Sacramento News, Gossip, & Snark
Reminder that ESPN RISE will feature Grant High vs. Folsom High tonight at 7pm on ESPN 2.
The RISE site has a nice feature on Viliami Moala, Grant’s 340-lb lineman.
The big question is whether you’ll be listening to the coverage with Slammin’ Sammy on “Panther Radio” or getting En Fuego on 1040 a.m.…
Congratulations to the Rocklin Thunder, who with their 21-14 defeat of Del Oro in the rain on Friday night secured a berth in the CIF D-II state championship bowl game on Saturday in Carson, where they’ll play Servite of Anaheim. Unfortunately they apparently lost their star quarterback to an injury at the game, so they’ll hand the ball to a plucky underclassman QB who’ll try to make his small town proud, while trying to keep the hard-livin’ fullback from going off the deep end and also taking care of his gramma. They should make a so-so movie and then a superlative primetime TV show out of this story.
In reality, though, it looks like the replacement QB was actually their starting QB at the beginning of last season, who they lost to an early season injury last year.
Continue reading “UPDATE: Rocklin beats Del Oro, wins bowl game berth”
Sacramento State outfielder Tim Wheeler was taken in the last slot in the 1st round of this year’s MLB draft, going to the Colorado Rockies as the 32nd pick. You have to be pretty stoked to be picked by a team just a few season removed from a pennant winning campaign.
Prep catchers Max Stassi (Yuba City) and Andrew Susac (Jesuit) have yet to be taken in the draft. At this point (end of 2nd round) I would assume both young men will be college bound next year. UPDATE – The Oakland A’s drafted Stassi in the 4th round. So now the kid has to choose between turning pro or going to UCLA, and I would think the prospect of playing for a Norcal team might tip the scales toward joining the MLB. I gotta think signing bonuses for 4th rounders are not stratospheric.
By now, you’ve heard that Grant High won the California Interscholastic Federation Open Division State Football Championship Bowl Game on Saturday night in Carson, CA. Fox 40 took the lead with their extensive coverage of the game. Watch the kids arrive in Northern California from cbs13.com. Ah, to be young again…
What’s really exciting here is how quickly the community gathered around to schedule a parade to celebrate the victory.
Twin Rivers School District officials, and city officials, are scrambling to lock down speakers, publicize the event, and make other preparations. “We got a permit rushed right though and every one is very excited to celebrate some good news,” said school district spokeswoman Trinette Marquis…Marquis said the Sacramento police and fire departments have chipped in by handing out fliers in addition to their normal crowd control and safety duties. The district’s automated phone system will be making more than 25,000 phone calls to invite district students, parents and staff to the parade and rally.
That’s good stuff right there. *rant* Seriously, how many more news stories about how things haven’t begun to suck yet can we all take? We get it! */rant*
The parade (great use of umapper.com, btw) is set to start at 1 p.m. at Grant High School and end with a 3:30 p.m. rally at the City Hall at 9th and I streets.
The Grant High School Pacers, the top area Division II football team, has been ranked #58 in the nation by Yahoo’s Rivals.com, my Yahoo home page tells me. Nifty.
Though a more important number for the Pacers is their #2 ranking by ESPN’s CalHiSports.com. (So they’re D-I in the state, but D-II in Sac-Joaquin? I’m going to need MSN’s Google’s Wikipedia to explain that to me. Obviously different measures are used by CIF and Sac-Joaquin.) Apparently that #2 ranking means they are looking at a berth in the CIF state championship game on December 20, where they would play the top D-2 school from So Cal. It’s a big weekend for local prep football, as Casa Robles are (apparently I’m British) still in play for the D-II CIF championship berth.
The Pacers and Rams should wear FlyJumpers Power Jumping Stilts Friday night in their Sac-Joaquin section championship games, that could put them over the edge…
Great story about the Cristo Rey High School football team in today’s Bee. Go Saints!
Tomorrow, the CIF will bring the best high school basketball teams from Northern California to Arco Arena for the NorCal championship games. Next weekend, the NorCal champs will face the SoCal winners in the finals. The Sac-Joaquin Section boasts several teams that have a shot at the state championship, so let’s get pumped and show some support! Woo!
In Division 1, Kennedy has the #2 raked girls team in NorCal. They will face #1 ranked Berkeley High in the semi-finals to see who will face the SoCal champion.
In Division 2 girls, #1 St. Francis will face #6 Archbishop Mitty.
The game of the year is definitely the Division 3 girls semi-final, with the only two undefeated teams in California vying for the NorCal title. #2 St. Mary’s of Stockton (GO RAMS!!!!!) will face #1 Sacred Heart Cathedral (SF).
The Division 3 boys match features a battle of the upsetting underdogs, with #7 Sacramento High battling #6 Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Best of luck to all of our local teams!
