TheLounge
08-16-2007, 08:05 PM
The high school football season is officially around the corner, as far as the Sports Lounge is concerned. Menlo-Atherton and Menlo School kick off the season Aug. 31 with games on the road. The rest of PAL get underway the following weekend.
Tuesday was the annual Peninsula Athletic League football coaches meeting during which coaches are made aware of the latest rules changes as well as discuss any questions pertaining to the season —*scheduling conflicts, changes, etc.
Some interesting tidbits from the meeting:
• There is a good chance that this will be the last year of the PAL’s football division’s as we’ve known it for the last several years. There are plans afoot to switch the current Bay and Ocean divisions. Currently, there are eight teams in each division. The new proposal —*which is expected to be voted on and passed by the PAL athletic directors and the board of managers later this year and will be enacted for the 2008-09 season — will have six teams in the Bay and 10 teams in the Ocean. The reasoning is the top six teams in the Bay Division are competitive with each other while the bottom two usually are overwhelmed by the other six. The new format simply makes every Bay game that much more competitive.
The 10-team Ocean Division would then be split into two levels based on competitiveness. The top teams would then play each other to determine the division’s automatic playoff bid.
• A stringent new transfer policy has been enacted by the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school sports in the state. It is incumbent on the coaches as well as the school administration to follow all the paperwork requirements. There have been a couple of high-profile cases in the last couple of years of shady transfers and the CIF has had enough.
The biggest issue is “undue influence” which basically regards recruiting. Coaches aren’t dumb. They won’t actively recruit kids. But other members of the team, booster club members or anyone else are also prohibited from recruiting kids to schools for the express reason of playing sports.
• There were 63 officials available for Peninsula football games last year and the Northern California Football Officials Association that provides them added 12 to 15 more for this season.
“We could use another dozen,” said Mike McCarron, president of the NCFOA.
It may seem to be enough officials to go around but come Saturday games, the high schools lose almost one-third of officials to college games.
• For those who think football refs don’t know what they’re doing or are incompetent (neither of which I agree with), think again. According to Jorge Rodriguez, the official who assigns referees to each and every game on the Peninsula, officals meet during the summer months and three times a month during the season to review games and calls. As Rodriguez said, refs are human. They will make mistakes. But they do their best to make sure they don’t make the same mistake twice.
***
Community college athletic programs on the Peninsula have done a tremendous job in recent years of sending players onto four-year schools to continue their playing careers. The College of San Mateo football team as well as the baseball programs at CSM, Cañada and Skyline all send bushels of players on to the next level.
Then there is soccer. Both Cañada and Skyline have had problems keeping kids eligible and on track to transfer. It’s not the coaches fault, most of these kids just can’t handle the rigors of the classroom —*or don’t want to. It’s tough to get a lot of these soccer players to buy into the whole school-is-just-as-important-as-the-game mindset. High turnover is the norm at the community college level but it seems to be much more prolific on the soccer field.
There are a could of players that bucked that trend and moved on. Jorge Rosales and Omar Martinez, both from Sequoia High and Cañada, did well enough on the field and in the classroom to move on. Both received scholarships —*Rosales, a goalkeeper, is at San Diego State while Martinez, a midfielder, is playing at Sacramento State —*which, coincidentally, is the Lounge’s alma mater. The Hornets have a decent soccer program. I also have a brief connection with San Diego State, which is coached by Lev Kirshner. I played against Kirshner in high school and watched him play for years with my buddy’s club team.
***
While on the topic of soccer, former Woodside standout, Lars Lyssand —*who went on to star at San Jose State — was named to the first team of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation 15th Anniversary team.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.
Tuesday was the annual Peninsula Athletic League football coaches meeting during which coaches are made aware of the latest rules changes as well as discuss any questions pertaining to the season —*scheduling conflicts, changes, etc.
Some interesting tidbits from the meeting:
• There is a good chance that this will be the last year of the PAL’s football division’s as we’ve known it for the last several years. There are plans afoot to switch the current Bay and Ocean divisions. Currently, there are eight teams in each division. The new proposal —*which is expected to be voted on and passed by the PAL athletic directors and the board of managers later this year and will be enacted for the 2008-09 season — will have six teams in the Bay and 10 teams in the Ocean. The reasoning is the top six teams in the Bay Division are competitive with each other while the bottom two usually are overwhelmed by the other six. The new format simply makes every Bay game that much more competitive.
The 10-team Ocean Division would then be split into two levels based on competitiveness. The top teams would then play each other to determine the division’s automatic playoff bid.
• A stringent new transfer policy has been enacted by the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school sports in the state. It is incumbent on the coaches as well as the school administration to follow all the paperwork requirements. There have been a couple of high-profile cases in the last couple of years of shady transfers and the CIF has had enough.
The biggest issue is “undue influence” which basically regards recruiting. Coaches aren’t dumb. They won’t actively recruit kids. But other members of the team, booster club members or anyone else are also prohibited from recruiting kids to schools for the express reason of playing sports.
• There were 63 officials available for Peninsula football games last year and the Northern California Football Officials Association that provides them added 12 to 15 more for this season.
“We could use another dozen,” said Mike McCarron, president of the NCFOA.
It may seem to be enough officials to go around but come Saturday games, the high schools lose almost one-third of officials to college games.
• For those who think football refs don’t know what they’re doing or are incompetent (neither of which I agree with), think again. According to Jorge Rodriguez, the official who assigns referees to each and every game on the Peninsula, officals meet during the summer months and three times a month during the season to review games and calls. As Rodriguez said, refs are human. They will make mistakes. But they do their best to make sure they don’t make the same mistake twice.
***
Community college athletic programs on the Peninsula have done a tremendous job in recent years of sending players onto four-year schools to continue their playing careers. The College of San Mateo football team as well as the baseball programs at CSM, Cañada and Skyline all send bushels of players on to the next level.
Then there is soccer. Both Cañada and Skyline have had problems keeping kids eligible and on track to transfer. It’s not the coaches fault, most of these kids just can’t handle the rigors of the classroom —*or don’t want to. It’s tough to get a lot of these soccer players to buy into the whole school-is-just-as-important-as-the-game mindset. High turnover is the norm at the community college level but it seems to be much more prolific on the soccer field.
There are a could of players that bucked that trend and moved on. Jorge Rosales and Omar Martinez, both from Sequoia High and Cañada, did well enough on the field and in the classroom to move on. Both received scholarships —*Rosales, a goalkeeper, is at San Diego State while Martinez, a midfielder, is playing at Sacramento State —*which, coincidentally, is the Lounge’s alma mater. The Hornets have a decent soccer program. I also have a brief connection with San Diego State, which is coached by Lev Kirshner. I played against Kirshner in high school and watched him play for years with my buddy’s club team.
***
While on the topic of soccer, former Woodside standout, Lars Lyssand —*who went on to star at San Jose State — was named to the first team of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation 15th Anniversary team.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.