 34-28 with seven minutes left and then to 40-35 with 2:30 to go. BCHS hung on in a game that featured more than 1,000 total yards and turned out to be the decider in the SSL race. Honorable mention: Tehachapi 21, Hanford 14, Division III championship; Clovis West 14, Liberty 6, Division I playoffs; Liberty 17, Stockdale 10;&nbsp; Bakersfield 17, Liberty 10; Clovis-Buchanan 41, Bakersfield 34. A look ahead: I won&rsquo;t go too far into this, because within a month we&rsquo;ll be previewing the 2009 season team-by-team, but I will say it&rsquo;s going to be a very interesting season this fall. Could it be a return to power for Bakersfield and Centennial, teams with the best young quarterbacks around (juniors Brian Burrell and Cody Kessler)? You know those teams won&rsquo;t be down for long, and upstart teams from last year like Golden Valley, North and South lost most of their star power. Stockdale should be improved again in Year 2 of the Mike Snow Era, meaning the Mustangs could challenge 8 or more wins again. So should Liberty, which returns many players on the lines. It&rsquo;s also the last season of the two-league system &mdash; in 2010, we&rsquo;ll have a &ldquo;power&rdquo; league featuring BHS, Liberty, Stockdale, Frontier, Centennial and Independence, and then two lesser leagues. That means it&rsquo;s the last chance for a team like Ridgeview &mdash; always talented and now with reknowned coach Dennis Manning at the helm &mdash; to take a league title from the big boys. Among small schools, BCHS loses a ton, so focus might shift back to the Tehachapi-Taft power struggle in the SSL. I hope that whet your whistle for now; more to come in July. Tomorrow: Volleyball Here it is folks, your first installment of the 2008-09 Year in Reviews. Today we're taking a look at the most popular high school sport of all. We'll do one sport a day over the next three weeks or so, following about the same format for each:&nbsp;A quick overview, followed by a glimpse at the best team, best player, best game/event and a look ahead to next year. Throughout the reviews, I've linked to some stories that ran during the season, and at the end, a teaser to what's ahead the next day. 2008-09 Kern County FOOTBALL Overview: At the top, a tough year for Kern County, with Bakersfield rebuilding (reloading?), Centennial down, Stockdale resurgent but still learning Mike Snow&rsquo;s system and Liberty a defensive stalwart but offensively challenged. Tehachapi and Bakersfield Christian, however, both defended their Central Section titles, giving the South Sequoia League five Valley championships in the past two years. Best team: I&rsquo;m inclined to go small here and say that Bakersfield Christian could have beaten about anybody in Kern County with that high-flying offense behind QB Derek Carr and WRs Jake Peterson and Colby Herron. Carr-to-Peterson could be a common sight at Fresno State in a few years. The Eagles dominated Division V, pounding unbeaten Corcoran 49-27 for the championship. Perhaps even more impressive is that BCHS went unbeaten in the SSL, knocking off D-III Tehachapi along the way. Honorable mention: Liberty, Division III champion Tehachapi, Stockdale, Bakersfield Best player: It was going to be nearly impossible for Carr to live up to the hype that preceded him &mdash; everybody was talking about what his brother, David, did at Stockdale before becoming the NFL&rsquo;s No. 1 draft pick at Fresno State. Derek was supposed to be better. And all he did was take that pressure and hype and actually exceed it. Carr threw for 4,068 yards and 46 touchdowns, both second all-time in the Central Section. That included 544 yards against Arvin, a single-game section record, and six TD passes in two other games, second all-time. And to think, Carr and his accurate laser of an arm didn&rsquo;t even play the fourth quarter of most of BCHS games because they were blowouts. Honorable mention: Highland LB Pat Su&rsquo;a, Golden Valley RB Byron Newman, South QB Jose Ramos, Bakersfield Christian WR Jake Peterson, North RB Julian Dean-Johnson Best game: I hate to be repititive with these things, but it&rsquo;s hard to top Tehachapi at Bakersfield Christian for pure entertainment value. It was BCHS 40, Tehachapi 35, with the Eagles dominating the air in the first half to the tune of a 34-7 lead early in the third quarter and the Warriors moving the ball on the ground &mdash; and, oddly enough, also through the air &mdash; to cut the lead all the way down to 34-28 with seven minutes left and then to 40-35 with 2:30 to go. BCHS hung on in a game that featured more than 1,000 total yards and turned out to be the decider in the SSL race. Honorable mention: Tehachapi 21, Hanford 14, Division III championship; Clovis West 14, Liberty 6, Division I playoffs; Liberty 17, Stockdale 10;&nbsp; Bakersfield 17, Liberty 10; Clovis-Buchanan 41, Bakersfield 34. A look ahead: I won&rsquo;t go too far into this, because within a month we&rsquo;ll be previewing the 2009 season team-by-team, but I will say it&rsquo;s going to be a very interesting season this fall. Could it be a return to power for Bakersfield and Centennial, teams with the best young quarterbacks around (juniors Brian Burrell and Cody Kessler)? You know those teams won&rsquo;t be down for long, and upstart teams from last year like Golden Valley, North and South lost most of their star power. Stockdale should be improved again in Year 2 of the Mike Snow Era, meaning the Mustangs could challenge 8 or more wins again. So should Liberty, which returns many players on the lines. It&rsquo;s also the last season of the two-league system &mdash; in 2010, we&rsquo;ll have a &ldquo;power&rdquo; league featuring BHS, Liberty, Stockdale, Frontier, Centennial and Independence, and then two lesser leagues. That means it&rsquo;s the last chance for a team like Ridgeview &mdash; always talented and now with reknowned coach Dennis Manning at the helm &mdash; to take a league title from the big boys. Among small schools, BCHS loses a ton, so focus might shift back to the Tehachapi-Taft power struggle in the SSL. I hope that whet your whistle for now; more to come in July. Tomorrow: Volleyball en-us Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:19:21 PDT <p>How about that Stockdale vs. Centennial game that featured some 800+ yards of total offense between the two teams and ended up 45-44 in favor of Stockdale, who scored the game winning touchdown with just 17 seconds left.&nbsp; Great game, but a heartbreaker and&nbsp;sad ending&nbsp;for me and any other Centennial fans who saw it.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418090 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418090 <p>How about that Stockdale vs. Centennial game that featured some 800+ yards of total offense between the two teams and ended up 45-44 in favor of Stockdale, who scored the game winning touchdown with just 17 seconds left.&nbsp; Great game, but a heartbreaker and&nbsp;sad ending&nbsp;for me and any other Centennial fans who saw it.</p> <p>Fair point. It's harder for me to remember the games I&nbsp;didn't see, but that wild one definitely deserves AT LEAST honorable mention. Fantastic shootout with an unreal finish, as I recall. Here's the <a href="http://www.bakersfield.com/news/sports/local/x2065465369/Stockdale-edges-Centennial-in-wild-shootout">link to the game story</a>.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418091 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418091 <p>Fair point. It's harder for me to remember the games I&nbsp;didn't see, but that wild one definitely deserves AT LEAST honorable mention. Fantastic shootout with an unreal finish, as I recall. Here's the <a href="http://www.bakersfield.com/news/sports/local/x2065465369/Stockdale-edges-Centennial-in-wild-shootout">link to the game story</a>.</p> <p> <strong>in 2010, we&rsquo;ll have a &ldquo;power&rdquo; league featuring BHS, Liberty, Stockdale, Frontier, Centennial and Independence, and then two lesser leagues.</strong></p> <p>Two lesser leagues, does that mean inferior, not as&nbsp;good as. I think you phrased the new league alignments incorrectly. GVHS has beaten BHS in football 2 out of the last 3 years. North, Foothill, Garces have all&nbsp;had multiple wins over your power league the last three years. The new league alignment's will have schools who are in the same divisions. So if you want to say a Division 1 league and two leagues of lower division teams that would be fine. I just wouldn't use the word lesser unless you are looking for bullentin board material for those lesser schools.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418475 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418475 <p> <strong>in 2010, we&rsquo;ll have a &ldquo;power&rdquo; league featuring BHS, Liberty, Stockdale, Frontier, Centennial and Independence, and then two lesser leagues.</strong></p> <p>Two lesser leagues, does that mean inferior, not as&nbsp;good as. I think you phrased the new league alignments incorrectly. GVHS has beaten BHS in football 2 out of the last 3 years. North, Foothill, Garces have all&nbsp;had multiple wins over your power league the last three years. The new league alignment's will have schools who are in the same divisions. So if you want to say a Division 1 league and two leagues of lower division teams that would be fine. I just wouldn't use the word lesser unless you are looking for bullentin board material for those lesser schools.</p> <p>That's fair enough &mdash; There are exceptions to the &quot;power&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;lesser&quot;&nbsp;rule, and there always will be, so that's a bad way to describe it. By and large, the Division I schools are more competitive than D-II than D-III, etc. That's why the divisions are set up the way they are. But you're right; I should refrain from the &quot;lesser&quot;&nbsp;designation.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418480 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/zewing/46739/#c_418480 <p>That's fair enough &mdash; There are exceptions to the &quot;power&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;lesser&quot;&nbsp;rule, and there always will be, so that's a bad way to describe it. By and large, the Division I schools are more competitive than D-II than D-III, etc. That's why the divisions are set up the way they are. But you're right; I should refrain from the &quot;lesser&quot;&nbsp;designation.</p>