I’ve been covering high school sports for more than 20 years and I’ve seen my fair share of craziness. I’ve never seen what Urban’s Bryce Smith did during the Blues’ Northern California opener against Hillsdale Tuesday. His 52-point explosion was one for the books as the Knights simply did not have an answer for the lithe point guard. It literally got to the point that you were shocked when he didn’t make a shot during the Knights’ wild 78-77, double overtime victory.
Smith’s performance was just one aspect of a game that instantly moves into my top-5 games to have covered as a reporter. My top two are still a pair of Chabot and City College of San Francisco football games more than two decades ago — the first featuring an epic Chabot comeback that came up short on a failed 2-point attempt that was returned the over way by the Rams to give them a three-point win. A year later in Hayward, the teams were involved in a full-blown, bench-clearing brawl which saw players swinging helmets at one another. The third was the San Mateo-Aragon football game in 2003 that saw San Mateo’s Toke Kefu rush for over 200 yards, only to see the Dons win on a last-minute catch and run. Fourth is the Newark Memorial-Serra Nor Cal semifinal game at College of the San Mateo in 2005 — a game that went to overtime when Newark Memorial sank a halfcourt shot. A game the Padres would win to advance to their first state championship game.
Smith’s performance alone made that game Tuesday night worthy of a top-10 spot, but considering that Hillsdale not only had to overcome Smith, it had to overcome the fact that the Knights accomplished the double overtime win without three of their top seniors — guards Matt Chan and Shawn Cotton Jr., and post player Nick Robinson — who all fouled out of the game, moves the game up several notches on the list.
“I definitely had concerns,” said Oliver Crank, whose two free throws with 1.5 seconds left proved to be the difference. “If my coaching staff had concerns, they didn’t show it.”
But Crank’s heroics wouldn’t have been possible without the heroics of Reece Nobida, who made 1 of 2 free throws with 1.5 seconds left in the first overtime that forced the second. Nobida had moved into the starting lineup after Robinson went down with injury late in the regular season. That the smallest guy on the court came up with one of the biggest free throws in recent school history only adds to the legend of the game.
But it was Smith’s performance that will be the thing I remember the most. He hit driving layups, floaters, off-balance 3-pointers, on top of being a perfect 13 for 13 from the free throw line. He scored 21 of the Blues’ 31 fourth-quarter points and 34 points in the fourth quarter and two overtime periods, that saw them erase a 19-point deficit entering the third quarter.
There was so much going on, I was almost at a loss for words when I was interviewing Hillsdale head coach Brett Stevenson.
“I don’t even know what else to ask you,” I said, to which he simply shook his head. It was a game that anyone who was there to witness it will never forget.
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Last month, it was announced Dave Grissom, principal at Mountain View High School would take over as the new Central Coast Section commissioner at the start of the next sports year, which begins July 1.
But here’s the local angle: Grissom was also the CCS president, which handles the legislative side of CCS. With Grissom moving into the commissioner’s role, there is a vacancy at the CCS president position.
Well, there was a vacancy, but it now filled — by Steve Sell, Aragon athletic director and football coach, who has served as CCS vice president for the last three years.
“I had lunch with (former CCS commissioner) Nancy Lazenby,” Sell said. “She said, [his appointment] is historic.”
Sell said Lazenby told him he is the first athletic director to ever be named CCS president.
“She said usually it’s a principal or an administrator,” Sell said.
While he will automatically become CCS president July 1, Sell said he will need to be elected to the position next spring.
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