Hi, and welcome to a different edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. That is the week public schools get the highlight in football after the Mater Dei-St. John Bosco game last week provided plenty of pleasure for personal schools.
Edison vs. Los Alamitos
Unbeaten Edison takes on surging Los Alamitos on Thursday night at Huntington Beach in a game that can assist make clear possible Division 1 playoff participants.
Edison is 7-0 with good wins over Orange Lutheran and San Clemente. Los Alamitos is 6-2 and has the good passing duo of Malachi Nelson and Malaki Lemon. The sport will determine the Sunset League championship.
It’s a very good week for public schools to indicate their stuff.
Within the North Hills League, El Dorado (6-1) is at El Modena (6-0). Within the Ocean League, Leuzinger tries to supply competition to unbeaten Inglewood at El Camino College. Within the South Coast League, Mission Viejo resumes its rivalry with San Clemente at San Clemente. In a battle of teams that run the double wing, unbeaten Norwalk hosts Bellflower. Downey (6-1) plays at Warren (6-1) in a battle of top quarterbacks. Within the Marine League, San Pedro plays at Carson on Thursday night.
Here’s the whole Week 8 schedule.
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Overcoming obstacles
Lying in bed at night, Xavier Jordan hears gunshots, sirens and helicopters so often that it’s now not an obstacle to falling asleep.
“I got used to them,” he said.
Jordan lives in a housing project at Holmes and 51st streets in South Los Angeles along with his mother and five younger siblings.
“I can’t even come outside most times because my mom is paranoid,” he said.
L.A. Cathedral High has change into his sanctuary and the football field his playground.
“I may be 16,” he said.
At 6 feet 1 and 170 kilos, with speed, athleticism and powerful hands, Jordan is a junior wide receiver with dreams and aspirations to construct a way forward for unlimited possibilities.
Here’s his story.
No. 1 vs. No. 2 turned out to be a real defensive struggle. Mater Dei defeated St. John Bosco 17-7.
Quarterback Elijah Brown improved to 24-0 as a starting quarterback. Here’s the report from a sold-out Santa Ana Stadium.
Earlier within the week, Gardena Serra learned it needed to forfeit a win over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for making a mistaking in playing a player who had not been completely cleared. The Cavaliers then got here out and knocked off Bishop Amat to remain within the Mission League title race. Here’s the report.
Venice keeps winning within the City Section and is No. 2 behind San Pedro within the CalPreps.com rankings. Here’s a report on the Gondoliers using defense to succeed.
Here’s a report on Edison improving to 7-0 with a win over Newport Harbor.
Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.
MaxPreps modified landscape
All together, let’s sing the birthday song:
“Joyful birthday to you. Joyful birthday to you. Joyful birthday, dear MaxPreps…”
Yes, that is MaxPreps’ twentieth 12 months of existence, and few organizations have been more vital in helping bring highschool sports into the digital era.
You’ll need to remember what it was like before MaxPreps was created by California-based Andy Beal in 2002 within the Sacramento area.
Rosters, schedules and scores were distributed or confirmed sometimes by Pony Express. Seriously, the knowledge was collected by phone calls or by begging coaches and freelancers to report scores to newspapers. Going to a City Section football game, reporters would ask players one after the other on the sideline to state their name because rosters or programs were rarely supplied.
MaxPreps’ idea of a one-stop place to report scores, display rosters, statistics and schedules took years to perform since it relied on schools volunteering their effort and time to input the knowledge. Some sections asked and prodded coaches to assist. It was slow but regular improvement, and even today there are holdouts for statistics and rosters in certain sports.
A take a look at how MaxPreps modified the highschool sports landscape.
‘Gentle Giant’
He’d see the huge kid with the long, flowing hair popping a wheelie on his strategy to school, doing donuts on his 29-inch Big Ripper BMX across the car parking zone, and Peninsula football coach David Young was baffled.
What are you doing? Young would think, watching Andrew Russell. You’re going to harm yourself.
That was before he really knew Russell. Knew he wasn’t reckless. Wasn’t a hothead. Only a sweet-natured enigma.
After he joined the Peninsula football team, a few of Russell’s teammates ventured to the Industry Hills Speedway. They were there to see him on his off day — a now-17-year-old racing dirt bikes professionally, beating adults along the best way.
“Coach, you gotta see him, he’s like a star,” Young remembered players telling him. “Like, dude, he’s the dude on the market.”
None of it seems to make sense, at first glance. Russell is 6 foot 3, weighs 275 kilos and shreds as a bike racer in a sport where the small and wiry are most successful. He’s a standout lineman, but when he first got here to Peninsula he was planning to affix the marching band. He’s a “hulking figure” who looks like a bruiser, Young said, but in addition considered one of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet.
Here’s the profile.
Moorpark finds its coach
The expectation that girls’ flag football will likely be added as an official highschool sports within the CIF this fall is causing high schools to get a head start by naming head coaches. And it’s not only any coach willing to begin a program. Former varsity coaches may very well be stepping forward to tackle the duty.
Moorpark found a very good one last week in naming Tim Lins as its latest girls’ flag football coach. Lins had great success at Crespi and Moorpark before retiring in 2017. He had continued to be a teacher at Moorpark and run the burden room.
“It’s a probability to begin a program from the bottom up,” he said of why he’s coming out of coaching retirement. “That will likely be fun.”
The seven on seven games would require Lins to interrupt out his old playbooks from youth football coaching days. He plans to establish tryouts and search for an athletic, mobile female to change into the team’s quarterback.
Asked if he thinks other veteran coaches might opt to teach flag football as an alternative of tackle football, Lins said, “The games are shorter. There’s no contact, in order that cuts down your risk of injuries. It’s a smaller game on a smaller field.”
Here’s a report on the women’ flag football league sponsored by the Rams and Chargers.
Creator rising
Former Oak Park basketball player JD Slajchert has turned in his shorts and jersey for work along with his computer. He’s a author after graduating from UC Santa Barbara and has finished his second book, “Darling, You’re Not Alone” by Summer House Publishing.
It launches on Nov. 3 and is a book for teens and young adults concerning the challenges and adversities growing up in today’s world.
His two younger brothers were stars at Oak Park and went on to the Ivy League.
Who can’t wait for his first baseball novel?
Cross country
Newbury Park unleashed the Young twins, Leo and Lex, and Aaron Sahlman on the Clovis Invitational.
They went 1-2-3 in leading the Panthers to victory over San Clemente within the sweepstakes race.
Leo ran 14:25.9, the second-best time in course history at Woodward Park. Lex finished in 14:31.7 and Sahlman was 14:52.4.
Calabasas’ Arielle McKenzie won the small schools girls’ race. Granada Hills won the varsity girls team title. Jie Yi Denise Chan of Claremont ran 18:13.3.
Here’s the link to finish results.
Girls’ volleyball
Anabelle Redaelli leapt and swung again, the match hanging on her right arm. After she fell back to the hardwood with one other kill, her Palisades bench burst right into a serenade.
“That’s-a-fresh-man!” they chanted.
Freshman, yes. Correct, but only in name. Redaelli was an offensive linchpin beyond her years in Palisades’ 25-17, 25-18, 5-25, 25-27, 15-12 rivalry win over Venice on Thursday night, raining shots from all angles, skying from the back for the match-clinching kill.
She wasn’t alone. Three freshmen manned a court featuring two of the highest teams within the City. Six, total, were on rosters. Across the City, the wealthy are only constructing more generational wealth, with freshmen making significant contributions on 4 of the undisputed top five teams within the section.
Here’s the link to the volleyball notebook.
Notes . . .
Senior basketball player Parker Strauss of Pacific Christian has committed to Northwestern. . . .
Senior infielder Eli Steinhaus of Thousand Oaks has committed to Lewis & Clark. . . .
The City Section has finalized its site for the Open Division and Division I girls’ volleyball championships. Cal State Northridge will host each championships Friday, Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. and seven:30 p.m. . . . .
Newport Harbor standout girls’ water polo player Avery Montiel has committed to Stanford. . . .
Romeo Pellum was reinstated as football coach at Long Beach Millikan this past week after being suspended by the college district following the invention of an ineligible player. The Rams needed to forfeit 4 victories. He missed a loss to Long Beach Poly. . . .
Lowell Darius Carr, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, has transferred to Fairfax. He was at Southern California Academy. . . .
Offensive lineman Bryce Boulton from Palm Desert has committed to Oregon. . . .
Pitcher Nicholas Williams from La Mirada has committed to Long Beach State. . . .
Junior shortstop Kaniya Bragg of Garden Grove Pacifica has committed to UCLA for softball.
From the archives: Ceyair Wright
Ceyair Wright has made it clear he’s pursuing two paths: acting and football. He did it during his days at Loyola High and is constant his balancing act as a starting cornerback at USC.
Here’s a story from 2021 in his role playing LeBron James’ son in “Space Jam: A Recent Legacy.”
Here’s one other story from 2021 detailing Wright’s dreams and goals.
Recommendations
From the Recent York Times, a story on midnight basketball in Oakland.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on a highschool team ending its season after a racist chant.
From the Washington Post, a story on a highschool football team suddenly getting good by adding lacrosse players.
From the San Diego Union Tribune, a story on the CIF specializing in sportsmanship.
Tweets you would possibly have missed
Until next time…
Have a matter, comment or something you’d wish to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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