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We're beginning to hand out the first batch of Central Section titles of the fall, beginning tomorrow with the girls golf team championships in Tulare and then a couple of team tennis finals later in the afternoon. One of those is Division V, where Bakersfield Christian will host Fowler in what...
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I was out in Taft (near Taft, really) today for the section's South Area girls golf tournament, so I thought it'd be a good time to check in on our non-football sports, two of which are already into postseason and two more that are rapidly approaching that point.
Girls golf
Frontier stole the...
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It's high time we took a break from football at School House Zach and took another look at the other fall sports going on. They're all well into league seasons, and I hate to pay so little attention to them. But they're up against football, and its vociferous demands on attention, so we'll just...
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While you're occupied with high school football (or even if you're not), the local high school volleyball, girls golf, cross country and girls tennis teams have all gotten their teeth into their respective seasons. Not much going on today, so it's a good time to look at what we know so far....
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Here it is, folks, the end of the road for this summer's Year in Reviews. I'm a little sad to see them go, because it's nice to relive some of the better moments from the past school year.
At the same time, what's more exciting than looking forward? Starting Wednesday, July 29 (the day...
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An unfortunate note to pass along before we get going — Liberty two-sport star Mariah Alvidrez, who will be a senior tore an ACL a couple of weeks ago at a soccer camp and will miss volleyball season and at least part of soccer season. She's an outside hitter and striker and one of the...
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I'll second what I said yesterday. It's hot, and talking about swimming somehow helps.
2008-09 Kern County GIRLS SWIMMING
Overview: The north part of the Central Section was especially dominant in girls swimming this year, leaving precious few bread crumbs for Kern County. There were some...
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Mmm, swimming. I could use a good swim on Bakersfield's first 110-degree day of the year. Beat that heat with a quick read of today's Year in Review session at School House Zach.
2008-09 Kern County BOYS SWIMMING
Overview: The four horsemen (sailors?) of Kern County swimming this year were...
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Rolling right along with our spring sports Year in Reviews, today with girls track and field.
These reflections on 2008-09 will be finished next week. Shortly thereafter, we'll be talking football. The time's almost here, Kern County ...
2008-09 Kern County GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD
Overview: This...
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Sorry about the delay on this post. I'll have the girls track and field post up Sunday to make up for the missed Friday and will continue with swimming on Monday and Tuesday.
2008-09 Kern County BOYS TRACK AND FIELD
Overview: It was another grand year for the runners, jumpers and (duh)...
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I spent the lunchtime hour at the Bakersfield Museum of Art, listening to Fresno State football coach Pat Hill talk to the local Rotary Club about Bulldogs football, in general, and specifically about the contributions of some of Bakersfield's finest.
Former West running back Ryan...
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Some news out of the ESPY Awards from Hollywood, which air Sunday on ESPN but are being taped this afternoon ... we've caught word that Shafter's Anna Jelmini was not named Gatorade National Girls Athlete of the Year.
Jelmini won the Gatorade National Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year...
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Buzzing right along to the end of the winter sports Year in Reviews with girls soccer today. Into spring Wednesday with baseball, just in time for the only professional sports off-day of the entire year, the day after the All-Star Game.
2008-09 Kern County GIRLS SOCCER
Overview: After a...
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I had a bit of a crazy weekend, or at least a crazy moment on the weekend, Saturday night while running in the 10K race at the Howlin' at the Moon fun run put on by the Bakersfield Police Department. Read here for what happened; my thoughts and prayers go out to the young man running in...
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Next up on the Year in Review train here at School House Zach is one of Kern County's most successful sports, wrestling. Between here and track and field, Kern earns more than its share of state championships in this massive state.
Speaking of track and field, give a School House Zach pat on the...
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Motoring right along into girls basketball on our Year in Review train. Remember, when these are over, it'll be time to get into football football football all the time. Busy and we love it.
In the mean time, for baseball fans out there, I've been doing some work on the Bakersfield Blaze this...
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Seems like basketball doesn't get quite its due during the regular season, between football running into December and the state wrestling finals being the same week as section basketball, but there's no doubt hoops is one of the more popular games around. With that in mind, here's an extended...
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Before we get to the daily Year in Review, I've got some interesting news from the Fresno area: Clovis West coach Gary Kinne, who led the Golden Eagles to a Central Section Division I championship in his first season there, is gone back to Texas as suddenly as he arrived.
Kinne, a former...
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I received a note over the weekend reminding me of another fall sport in Kern County this year — water polo. I'm not going to do a full Year in Review there because just one school, Garces, had the sport in boys and girls formats, but it is worth a quick mention.
The Rams met with some...
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Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday weekend. Back to our Year in Review series with girls cross country.
On another note, a former Kern County athlete, Grant Desme of Stockdale, is back in town as a professional with the Stockton Ports of the California League. Stockton is at Sam Lynn...
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First off, Happy Fourth of July weekend to everybody, and please be safe if and when you're traveling. Make sure this stays a happy holiday for everybody.
Moving deeper into the summer means moving deeper into our series of high school season reviews. Today we move into boys cross country...
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Here's some breaking high school sports news/economy news: JV sports are back!
I'm sure that's a positive for most followers of this blog and for a lot of people out there, but it did come at a cost. The Kern High School District has decided to hold off on cutting JV sports for at...
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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: A quick overview, followed by a glimpse at the...
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Just dropping a quick line to let you know that School House Zach hasn't forgotten where he came from — ugh. Too weird talking about myself in the third person.
Anyway, I'm swamped this week with finishing up The Californian's All-Area coverage, so I just wanted to let everyone know...
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Some really bad news to report today that probably shouldn't come as a shock to anyone but will to a lot of people: Facing a tremendous budget deficit, the Kern High School District today announced its plans to do away with the junior varsity level in the six team sports that still have...
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I was on the internet in 1995 as a fifth-grader. I've been blogging since I was a freshman in college, and though I was a bit slow to own a cell phone, I was on Facebook early enough in its existence to remember the days when counting friends was cool.
But for whatever reason, I've been...
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I'm going to try to give as many quick updates as i can from here at Buchanan High School, the site of the 2009 State Track and Field Championships.
UPDATE, 12:40 a.m.: What a day it turned out to be for Kern County here at the CIF State Track and Field Championships. Let's do this in bullet...
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Hello to all from Fresno. I'm sure most of you won't see this until you wake up, but it's still Friday night for me after the first day of the state track and field championships at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Clovis-Buchanan High School.
Just a quick post here because I've got to...
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Every now and then, the news editors at The Californian will see something budgeted for sports publication that interests them and ask for the story or photo to put on the front page. It's not that common, but sometimes sports crosses over to the point where it's interesting to everyone instead...
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PREFACE: Yes, this is late. I should have posted three days ago, and then probably again since then. Feel free to call me lazy and worthless. Both of those would accurately describe my weekend (and it was wonderful, I might add).
Anyway...
You had to be there, at Stan Bledsoe Field on Clovis...
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Stockdale haters, turn away: This is another Mustang-heavy post. Can't help it when the same school keeps coming up with the goods.
The Central Section golf champion will be decided right here in Kern County on Thursday at Seven Oaks. That also happens to be the home course of Stockdale...
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Those of you who feel like The Californian ought to cover local high school sports more evenly, regardless of what teams are the best, might want to stop reading at this point.
That's because local high school sports news is just about synonymous with Stockdale sports news today. The Mustangs...
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For those who have to work tomorrow and Friday, take solace: The Central Section, at least, is starting its Memorial Day weekend a couple of days early.
That's tomorrow and Friday, a couple of days' worth of softball and baseball quarterfinal goodness. Here's a rundown of the local games to...
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I presented the case of each finalist last week (and I have to apologize to Centennial's Jessica Crowe, an extraordinary soccer player, cross country runner, track athlete and, get this, football player, who was left off the original finalists list given to me but was indeed a finalist for the...
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Monday at Cataldo's Pizza on Stockdale Highway, the winners of the Jim Tyack Award will be unveiled, celebrating the best male and female senior athlete in Kern County over the past four years.
I've got a list of finalists here, so read up and then make your call at the bottom — who...
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I try to avoid superlatives as much as possible — how often is one really the "greatest ever" or a game the "most dramatic of all time?" Well, exactly once. There can only be one greatest ever at any given time, all around the world.
But I'm not exaggerating when I say...
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I don't think this exactly qualifies as a beacon of the coming high school football season, but the Kern High School District sent me some tentative schedules for fall sports today, and I thought I'd pass along some tidbits from the football portion.
Keep in mind, these could change slightly by...
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Before I get into my latest rant, let me explain a quick back story: I'm getting married to my lovely fiancée Ellen in August in her parents' town, which happens to be outside of London (yeah, I know, it's cool. Expensive, but very cool). My parents, feeling some of the...
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It's that time of year again.
League championships are being decided left and right in many spring sports, and baseball and softball are busy deciding their league races as the regular season wraps up in the next two weeks.
Check out what's on the docket for tomorrow alone:
SSL tennis...
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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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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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