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If you weren't a tennis fan after the Wimbledon final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer a couple of weeks ago, you'll never be. But I'll bet if you saw Nadal's epic win, you're starting to like the game more and more. And if you like tennis, you'll like today's Year in Review segment....
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For today's Year in Review, I'm bringing out Kern's Sunday best — Emily Irvin, Stockdale's swimming extraordinaire, to be exact. Actually, she was good on any day of the week, especially on Saturdays in May.
2007-08 Kern County GIRLS SWIMMING
Overview: Emily Irvin dominated the...
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So, about that one-post-per-day thing ...
True story — I'm laying in bed last night, just turned off the light trying to decide if I'm going to be too hot (who isn't these days) and then it hits me: I didn't do a boys swimming Year in Review! This might not keep many awake at night, but I...
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These 100 degree days don't quit very easily, do they? I've always said I prefer extreme hot to extreme cold (I guess that's one reason I live here), but I could use an 85-degree respite or something. Eh. Guess I'll have to wait a month.
Anyway, another summer day means another sports' Year in...
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Those of you still awake after staying up late last night to watch the All-Star Game go to 15 innings (and just imagine what it would have been like on the East Coast) are in for a treat.
Track and field might have been Kern County's best sport in 2007-08. Better than football, where the area...
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So ... I didn't know I was jinxing the poor saps falling asleep at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game (not to mention newspapers on deadline in the eastern half of the country) by saying it was like a softball game, then talking about 15-inning games in my last post.
They're into the 15th...
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As I'm starting this entry, the Major League Baseball All-Star game is resembling a softball game — domination from pitchers, lots of strikeouts, some aggressive baserunning, and some baserunning errors.
So maybe it's appropriate that for today's Year in Review segment, we head to...
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Happy Bastille Day to everyone (French independence day, for the uninformed). Greetings from Las Vegas, perhaps one of the least French places (yeah, yeah, fake Eiffel Tower and all) on Earth but a city that actually has something to do with our baseball year in review segment today. It was...
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This is a taped blog entry, so to speak.
I wanted to make sure to get one Year in Review out each day, but I'm heading to Las Vegas for a couple of days to visit a friend. So what to do? Store a couple up and send 'em from the road!
So, live from the Rio Hotel, it's ....
2007-08 Kern...
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It's already been an exciting year for soccer fans, with Euro 2008 one of the better-played international tournaments I've ever seen, an all-English Champions League final and World Cup qualifying beginning in earnest on Aug. 20 (the U.S. takes on Guatemala that day).
It wasn't the...
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A couple of interesting tidbits, one football and one track-related, to pass along before we to get to the Wrestling Year in Review.
Derek Carr is the cover boy for Bakersfield football this coming year, between his older brother's legacy in the Valley and his status as a top-notch recruit...
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Ahhh. Finally feeling back to normal, after a week or so back from Europe, my body's clock is finally back on good ol' Pacific Daylight Time. And you can tell that from how my Year in Review blog entries have slipped later and later into each day. Pretty soon, I'll be posting around midnight like...
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It might not seem appropriate to talk basketball in the summer, what with it 110 degrees outside and all, but that's not entirely the case. Shoot, the NBA plays till the summer solstice, why can't we take things into July? And the Summer Breeze tournament will give you an early glimpse of next...
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Well, it's not exactly golfing weather, not in my book (then again, this is more like do-absolutely-nothing weather to me), but I'm sure there are some people out there roasting anyway. With that in mind let's look back to last fall's girls golf season in Kern County.
First, the Year in Review...
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For those of you who limit your bakersfield.com use to the work week, well, first of all, shame on you. Your weekend fun is here, not at the beach.
No, no, I'm kidding. Hope you had a fantastic Fourth of July. But you did miss the first few installments of the Year in Review...
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My friends, here is your daily dose of Year in Review. First, an index of what's been covered so far:
July 3: Football
July 4: Volleyball
July 5: Boys cross country
2007-08 Kern County GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
Overview: Not as illustrious a year as the Kern County boys runners had, but still a...
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Don't turn away from this entry just because it's cross country. These Year in Review segments are a great way to look back on the most popular sports, yes, but they're also a good way to quickly catch up on the lesser-known sports.
With that said, here is the boys cross country Year in Review....
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A happy Independence Day to everyone out there. If you're doing work by reading this, I hope you're at least getting time-and-a-half enjoyment out of it. (Bad joke, yes, but I keep reminding myself that holiday pay makes working on the Fourth worth it).
In case you missed it yesterday, we're...
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Pardon my two-week intercontinental sojourn (is it easier if I just say "vacation"?), but I'm back and rested and ready for an information-packed summer at School House Zach.
Here's my plan: We'll go through each high-school sport from 2007-08, one by one, with a look at the best...
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As you might expect, and as you might have already noticed, the number of posts at School House Zach is going to lessen a little bit here in the month of June. Not a whole lot of high school sports action going on.
There was an all-city baseball game last Friday night at Gerry Collis Field at...
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Are you a photographer or videographer?? The Bakersfield Rollergirls are looking for both a photographer and videographer to shoot our bouts- home and a away if you can make it.
We can't pay, but you'd get in for free and have the love of all the BRG girls, plus advertising on our website...
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Guess what? I'm actually not on the road or in the office! Sitting at home on the couch for the first time in what seems like forever, and it's a pretty darn good feeling.
It's been a hell of a finish to the high school sports year for Kern County, what with five state track and field...
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CERRITOS -- It's late, and I've had a long day (yes, it started with a workout, thank you very much), so I'll keep this short.
It was a pretty successful day for Kern County at the CIF Track and Field State Championships at Cerritos College in Norwalk on Friday. All of the athletes who were...
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MURRIETA — I owe an extra-large visit to the exercise room here in my hotel tomorrow morning before breakfast. A footlong sandwich from Subway, a couple of cookies and a small pizza for dinner isn't my way of doing things normally.
Of course, I did walk some six, seven miles today out at...
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I'm sitting here at my desk keeping an eye on the Pistons-Celtics NBA playoff game, which is the fifth game in a seven-game series, and I'm feeling a little sorry for some high school golfers.
Those headed down to the Southern Cal Regional Golf Championships in Murrieta tomorrow (Thursday) have...
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Ensley Gammel started celebrating Centennial's Division I Central Section softball championship before her final pitch even reached the plate.
It was a strikeout, resulting in the Golden Hawks' 2-1 victory at Madera on Friday in front of an overflow crowd that mostly consisted of blue-clad...
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Good thing you weren't like the guy sitting next to me at the Stockdale-Clovis section championship baseball game Thursday evening. He got up and headed out with two outs and nobody on base in the seventh inning, with Stockdale down 6-3 and about to become bridesmaids again.
Well, this stinks...
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Can two rivals root for each other? If Bakersfield wants to sweep the Division I baseball and softball Central Section championships, folks at Stockdale and Centennial will have to. A day after the Mustangs baseball team held off Clovis West 5-3 in a D-I Valley semifinal, Centennial stymied...
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Forgive me for returning to a subject I've harped on before (and this probably won't be the last time, so ignore me if you like), but let's talk about the California Interscholastic Federation.
Why, oh why, do we have random sports with state championships and others with none? As great as local...
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It's championship week for high school sports here in the Central Section, and I've mentioned before this is my favorite time of year. It comes along three times, and for a fortnight at a time, the games and events don't just mean something — they mean everything for a lot of these kids....
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It's been an eternity since my last post here — if you hadn't noticed, we had a pretty big throwing story we ran this week, and we wrapped up section track finals. Anyway, my apologies. I promise to make up for it with a nice, long, involved playoff glance here.
Let's start in baseball....
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UPDATE — Checking back in with Division III and IV news.
Kern County is well represented in D-III, but I don't know how far any of the teams will go. South, which reached the championship game last year before falling to Dinuba, is the highest-seeded K.C. team at No. 5. The Rebels host...
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A big, big weekend in Kern County sports coming up. The last of the league titles will be decided tomorrow when SWYL play in baseball and softball finishes up. (Actually, 11-0 Centennial has already wrapped up that league title, regardless of what happens Friday).
Here's the spring league champs...
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Here's a quick update on the home run race I blogged about on Friday, which at first glance might appear to be over. Jarret Martin blasted three home runs, including a dramatic go-ahead shot with two outs in the seventh inning, giving him the Central Section record for home runs with 17....
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A heads-up to all you history buffs out there. Jarret Martin has already done, and Dustin Robinson is about to do something that hasn't been done in the Central Section in 42 years.
It's a home run chase between two Cetennial players, something out of the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa,...
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Don't forget that the Edge Arena Bowl is at 7 p.m. this Friday at Rabobank Arena. It's Kern County's high-flying, indoor version of a high school football all-star game, and it should be a ton of fun.
I went over to Rabobank tonight to watch a little practice and talk to a couple of the guys...
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The idea of league tournaments seems a bit antiquated in high school sports these days. Football, obviously, doesn't have one. But neither do volleyball, basketball, soccer, baseball or softball.
In some of those sports (I'm thinking of basketball specifiically) it would be great to have a...
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The kitchen sink didn't make an appearance at Liberty's baseball field Thursday, but it was about the only thing that missed the party. To explain, I'll steal a line from my game story on Liberty's 10-8 victory over Stockdale.
Tootie’s home run actually was a relatively normal play in a...
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In a flip-flop as absolute as could be, the CIF sent out a release today saying the Home Depot Center in Carson will continue to be the home to the state football championship bowl games for at least the next two years.
That means it won't be Bakersfield, which had filed an apparently strong bid...
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I've returned from a weekend getaway down in Orange County and have spent the day working/freaking out about everything that's about to happen. I say freaking out because (1) it's going to be a lot of work to organize and keep tabs on everything (but, hey, that's why they pay me the small bucks,...
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Before I begin, I should tell you that this turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.
Next month, I'll take part in a meeting to help decide who'll win the Jim Tyack Award as Kern County's Most Outstanding Athlete for the past school year, male or female. I thought, with it being...
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I'll steal an idea from our own Andy Kehe and do some short, quick hits from the past few days in the sports world and one from here in the city:
Phil Dumatrait. A middle reliever has the worse job in major league baseball. I'd rather be a bullpen catcher then be called in to pitch with runners...
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A friendly reader brought it to my attention that we haven't yet done a league preview of boys golf here at School House Zach. That's a big mistake on my part, because (1) the league season is closer to finished than it is to starting, and (2) boys high school golf in Kern County is really...
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Spring isn't usually the time for big crowds and high-tension moments in high-school sports, but today at Stockdale was an exception. They had the snack bar open between the baseball and softball diamonds for the first time since anyone I talked to could remember.
It was with good reason,...
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Those who enjoy watching elite athletes in Bakersfield (and judging by attendance at Jam games, maybe there aren't too many of us) could be in for a treat. The CIF State Football Bowl Championships — now five games strong instead of three — are looking for a new home starting this...
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Reporter Jenny Shearer found out that private soccer fields may be on the way to southwest Bakersfield, near the Auto Mall, if they get the OK from the Board of Zoning Adjustment.
Check out her full report here.
Those who want to build them don't want to wait for city or county officials...
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You know those crazy news stories you hear sometimes — like the ones that come on at the very end of the local news or the ones we post here in our "Around the Web" feature at bakersfield.com?
It never seems like those news stories hit very close to home. Well, for some folks in...
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I had quite a chat this afternoon with Stockdale boys tennis coach Dave Hillestad, so I guess I'm now knowledgeable enough to write a preview for the three local leagues.
No, that doesn't mean that Hillestad will influence me to make this pro-Stockdale, not anymore than it already would be...
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First things first: An update on something I mentioned in a couple of blogs last week, wrestling's Senior Nationals tournament in Virginia Beach, Va.
The tournament is a huge deal for wrestlers as far as measuring themselves against state placers from around the country — and more...
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The Associated Press on Tuesday released the salaries of all ballplayers on major league rosters to start the season, which then set off the obvious but entertaining exercise of compiling 25 man rosters of the most over priced and the most under valued, or bargain basement players, in the game...
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