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I was out at North Kern Golf Course today covering a Southeast Yosemite League mini-tournament, and as I was leaving, the Highland golfers were piling into their team van to head back down into town in the parking space next to mine.
Right before the door closed, one of them (it was dark in...
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A sports resale store has opened in the southwest.
Retro Active Sports will sell used sports apparel and equipment at 5610 District Blvd.
“Bakersfield is such a huge sports town, but with the economy the way it is, families can’t afford all the equipment, especially for kids who are...
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On Saturday, in honor of the NFL draft, we detailed what a draft of Kern County's best seniors might look like if college teams were drafting them.
Today, the question is what a high school team would do for next season if the Kern High School District conducted a draft of all of the...
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So I was partaking today in a great American tradition — sitting on the couch with a frosty beverage in hand (Coke, in my case today) with the NFL draft on the tube — when I actually stopped vegging out and got to thinking: What if college teams had to draft players instead...
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What gesture shows the most respect? Is it a bow? A salute? A blog post? Whatever it is, we owe it to Anna Jelmini, because the Shafter throwing standout, her of the double state championship last year, is at it again.
Today at the Triton Invitational in San Diego, Jelmini tied the...
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The last coaching vacancy in Kern County for the year was filled today, with Foothill calling up defensive line and wide receivers coach Mike Gregg to the big-boy job.
I chatted with Gregg and Foothill athletic director Kevin Platt earlier today, and both sounded pretty excited about the...
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It's funny: With high school athletics and demographics the way they are, you can usually tell if a school is going to hit the ground running with its sports teams. Frontier, says anyone you ask, is going to be a powerhouse at some time or another. That's why the Central Section put the...
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The Kern High School District waited until after spring break to fill its open positions, so it come as no surprise that this week has seen two football coaching jobs open. A day after Dennis Manning left Foothill to coach Ridgeview, Shafter has hired Garces freshman coach Ben Ansolabehere as its...
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This is the second part of a rare April treat: a two-part football blog. Catch the first half, a note on rosters for the annual Arena Bowl all-star game, at this link.
Dennis Manning, the coach responsible for turning around Foothill's program in the past three years, has moved to...
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This is the first of a rare April treat, a two-part football blog. Catch the second half, on Dennis Manning's move from Foothill to Ridgeview, at this link.
I caught the press conference today where the rosters and coaches were announced for the eighth annual Arena Bowl, Kern County's indoor...
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The first baseball showdown of the week was today at Centennial, and though I told you to get there early if you wanted a seat and yada, yada, yada, that wasn't the case, because there was a nasty wind blowing and even a little rain falling at the beginning of the game.
At Centennial, it seems...
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High school sports aren't normally the most predictable thing under the sun, but here's something you could have bet the farm on before the season started: Tuesday, April 14, would be a big day in the Kern County high school baseball season.
And you wouldn't have lost your farm, either. Tuesday...
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In case you missed the baseball rankings posted yesterday, here's a link.
Remember, I haven't listed out each team's schedule for this week and next week because the tournaments have been so crazy this week with travel and rain and some teams playing games that haven't yet been reported. That...
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Spring break brings to mind images of sun, sand, flip-flops, cold drinks (but we keep those margaritas virgin here at the school house), swimming pools, waves, and .... me sitting at my computer with nothing to do.
Not so surprisingly, the company didn't pay for me to accompany Liberty or...
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First things first: Some School House Zach congrats are in order for Bakersfield High's Bryce Hammond and two of his sophomore teammates on the Drillers wrestling team. Hammond wrapped up a sophomore national championship Saturday night by beating a Florida wrestler 3-0 in the 152-pound...
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A couple of quick notes to pass along:
— The Californian's winter sports All-Area teams have arrived. The boys and girls soccer teams are unveiled in Friday's paper, the wrestling team on Saturday and the boys and girls basketball teams on Sunday. A bonus for my blog readers is the Players...
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I am going to make no attempt to explain away the scarcity of my posts, other than to say this is a slow time of year anyway and I've been hammering out All-Area teams for winter sports (for whatever reason, it seems like they're taking a lot longer this year than last).
OK, so I actually...
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There aren't many philosophy classes at School House Zach, but I received a phone-call complaint the other night that got me thinking.
The complaint centered around Frontier's softball victory over West on Tuesday, and this was no normal victory. This was 34-2. And yes, there is a mercy...
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UPDATE, 10:59 a.m. Tuesday: I've just been corrected on this post, so if you saw it last night when it first went up, here's the correction: Bakersfield has been awarded the CIF State Basketball Championships for 2010 only. The finals return to Sacramento in 2011 and then will be...
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Things have been slow at the School House in the past week as we recover from the hectic last few weeks of winter sports season. But spring is in the air, folks, and that means a whole other slew of sports to talk about.
I'm working on winter All-Area teams — they'll be released April 3...
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There's something about Division IV and the state basketball playoffs. For the second straight year, the only boys basketball team left from Kern County as we reach the Southern Cal semifinal (state quarterfinal) round is in Division IV with a star at guard andis traveling to the...
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I have a lot of fun at the Jam games sitting next to Californian reporter Stephen Lynch. We both couldn't help cracking a smile as fans razzed the Reno Bighorns coach for calling a timeout when he had none. What was going on there?
There was some good basketball being played on both ends...
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I've been so caught up in wrestling this weekend that I haven't had much of a chance to mention basketball. That's not acceptable, so let's get right down to business:
— Congratulations are in order to three Central Section champion hoops teams. Stockdale's girls won the Division I...
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UPDATE, 9:25 p.m.: Zach back here with you. Here are the rest of the final results, after Foothill's Angel Posadas gives Roger McCovey his first takedown of the season but eventually succumbed to the Del Norte wrestler and was pinned in 5:05.
135—Seth Hicks, Bakersfield-Centennial,...
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UPDATE, 11:31 a.m. Saturday: Be sure to check out the Day 2 live blog at this link: http://people.bakersfield.c...
UPDATE, 11:27 p.m.: So, it's been five hours, and I haven't blogged. I'm disgusted with myself. I promise I'll do better tomorrow. The problem...
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We've just completed boys semifinal day in Central Section basketball, and it sounds like there was a batch of great games around the Valley tonight.
One of them I saw firsthand. Liberty started sloppy, played flawlessly in the middle and then got sloppy again in holding off...
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We've taken to calling this upcoming Friday and Saturday the Hell Weekend around the sports desk at The Californian. To wit: The Central Section boys and girls basketball championships will be contested those days in Fresno, the March Meet drag-racing extravaganza at Famoso Speedway...
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Grand Masters championships (updates below)
103—Alex Cisneros, Selma, dec. Daniel Gaytan, Clovis, 4-3 2OT
112—Zach Zimmer, Clovis West, dec. Vince Rodriguez, Clovis North, 2-1 2OT
119—Chris Martinez, Clovis West, pinned Stephen Meredith, Buchanan, 3:53
125—Brandon...
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It's a crazy one in the office tonight with boys and girls soccer Central Section championships and boys basketball quarterfinals roaring along all over the Valley. I went to Frontier to watch the school unveil the new lights on its stadium and then the Titans girls soccer team, which won...
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The Chinese are calling this the Year of the Ox, and that's fine and dandy. Oxen are strong, formidable animals with a good reputation, I guess, though I don't know the first two things about them.
But strong, formidable teams in Kern County aren't the story of the year so far in high...
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UPDATE, 8:32 p.m.: And that'll do it. A 3-1 final in favor of Golden Valley. Hope you've enjoyed the live blogging. I'll update scores throughout the night, so continue to check back. One update I just received: Garces' girls went to overtime with 11th-seeded Reedley in Division...
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Instead of doing a paragraph on each team in the basketball rankings this week, I'm going to do a quick 'n' dirty version, then do some playoff predictions for each division in boys and girls hoops. Girls start tonight with first-round games in all divisions except the big one, which starts...
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Well, that was a lost weekend. Sorry I wasn't able to post more updates from Lemoore and the wrestling, but at first I had computer problems, and then I just got too busy. But I'll make up for it with an exquisite post tonight. Or at least an average one, right?
All three winter sports are...
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It's no secret I'm a wrestling fan. If you've followed the blog for long, you've seen my fervor.
So this, then, is the best time of year for those of us former wrestlers lucky enough to stay in the sport in some capacity. The state meet is in two weeks at Rabobank Arena. It's a spectacle worth...
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UPDATE, 10:15 p.m.: So, make it dejå vu all over again. Liberty falls behind Garces in the third quarter, stays with it and nips the Rams at the end. This one was a good bit more exciting, given the way Westin Hill banked home a 3 in the final seconds ("lucky shot," he...
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Girls rankings below or at this link.
One more week of rankings next week, then we'll let the playoff results speak for themselves.
BOYS
1. Clovis East (23-4, 8-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 1) — For all the talk about how wide-open boys hoops was in the section this year, and...
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Welcome to the last week of the regular season, which in girls basketball is going to decide very little in the respective Kern County league races: Stockdale and Garces have clinched the two big leagues (and really, we knew that was coming a month or more ago) and Arvin has control over the...
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Had a fun day yesterday, running around to surprise my fiancée with some gifts and then checking out a couple of league wrestling tournaments. There weren't many surprises — Bakersfield High dominated, as did some spectacular individual wrestlers like Centennial's Seth Hicks,...
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League champions are rolling in left and right, with soccer season over tonight and basketball just a week behind.
Here's what we know so far:
Boys soccer
SEYL — Golden Valley (9-2-1 in league)
SWYL — West (11-0-1)
SSL — Wasco (8-2-0)
Girls soccer
SEYL — Liberty...
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So with the regular season in soccer wrapping up in the next two days and basketball just a week behind and wrestling's league tournaments starting tomorrow with the SSL meet at Bakersfield Christian, is it too early to hand out awards for winter sports?
Well, yes. Yes it is. I always...
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Girls rankings below or at this link.
These rankings and records do not reflect Tuesday night's games.
BOYS
1. Clovis East (20-4, 5-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 1) — Remember when we thought the race for No. 1 in the section was wide-open? Maybe it still is, but the...
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I swear I don't mean for this blog to become a ranking service, so I'm going to apologize in advance for four posts in a row — and six out of seven — being rankings.
That said, I don't want to cut out on basketball rankings in the middle of the season. I do promise to have some...
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Girls rankings below or at this link.
1. Fresno-Bullard (16-3-2, 6-0-1 CMAC, Division I) — After a head-scratcher of an opening loss to Visalia-Redwood, the Knights haven't lost to Central Section competition. Are they vulnerable? A bunch of close games says yes.
2....
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A big drumroll for you fans of the beautiful game ... here is the School House Zach debut of Central Section soccer rankings!
A quick disclaimer before we begin: Soccer coaches seem to be the worst of any at updating MaxPreps, so some of these records will be off, and some don't even have...
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If you ever want to tire yourself out, just try to make as many National Signing Day ceremonies as you can in one day around Kern County.
I left home this morning around 11:30, went to Highland to watch Patrick Su'a sign his national letter of intent with Fresno State, then raced over to...
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Girls rankings below or at this link. Again, I promise some soccer rankings by the end of the week.
BOYS
1. Clovis East (19-4, 4-0 TRAC, Division I, last week: 1) — Who would have thought the Timberwolves would be tested more by Buchanan than Clovis West? Goes to show...
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So I was partly right on my Super Bowl pick: Arizona couldn't run the ball, and that did make their offense one-dimensional. But Kurt Warner didn't throw for two or three interceptions. He threw one, though it was enormous turning point in the game just before the half. Warner and his...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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