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I'm making some rounds to practices around the area, and I'll share any significant impressions I get. Here's a big one: Derek Carr is the real deal.
I know a lot has been said and written about this guy before he ever throws a pass for Bakersfield Christian, but I found out...
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Well, it was a depressing day for me. I'm a pretty big soccer fan (I know, I know, that's blasphemy around some of you football-only folks), and I stayed up to watch the U.S. men's Olympic team take on Nigeria at 2 a.m., needing a tie to advance to the quarterfinals. Then this...
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I love the preseason. Anticipation builds, players and fans get psyched, coaches preach patience, everybody waits for the start date, and in the meantime, people like me churn out predictions that turn out to be totally wrong.
Well, today, I'm not alone. I'm going to link to CalHiSports'...
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Are you one of those people who can't believe it'll be high school time in three mere weeks? In Alaska, they've already started. I know most of us can't wait for game days to get here, but that seems a bit early even for me. Of course, with the weather and light restrictions you've got as it...
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Clearly the biggest high school football offseason story in Kern County was the arrival of Derek Carr. Long rumored to be coming home to Bakersfield, Carr left behind a 13-1 team at Sugar Land-Clements in the Houston area to play in the city where his older brother, David, played for Stockdale...
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I don't know what to say to introduce the Taft preview, other than that it'd be wise of you to pay attention the next three days. The Wildcats, plus league rivals Bakersfield Christian and Tehachapi, are going to be three terrific teams next year. How in the world you can confidently predict the...
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Quickly (or knowing me, not so quickly), a non-football related note (gasp!).
I’m a sucker for the Olympics. I have friends who tell me they’re stupid, boring, don’t matter, strange sports, etc., and maybe some or all of that is true. But I don’t care. It’s...
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Maybe it's a California/nice weather thing, but this is the first I ever recall the high school football season starting AFTER college football and the NFL. Week 0 games (countdown: 29 days) begin Sept. 5; the NFL kicks off the previous day, with Washington facing the New York Giants, and college...
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Today we pass another milestone in the long trek of 2008 preseason football. Our team previews here at School House Zach have ventured into the South Sequoia League. We start with a team that fell off the face of the Earth last year after two straight winning seasons. Will this year bring about...
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The number of schools in Kern County grows every year, it seems, and this one certainly is no exception. The Kern High School District opens the doors to two new high schools on Aug. 18, Independence in the southwest and Mira Monte in the southeast. The Delano Joint Unified School District, after...
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In case anyone missed it, the first day of helmet-and-footballs practice for high school football teams was Monday — what I consider the first "official" day of the season.
Check out the Californian's unparalleled coverage of Day 1, complete with my journies across town and a...
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Well, well, well. It's finally here, the first day teams across the county were allowed to bring out footballs and helmets. Pads come next week, but for me, this is the first official day of high school football season.
Optimism reigns everywhere this time of year, but I'm going to go ahead and...
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For all of the schools left to be previewed (Chavez today, Delano tomorrow and then the SSL and the city schools), we'll go to an extended format, with the exception of Tuesday, when I'll take a quick look at the three new schools in the county: Independence, Mira Monte and Robert F. Kennedy...
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There's a smell coming in the air, and it's not smog or smoke.
It smells more like barbeque, fall air and pigskin. That's because high school football is getting closer and closer. The latest sign? Our high school football previews are finishing up with the Southern Section, wrapping up with the...
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Friday night, but no lights yet.
We'll see some next week when full practices begin. Until then, there's our high school football previews. Today we go south and northeast into a couple of mountain towns where they play some pretty good football (no, not THAT one, not yet).
FRAZIER MOUNTAIN...
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Say goodbye to July, which means August — and football season — are right around the corner. Kern High School District teams can begin practice with footballs and helmets Monday. Today, we continue our preview trek through the Southern Section and into the High Desert League....
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Our daily high school football previews are moving out of 8-man territory and into the 11-man game we all know and love. And today we bring you a couple of teams from the edge of Kern County that will be worth keeping your peripherals on.
Countdown to Week 0: 37 days
BORON BOBCATS
Coach: Todd...
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It's my birthday today, and while that might not mean a whole lot to you, I bring it up for a reason (and it's not to get anonymous well-wishers in blog comments, I assure you).
My birthday, to me, in the past few years has meant less about me getting a year older (I'm 24, if you care) and more...
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There are 33 high school football teams in Kern County, at different levels, and every last one of them has fans.
That's why, over the next four weeks, we'll be previewing each and every high school team in the area here at School House Zach. I'll run a smaller bare-bones preview on some of the...
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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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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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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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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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Just got off the phone with Doug Barnett, the athletic director and football coach at Bakersfield Christian, and he told me that Derek Carr has been accepted at BCHS and plans to enroll in the fall semester. For the few who don't know, Carr is the younger brother of David Carr, a Stockdale and...
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I had a quick chat with Foothill football coach Dennis Manning yesterday at Rabobank Arena, where he had just been introduced as the East team's coach in the Edge Arena Bowl all-star game. Sounds like that for all the talk of his possible resignation, he's staying put at Foothill.
He said it was...
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Since I know you all are waiting with bated breath, here are the rosters for the May 2 Edge Arena Bowl at Rabobank Arena. Keep in mind that these are "unofficial" rosters, which, by my guess, means the folks in charge haven't gotten a hold of a few kids to confirm that they can make it....
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Hey, hey, everybody. Welcome back from Spring Break. Lots to talk about this spring, including teachers' involuntary transfers to other schools, which could split up coaches from their teams and from each other. We'll also keep an eye on some track and field standouts — Foothill's Dayshan...
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Sometimes it's hard to squeeze high school news out of spring break, but there seems to be a fair amount this week. We'll start football, everybody's favorite.
There was a news conference this weekend in L.A., and word is the state football championships likely are on their way out of the Home...
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I hesitate to even mention rumors, so take this post with a huge grain of salt. But there's something going on with the football program at Foothill High.
We had heard a few rumblings of it here in the office, and now there's a message thread on the topic over at cvhspreps.com. For those who...
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I wouldn't shed too many tears for Stockdale High product David Carr, cut by the Carolina Panthers on Wednesday. When it comes to NFL quarterbacks, it's a seller's market out there and Carr should be able to find employment, albeit probably as a No. 3, maybe a No. 2 at a place like Atlanta...
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UPDATE: For some reason, the links I'm throwing into the text aren't working. Until I can get someone to figure that out for me, here are the links I'm trying to lead you to below:
No. 1 — rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp
No. 2 — www.bakersfield.com/225/story/358632.html
No....
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Just giving an update to an earlier blog on the Nevada high school football player that gave a verbal commitment to UC-Berkley last Friday only to have the validity of his national letter of intent questioned.
Turns out it was a hoax. He lied about the recruiting. He lied about talking with Cal...
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Happy Signing Day and Happy Ladies Day here at SHZ!
Seriously, though, it's been far too long since my last post. But then, I've been swamped with signing day festivities. Here's what we have so far as far as local football players headed to Division I schools:
Name, High School, Position,...
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A good friend and former colleague of mine when I worked in Yuma, Ariz., sent me this story from the Reno Gazette-Journal.
news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article
Truly a bizarre case of a coach not protecting his athlete. If four or five BCS football programs are supposedly recruiting your top...
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Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, Allah, Buddha, Mercury Morris, Larry Csonka and even L. Ron Hubbard.
For the previous six weeks, I've been openly rooting for whichever team is playing New England. To be totally honest since Week 1 I've rooted against the Patriots. This week was...
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Somewhat surprising news today out of Stockdale High School, which announced that it will hire Mike Snow as third head football coach in school history. Snow is, by all accounts, a good coach and teacher and a guy who had some success up at North, but it's a little strange that he would leave...
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My wife was surprised at how calm I was after the loss. She tugged on my leg as I was walking past to get another can of Mountain Dew and asked, "You going to be OK?"
"Yeah, I'll live. Nothing new."
I sounded a lot like my Little League baseball coach,...
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Being new to the area, I don't have much authority to comment on Liberty's hire of Tony Mills as its football coach. But from what I can tell, Mills will be a good fit. Here's why:
— He's already proven he can take a successful program and not miss a beat. After all, he did it with the...
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If you aren't into sports, stop here. Go find another post with the political mumbo jumbo you so love to get wound up about. This is about a different kind of fantasy world, but just as full of Armchair Quarterbacks!
I really wasn't into football at all. I didn't even know who was who...
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Traditions have a way of changing when your children and grandchildren participate in sports. I just spent my first Thanksgiving in 32 years away from home. My 13 year old grandson played in a football tournament in Las Vegas, and I went along for the ride. And boy what a ride...
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I've had my share of humble pie the last few weeks. Just once, I'd like for someone else to be humbled by my prowess at picking winners. But it probably won't happen this week.
There's plenty of hyperbole being tossed around this week in the national media about the Patriots-Colts game, but...
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We bid adieu to two experts this week. Prep writer Brad Riddell and college writer Mason Kelley are both leaving The Californian for greener pastures, sunnier beaches and dare I say, more money. Folks, let me just say it's the nature of the industry.
Quality, young reporters tend to...
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Our barnyard colleague, Jester, proved exactly what we thought could and ultimately would happen when we dreamed up the idea of having him make picks in our Beat the Experts contest.
After flirting with the Mendoza line for correct picks in previous weeks, the buck got out of his rut --...
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After two miserable weeks I was ready to call it a career. You can ask my wife. She actually thought she was going to make my picks last week because I was so down on myself. Well, I redeemed myself as an expert with a 12-3 finish. That was the best finish among the panel, and only two...
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Another week like last week and I'm removing myself from the panel of experts. Finishing a week 8-7 is an embarrassment to our staff. If not for a stinky goat, I'd be in last place. Of course, there's always next week:
Todd Camps and Mason Kelley saved the experts from too much embarrassment...
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I had a bad week. Actually our panel of 7 sports experts and a goat had a bad week. We gave away 33 bumper stickers and Haddad did a few free oil changes courtesy of our ineptness at picking winners in Week 2. Good for you, bad for us.
Anyway, here's my picks for Week 3:
Bakersfield at...
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If you haven't heard already, the Blitz arenafootball2 team is likely going to fold. Unfortunately, we all knew this was going to happen about 3 years ago. That's too bad. I enjoyed going to their games and am going to miss seeing arena football here, even though...
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Who's your favorite football team(s)? Mine are:
1. CENTENNIAL GOLDEN HAWKS (HIGH SCHOOL)
2. BC Renegades (junior college)
3. Notre Dame (college)
4. USC/Southern California (college)
5. OAKLAND RAIDERS (NFL)
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