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Here's the Week 7 edition of the football podcast. Check back later today for a quick note on Stephon Carter's announcement today that he'll play basketball for Cal State Bakersfield. Pretty impressive for the Roadrunners, considering Carter had offers from Arizona State and Colorado also on the...
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There comes a time in every season, I like to think, when the best teams start playing like the best teams and the pretenders start to fade and/or expose themselves. I don't think there's a set point in every season where it happens — in the baseball season, for instance, is it after the...
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To make up for my lackadaisical weekend, I'm giving you a double post Tuesday! The rankings haven't been shaken up too much this week, but there are some juicy matchups ahead in Week 7. Let's set things up:
1. Clovis West (4-2, Div. I, last week: 1) — No problem for Golden Eagles in their...
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Sorry this is a couple of days late. I've been out of town and haven't had a chance to group my thoughts. With four weeks left in the regular season, the high school season is starting to take shape.
UDPATED, 2:45 p.m.: Before we get to this week's Most Important Things, a quick...
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UPDATED, 12:24 a.m.: A full score list (of what we have) is below, but here are some that caught my eye:
Liberty 17, Stockdale 10 — Turns out I do know jack. Or maybe I'm just lucky. But whatever the case might be, Liberty found a way to win a close game and Stockdale finally...
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Here is the belated edition of the Week 6 podcast. Also be sure to check out Week 6 predictions that just went up.
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First off, sorry for the late post; we had technical issues all last night at The Californian and I was helping out with some other things — and coaches, if you tried to call in your score from a Wednesday event, you might try back tonight, as the phone lines were affected too....
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It's hard to believe it's Week 6 already. By the time the games are over with Friday night, we'll be four short weeks away from knowing all of our league champions and begin a weekend of waiting on playoff seeding.
Until then, here are some shaken-up Central Section football rankings. Losers...
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For those who were out and about this weekend (and first, a word of silence for my Missouri Tigers, who lost their perfect season in a Saturday night heartbreaker to Oklahoma State), there were a couple of notable games played a day later than usual.
First, Garces spoiled Highland's unbeaten...
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UPDATE, 3:30 p.m. Saturday: A quick halftime update from Highland, where Garces has more or less controlled action and leads 20-7 in its makeup game with unbeaten Highland. The Rams' Jalen Sykes, just a sophomore, has been the star, rushing nine times for 101 yards and a TD, plus opening the...
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Forgive me for the bad analogy at the beginning of this podcast. I wonder aloud whether it's the greatest or worst metaphor of all time, and I think I've settled on the worst. Luckily, fellow reporter Simon Samano and copy editor/Kern County football guru Todd Camps pick up my slack. Enjoy...
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I can't seem to shake this feeling that this week is going by soooo slowly. I even took Monday off, and yet it feels like it should be Friday afternoon already. I almost don't have the energy to go through all of these predictions.
Nah, I take that back. I can always get up for some...
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You could read these rankings ... or you could just throw all the Central Section teams in a hat and pick a few winners each week.
No, seriously, read them. And it's not like there were that many upsets last week. But when Stockdale — No. 5 in last week's rankings — can't put away...
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October is the most wonderful time of the sports year, with baseball playoffs beginning (we have a certain staffer at The Californian, who shall remain nameless, who says the baseball season doesn't begin until October), basketball and hockey season getting ready to go, and of course...
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UPDATED, 12:04 a.m.: The full score list is below, but I'll pull out a couple you might be interested in:
Stockdale 45, Centennial 44 — The Mustangs remain unbeaten by the skin of their teeth in what Californian staffer Simon Samano calls the best game he's ever seen. Stockdale scored...
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Ladies and gentlemen, your Week 4 high school football podcast — the three-pronged version, with myself, fellow reporter Simon Samano and copy editor/designer/Kern County football guru Todd Camps.
We'll have full coverage of Week 4 games in the paper tomorrow and Saturday, plus a...
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I did a little better in my picks last week, getting exactly two-thirds of the games right. Still not great, but I'm working on it, and at least I'm not in chicken-peck territory.
I'll steal a feature from one of my favorite college football bloggers to recap last week's picks: the...
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If Bakersfield teams are going to win either the Division I or II Central Section football titles this year, it's going to be an upset. The Fresno area, while perhaps not as deep as Kern County, has a monopoly on the top teams in the section thus far.
That could change, of course, and it...
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Another exciting week means there's plenty to talk about again. And we can do it with a distinct look ahead to the league races that are coming to stadiums near you everywhere next Friday.
First, if you need a handy guide to some Week 3 scores, look no further.
— I don't know...
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UPDATED, 12:18 a.m.: Scores keep rolling in (check for them below), but here are a few important ones:
Clovis-Buchanan 41, Bakersfield 34
Stockdale 29, Clovis 26
West 23, Liberty 21
Centennial 41, East 21
Bakersfield Christian 41, Madera Ranchos-Liberty 3
Corona-Centennial 42, Clovis West 7...
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Who am I to tell you how to spend your time, but if you like what you hear on this Week 3 podcast, you can tune in to the KRAB morning radio show on 106.1 FM tomorrow morning to listen to Francis, Meathead and I discuss some high school football goings-on. The segment should...
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As exciting as last week was, I took a big hit in my predictions. Going .500 isn't exactly the point — after all, a coin flip or a chicken pecking at one team's name or the other would go .500 over the long run, and I'd like to think I do more research than either. No, we have...
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Well, at some point, I've got to quit being so surprised at what happened in Kern County football's Week 2 and start to try to make some sense of the carnage.
That means answering questions like: What does Stockdale's victory against Bakersfield High mean? Is Stockdale better than...
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Wringling Bros. newest attraction! It's Kern County high school football!
Now, just kidding, we haven't gone into circus mode quite yet. But what a wild and crazy week it was in Kern County high school football. Let's see if we can decipher...
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UPDATE: I'm not a big Chris Berman fan, but the longtime ESPN anchor has one saying that's perfect for Valley football tonight: "That's why they play the game."
Kern County has been turned on his head as far as I'm concerned. You can check out the list of scores below...
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Ladies and gents, your Week 2 podcast. A quick note you might have seen commented on in the last post: Looks like Clovis East and Fresno-Edison, two of the premier football programs in the Central Section are either already in some recruiting trouble (Clovis East can't have home...
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Before we begin, there's some gravely sad news to report out of Riverside. Boron sophomore Vinnie Rodriguez, who was taken to the Loma Linda Medical Center in Riverside after sustaining apparent head injuries in the Bobcats game Friday, died last night.
It's a shock any time this happens, but...
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Lots of big games this week in the Central Section resulted in surprisingly little movement at the top of this week's rankings.
1. Bakersfield (1-0, Div. I, last week: 1) — Is Edison's win against Compton-Dominguez better than BHS' 38-32 Week 0 triumph over Canyon? Hard to say....
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Sorry this is late. I've been out of town for the weekend recharging the batteries a little bit, but here are your Week 1 most important things. Check back tomorrow for new Central Section power rankings.
— Statement of the week goes to Stockdale, which made me look like a fool with a huge...
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UPDATE: Well, sometimes best-laid plans ....
I had technical issues all night up in Visalia (thanks, Starbucks) and so I wasn't able to get any blog updates out until now that I'm back in the office. If anybody's still up, I've posted all the scores we have below.
Here are my...
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Here's your Week 1 podcast. Enjoy and comment below.
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Isn't it nice when things work out?
After a star-studded and heavy-on-drama Week 0, the opening day's major players — Bakersfield, Bakersfield Christian, Liberty — take this week off to cede the spotlight to some of the other teams we need to keep an eye on. Everyone will reconvene...
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I'm going to try something new for the remainder of the football season: Rankings, brought to you by the inside of my head.
We're currently working on getting some entirely objective, computerized rankings to compare these to, but those won't be ready for another week or two. So in the mean...
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I've just rolled down the mountain, where I was covering the last game of the first weekend of this year's high school football season. Tehachapi rolled to a 17-0 lead in the first half and held on to beat Santa Ana-Segerstrom — a bigger school from the Southern Section — 17-12.
Here...
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This is now a final list of Week 0 scores. I'll add some of my thoughts in a blog post tomorrow, but for now, enjoy:
Bakersfield 38, Canyon 32
Westlake Village-Oaks Christian 35, Bakersfield Christian 7
Clovis West 22, Liberty 19
North 26, Shafter 14
Highland 7, Arvin 6
Taft 28, Templeton 3...
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Here's the first edition of what will become a weekly high school podcast. This week's loudmouths are myself and assistant sports editor Ross Priest. Give it a listen and feel free to leave your comments below.
In case you missed it, I gave my predictions for all the Week 0 games in...
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As I type this, it's 7:33 p.m. That means that in two days, the national anthems will be sung, the balls will have been checked for air, the kickoffs taken, and the first plays in the high school football season finished.
In two days, we'll finally begin to figure out who the haves and have-nots...
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Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone. Of course, it was also the start of football season, a bit more of a holiday for me. College season started Thursday, most high schools around the country kicked off Friday and the NFL is around the corner next Thursday.
As for us, we have to wait for...
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One of the best parts about slaving away on The Californian's high school football preseason sections (and there's really no other way to put it; this sucker is a TON of work, though I'm sure everyone will really enjoy the finished product) is discovering smaller schools: Where they're...
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We're now 10 days and counting till Week 0 kicks off with a slew of great games. We'll talk more about these next week, but here's what fans can look forward to Sept. 5:
*Bakersfield at Canyon
*Westlake Village-Oaks Christian at Bakersfield Christian (A quick aside on the Eagles: The...
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Last year, Bakersfield.com launched its SNAP! community photo galleries by sending local students to their schools' varsity football games, taking photos of the crowd, handing out cards telling their subjects that they'd been "snapped," and uploading their photos to our website every...
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At long last, we've reached the end of our team-by-team previews, and we do so with the top team in Kern County, at least in my eyes.
Looking at this completely objectively (and I know some will think The Californian likes BHS because we're 45 seconds from campus, but that's just not...
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Back for a second update in the same day, making up for my forgetfulness last night. Now we're getting serious, into the top teams in the Southeast Yosemite League.
Another note: We're looking for extras for a Californian cover shoot for our SEYL football preview. If you're a Liberty or...
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Remember when I was so good about putting Year in Review blog posts up? Yeah, that was back when I didn't have much to do over the summer. With our staff scrambling to get our football preview edition for the newspaper done, I'm running around like I just found the king banana.
So...
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For many schools, it's intrasquad scrimmage night — the first edition of Friday night lights, even if they aren't really official. But, my goodness, it's too hot for football still, isn't it? I'm glad they pushed back the real season's start by a week. Maybe that'll give it a chance to...
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AAAAHH!!!
I've had this post ready all day but have forgotten to post between running around working on other stories all day. Sorry for the delay.
GARCES RAMS
Coach: David Fanucchi (sixth year)
2007 record: 7-6 (2-4 SEYL, 3-4 home)
Average points: 24.8
Average points allowed: 19...
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It's Wednesday, so I've got some random thoughts for you (no, that didn't make sense to me, either, but I'm a little delirious at this point).
(Feel free to scroll down to the East High preview if you don't like tangents.)
Random Wednesday Thought No. 1: Anyone pay attention to the medal...
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My oh my. Time to begin previews on teams from the Southeast Yosemite League, our final stop in this 2008 football preview (I'll do succint previews on the rest of the section and state next week).
Countdown to Week 0: 17 days
GOLDEN VALLEY BULLDOGS
Coach: Erich Smith (second year)...
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So I was busy pouring over Sports Illustrated’s college football preview (imagine that) this past weekend, and they’ve made a big deal over the spread offense — who runs it, how it started, why it’s impossible to stop, how defensive coaches are trying to counter it. It was...
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After an emotional day yesterday, we'll bury ourselves back into the football previews. Everyone ready to find out who wins the SWYL? As for my predictions about such a wide-open league, I'll only say I'd be surprised if they're right.
Week 0 countdown: 19 days
WEST VIKINGS
Coach:...
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