MaxWire National Blog

Covering High School Sports in America

Category: California

Apr. 17^th
Where's Aaron Gordon? Lucky 13 sign at Archbishop Mitty

Photo by Luie Lopez
The large and happy contingent of 13 who signed National Letters of Intent at Archbishop Mitty High School on Wednesday.
Aaron Gordon has been everywhere lately. Especially on the MaxPreps front page. We even featured him on our No. 1 feature, Beyond the X.

But on Wednesday, even Gordon was trying to hide from the cameras. He was one of 13 Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Calif.) athletes to sign National Letters of Intent in the school's Brother Merman J. Fien gym.

Photo by Luie Lopez
Aaron Gordon signs.
It looks like a game of "Where's Aaron?" in the group photo above. Even a crouching Gordon is easy to spot.

As most of the prep world knows, the 6-foot-8 senior forward, the nation's No. 5 basketball recruit and MVP of the McDonald's All-American Game, waited until after the season to pick his school, the University of Arizona. He signed Wednesday with coach Tim Kennedy and his mother Shelly Davis behind him.

The first-team MaxPreps All-American told reporters of his decision: "It was an extremely hard process. I went to Arizona twice and I'm glad I did that. I felt at the end of the day it would fit best. … Kevin Parrom, Mark Lyons, Solomon Hill are all leaving which is about 80 percent of the scoring."

Of the 13 athletes who signed, eight were girls. Mitty has one of the strongest girls athletic programs in the country.

Those females to sign were: Cecily Agu, track and field, Air Force; Ciara Campbell, rowing, Loyola Marymount; Cathleen Cantoni, water polo, Santa Clara; Rebecca Koshy, water polo, Iona; Meghan O'Sullivan, water polo, Redlands; Victoria Rizzo, rowing, USC; Jori Wider, soccer, Sonoma State and Claire Cecilio, field hockey, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The other boys were Ryan Foo, soccer, Northwest Nazarene; Connor Kurze, soccer, Chico State; Daniel Mosko, football, Colgate and Robert O'Leary, football, Gannon.
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By Mitch StephensApr. 17^th, 2013, 04:00 PAdd a Comment
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California, California Basketball
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Jori Wider, Connor Kurze, Ryan Foo, Aaron Gordon, Archbishop Mitty, Central Coast Section Soccer, Central Coast Section Girls Soccer, Central Coast Section Basketball
Apr. 14^th
Richard Samudio belts his first 4 home runs - in one game

File photo by Steve Silva
Richard Samudio, San Pedro
Senior Richard Samudio never had hit a home run - until Saturday.

Once he got the "scent," however, Samudio belted an amazing four home runs as San Pedro (Calif.) routed Taft (Woodland Hills, Calif.) 24-7 during pool play in the San Fernando Tournament.

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound first baseman batted a perfect 6-for-6 and drove in eight runs. He collected two of his home runs - including a grand slam - during a nine-run seventh inning. Three of his team members also hit for the distance.

Samudio told the Daily Breeze, "I never thought that was going to happen. After each one, I was just thinking, 'Hopefully I'll get another one' and I just took my hacks and hit some."

San Pedro coach Lefty Olguin added, "He's been hitting all year. He's a line-drive hitter. But I've personally in my 30 years of coaching never seen anyone hit four home runs."

*Junior shortstop Daniel Patzlaff hit four straight home runs over a two-game span against Huntington Beach (Calif.) - two in his final two trips to the plate as Fountain Valley (Calif.) posted a 12-11 win and two in his first two at-bats during a 9-8 win. The 5-9, 170-pounder had only one homer previously this year.

*Javier Alvarez pitched a perfect game as Lakewood (Calif.) blanked West Torrance (Torrance, Calif.) 7-0. He struck out eight and went to a 3-ball count just once.

*In softball, Brittaney Dahle struck out 21 batters as Wake Forest-Rolesville (Wake Forest, N.C.) nipped Millbrook (Raleigh, N.C.) 2-1 in eight innings.

*Senior Katie Sutherland-Finch struck out 19 and yielded just one hit as Glencoe (Hillsboro, Ore.) blanked Century (Hillsboro, Ore.) 5-0. Just for good measure, she slammed a two-run homer and drove in four runs.

*Coach Jo Ann Byrd notched her 600th victory as Corona (Calif.) defeated Centennial (Corona, Calif.) 3-1.
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By Dave KriderApr. 14^th, 2013, 12:00 AAdd a Comment
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Baseball, California, California Baseball
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Daniel Patzlaff, Richard Samudio, Brittaney Dahle, Javier Alvarez, Wake Forest-Rolesville, Glencoe, San Pedro, Fountain Valley, Lakewood, Corona
Mar. 30^th
Rob Dibble fired after 2-8 start as Calabasas baseball coach

Ed Edsall resigned as head baseball coach after five years at Calabasas (Calif.) at the end of the 2012 season because his wife was going to have a baby and he felt he wouldn't have enough time to coach.

However, the baby was born in November and he was asked to be the interim coach earlier this week because first-year head coach Rob Dibble was fired. In his return, Edsall's team was handed a 4-2 loss by Agoura (Calif.) on Thursday.

Photo by Vince Pugliese
Rob Dibble, Calabasas
Noted for his 100 mph fastball and hot temper during seven years as a Major League pitcher, Dibble's tenure at Calabasas was short-lived. His team went 2-8 and he was ejected from his final game, an 8-1 loss to Agoura. Earlier he had informed school officials that he had just taken a job to announce Los Angeles Angels games for Compass Media and he could not continue high school coaching beyond this season.

Dibble told the Ventura County Star in an email, "There really is no story. After 10 months being at the field every day, seven during the school's sixth period, there was no way I could commit past this season. When I informed the school, they asked me to resign ASAP.

"I said I wouldn't quit. That would not be a good message to the players. I've spoken to most of the players and their parents and will continue to help them get into college or pursue their dream of playing baseball."

Dibble, who is 49, compiled a 27-25 record with three Major League teams, had 645 strikeouts, 89 saves and a 2.98 ERA. He was a two-time All-Star and helped the Cincinnati Reds win the 1990 World Series.
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By Dave KriderMar. 30^th, 2013, 08:00 PAdd a Comment
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Mar. 30^th
Aaron Gordon to announce college decision Tuesday: Where will he commit?

Photo by Dennis Lee
Aaron Gordon, one of the nation's top recruits, will announce his college decision on Tuesday.
Here we go again on the "wild guess" track of where a prep star athlete will be going to college.

I'll bite because, well, I know the lad, the family, the coach and the team. And though I can't say for certain, it's fun to guess.

I'm guessing Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Calif.) basketball star Aaron Gordon is going to shock most everyone — sort of like how he shocked McDonald's All-American practice onlookers Monday with a couple of dunks (one going through the legs) — and pick Oregon.

He's announcing his decision 12:30 EST Tuesday at the Media Day in Chicago.

Oregon would be surprising because Gordon took the Ducks off the board a few months ago and thought he had narrowed it to Arizona, Kentucky and Washington.

But then, according to his mom Shelly Davis, who has been down this recruiting path with older children Drew and Elisabeth, Aaron watched a game last month between the Ducks and Kansas.

He took a closer look at their style of play and evidently has a real affection for Oregon coach Dana Altman. That inspired him to put the Ducks back on his list.

He wouldn't do that unless he REALLY had a change of heart. That and listening to Davis, who noted the worst part of the process is telling the coaches who worked so hard and built such a relationship they wouldn't be attending their schools.

Davis, close family members and Mitty coach Tim Kennedy know where Gordon is going. Plus he told the "winning" coach five weeks ago, about the time Oregon came back into the mix.

Why would he do that only to disappoint Altman again? And by the tone of Davis' voice, I sensed Washington was out because Lorenzo Romar has been Gordon's staunchest friend and ally. That would be a terribly hard phone call to make.

Gordon is too close to family and won't go across country to Kentucky to play. It's either Oregon or Arizona and I think the Pac-12's up-and-comer, with the best facilities on the planet, wins the Gordon sweepstakes.

Watch the video below of Aaron Gordon putting on a show at the McDonald's All-American practice.

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By Mitch StephensMar. 30^th, 2013, 12:00 A2 Comments
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Basketball, California, California Basketball
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Aaron Gordon, Archbishop Mitty, Central Coast Section Basketball
Mar. 25^th
30-foot buzzer beater wins California state title (Video)

Photo by Todd Shurtleff
Horizon won the California Division V state title on a miraculous buzzer beater.
Every high school basketball player dreams of making the game-winning shot to win the championship, but not many get to live that dream.

Fortunately for Ethan Underwood of Horizon (San Diego), last Friday was his time.

Trailing St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 46-44 with four seconds left in the California Division V state title game, Horizon’s Darren Carrington (17 points, 14 rebounds) got the rebound off of a missed free throw, dribbled to near midcourt, then found Underwood, who took two dribbles and swished it from well beyond the top of the key.

"That's Ethan for you," Horizon coach Tyrone Hopkins said. "He's never afraid to take the big shot. He's got ice in his veins."

Hopkins said it was the fifth buzzer-beater for his team to win a game this year, and it was arguably the most exciting moment of the two-day California state finals in Sacramento. Watch the stunning video below.

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By Staff ReportMar. 25^th, 2013, 05:25 PAdd a Comment
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California, California Basketball
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Mar. 23^rd
San Mateo Serra baseball upsets No. 6-ranked St. Francis

File photo by David Stephenson
Serra upset the No. 6-ranked St. Francis baseball team on Friday.
Serra (San Mateo, Calif.) recorded a major upset baseball victory the hard way on Friday.

The twice-beaten Padres spotted unbeaten St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) — ranked No. 6 in the nation by MaxPreps — a 6-0 lead in the first inning before rallying for a stunning 10-9 victory. After just one out, the Lancers put nine consecutive batters on base from four hits, three walks and two errors.

After trailing by as many as seven runs, the Padres cut their deficit to 8-7 by the third inning, the big blow a three-run homer by senior Christian Conci. Then in the bottom of the fifth inning they took the lead for good when Mickey McDonald slammed a two-run double and scored what proved to be the winning run on a single by Paul Murray.

Still, the batting heroics would have not been enough without junior relief pitcher Sean Watkins, who entered the game in the fourth inning with runners on first and third, no outs and nine runs already on the board for St. Francis. All he did was pitch one-hit ball the rest of the way.

Serra coach Craig Gianinno praised Watkins' toughness in the final inning when he hit the leadoff batter before erasing him on a double play.

He told the Palo Alto Daily News, "He's a gutty, competitive kid — and it doesn't matter what he's playing. He's tough-minded. Came right off the basketball court and he wanted to finish that thing. There was no way he was coming out of that game."

Just two weeks out of basketball, the 5-foot-10 Watkins conceded, "My arm wasn't feeling that great, but I just battled. It was fun out there."
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By Dave KriderMar. 23^rd, 2013, 04:30 P1 Comment
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Baseball, California, California Baseball
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Paul Murray, Mickey McDonald, Sean Watkins, Christian Conci, Serra, Central Coast Section Baseball
Mar. 20^th
Matt Barkley's number to be retired at Mater Dei

Seems like just yesterday — okay, perhaps a few days before that — that I made a 450-mile trek down Highway 5 to do a one-on-one with Matt Barkley at Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.).

File photo by Louis Lopez
Matt Barkley at Mater Dei in 2008
Thursday they are retiring his No. 5 on the Orange County campus.

That didn't take long. He's not even in the NFL yet, though he's expected to be one of the top two quarterbacks taken in the NFL draft next month — most have him in the top 10. Four CBSsports.com experts all have him going inside the top eight.

Barkley's prep career was certainly decorated. He was the Gatorade National Player of the Year (all sports) his junior year and, perhaps most impressive to me, a four-year starter at a perennial national power.

I don't often do straight Q&As with prep athletes — but after our talk in the summer of 2008, I thought it was warranted. Might be worth taking a look from 4 1/2 years ago — not exactly yesterday. Also check out a piece we did on him after winning the Gatorade award.

Mater Dei is also going retire the jerseys of former standout receiver Thomas Duarte, MacKenzie Barr (water polo) and Jon Walters (water polo).
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By Mitch StephensMar. 20^th, 2013, 11:32 AAdd a Comment
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Football, California, California Football
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Mar. 16^th
Chad Kanoff rejects Vanderbilt scholarship for Princeton

File photo by Nicholas Koza
Chad Kanoff, Harvard-Westlake
Chad Kanoff made a rather shocking decision this week when he elected to attend Princeton University, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The outstanding quarterback from Harvard-Westlake (Studio City, Calif.) had committed to play football at Vanderbilt in May and signed in February.

In a new release from the school, Kanoff said, "Vanderbilt is a great school, with a strong football program, and a terrific coaching staff, and I'm grateful for the opportunity that was offered to me. However, after thoroughly thinking it through, I believe that Princeton is the best fit for me as a student-athlete."

According to MaxPreps statistics, the 6-foot-4, 210-pounder finished his senior year by completing 227 of 371 passes for 3,421 yards and 38 touchdowns. He had only eight interceptions. He twice threw six touchdown passes and his high game was 448 yards.
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By Dave KriderMar. 16^th, 2013, 12:00 AAdd a Comment
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Mar. 16^th
Saturday National Rundown: Olympic caps unbeaten season with North Carolina state title

File photo by Fabian Radulescu
Deriece Parks scored 19 points to lead Olympic to its first basketball state title Saturday at UNC's Dean Dome.
Olympic (Charlotte) is 86-4 over the past three seasons under head coach Ty Baumgardner and has been featured in MaxPreps.com's national rankings each of the last two years.

Despite all that success, the Trojans had yet to break through and win a state title. In fact, the school had never won a state title in anything outside of slow pitch softball, which the North Carolina High School Athletic Association no longer sponsors.

Olympic's state championship drought ended Saturday with a 56-53 win over Broughton (Raleigh) in the Class 4A state title game. The game was played in the Dean E. Smith Center (better known as the Dean Dome) on the University of North Carolina campus.

Senior guard Deriece Parks led the Trojans with 19 points as they finished a perfect 30-0 on the season. Olympic entered the game ranked No. 4 nationally by MaxPreps.

Junior guard C.J. Jackson added 17 points for the new state champions.

The loss for Broughton added to a tough day for North Carolina State head coach Mark Gottfried, who saw his team eliminated from the ACC Tournament by Miami earlier in the day. Gottfried's son, Cameron, is a promising junior guard for Broughton.

Other nationally-ranked teams in action

* No. 10 Mater Dei (Santa Ana) will play for its third California state title in a row next weekend after dismantling No. 3 Etiwanda 60-37. The Monarchs will meet up with Aaron Gordon and Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) in the CIF Open Division state championship game.

* No. 6 Simeon (Chicago) put an exclamation point on a special run by beating Stevenson (Lincolnshire) 58-40 to capture its fourth Illinois Class 4A state title in a row. Jabari Parker, often the center of attention for the Wolverines, finished with 20 points and eight rebounds. Simeon (30-3) went 117-15 in Parker's four years with the program including 92-6 over the past three years. The school was also once home to Bulls star Derrick Rose and has won seven state titles overall.

* No. 16 Chester advanced to Pennsylvania's Class AAAA semifinals with a 55-42 win over Great Valley (Malvern). The Clippers led by just one early in the third quarter but gradually pulled away for their 15th victory in a row by 10 or more points. Bidding for its third state title in as many years, Chester will meet St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia) in the semifinals.

* The backcourt combination of Jahmel Taylor and Namon Wright was too much for No. 17 Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) as Pacific Hills (Los Angeles) emerged with a 73-69 in California's Division IV state semifinals. Taylor, a Washington commitment, poured in 20 points while Wright added 20.

* No. 19 Morgan Park (Chicago) capped a dominant state tournament run by beating Cahokia 63-48 in the Illinois Class 3A title game. The Mustangs, who finished the season 33-3, won state tournament games by margins of 67 and 63 points and won all seven contests by an average margin of 38 points per game.

* In 2010, Lincoln Gahanna played spoiler against an unbeaten Northland (Columbus) team led by then-senior Jared Sullinger. History did not repeat itself Saturday as another undefeated Northland (28-0) team overcame a halftime deficit for a 62-53 win, advancing to Ohio's Division I final four. Armani Towns led the victorious Vikings with 20 points and seven boards.

* No. 25 Carmel will play for its second Indiana Class 4A state championship in a row after dismantling Merrillville 66-36. The Greyhounds (25-2) received 22 points apiece from senior guards James Crowley and Michael Volovic. Carmel will meet up with a hot Indianapolis Cathedral squad next Saturday for the title.
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By Jason HickmanMar. 16^th, 2013, 12:00 AAdd a Comment
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California, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California Basketball, Illinois Basketball, Indiana Basketball, North Carolina Basketball, Ohio Basketball, Pennsylvania Basketball
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Jahmel Taylor, Michael Volovic, Deriece Parks, C.J. Jackson, Namon Wright, Jabari Parker, Aaron Gordon, Armani Towns, James Crowley, Stevenson
Mar. 13^th
Long Beach Poly plays ineligible player Kameron Chatman on purpose to make statement

Photo by Nicholas Koza
Kameron Chatman boxes out in the final minute Tuesday against Mater Dei. He is ineligible to play, but his coach wanted to send a message to the CIF Southern Section.
Coaches and players talk about making a statement in big games. Long Beach Poly (Calif.) did that in an 83-63 loss to Mater Dei Tuesday night, only it was a much different kind of statement - one that could get the entire Jackrabbits athletic program in trouble.

Head coach Sharrief Metoyer put Kameron Chatman into the game in the final minute of the blowout loss. Chatman, the coach's godson from Oregon, was ruled ineligible until March 16, 2013, but Metoyer put him in the game anyway. The Poly crowd cheered loudly for the MaxPreps four-star college recruit as he entered the game, and he hoisted a few jump shots but didn't score.

Photo by Nicholas Koza
Poly players wore #FREEKAM warmup shirts.
The CIF Southern Section ruled long ago that since Chatman played for a travel team Metoyer is affiliated with, he was ineligible to follow his travel team coach to a new school. The fact that he is Metoyer's godson didn't matter.

Metoyer strongly disagreed, and on Tuesday, after his players warmed up in T-shirts that said #FREEKAM, he decided to put the young man into the game.

"An unfair situation happened to a young man who had nothing to do with it and at some point somebody had to make a statement, and I want people to know how unfair it was," he told MaxPreps after the loss. "At the end of the day the game of basketball means nothing. We are in the business of helping kids and when you treat a kid as unfairly as they treated him and you're not consistent with enforcement of rules, somebody has to stand up.

"He's a part of our family. When you hurt one of us you hurt us all."

According to a tweet from @GazettesSports, a Long Beach site, "CIFSS Blue Book Rule 500.5 gives CIF the authority to suspend Poly's athletics program over this violation. This is going to be interesting." Later tweets featured a link to the rule, and also make sure to state that suspending the program is a possibility, not a certainty.

Knowingly allowing an ineligible player to play is likely to be met with some type of consequence. For more on the saga's buildup, click here to see the Long Beach Press-Telegram game preview.

And be sure to stay tuned to see what, if any, fallout will come.

"I am not trying to be anything more than I am, but I am a role model, a mentor and somebody that's helping kids. At the end of the day it was about this young man, it was not about me or Poly. His teammates love him."
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By Leland GordonMar. 13^th, 2013, 12:06 A3 Comments
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Basketball, California, California Basketball
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Long Beach Poly, Southern Section Basketball