Lounge playing a bit of catch-up

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Mavericks is dead! Long live Mavericks!

To no one’s surprise, really, and like most others before it, the World Surf League has thrown in the towel on trying to produce a Mavericks surf contest. If the WSL can’t get it together to run a contest off of Pillar Point, not many really have a legit chance of doing so in the future.

The WSL is just the latest in a long line of people and organizations who simply could not pull everything together. Officially, the WSL said it could not secure a major sponsor for the event, but my guess is they simply got tired of the political games, infighting and red tape to even bother trying to get it up and going again.

It doesn’t really matter, though. The men and women who ride Mavericks know who the real players are. And to be honest, there is a de facto contest any time Mavericks is firing. Most surfers at that level will acknowledge when a fellow surfer is in the zone. The man — or woman — who kills it on any given day will be crowned, for that session anyway, as the king/queen of Mavericks.

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The San Mateo football team is off to the best start it could have imagined. I think the general response when the Bearcats opened the season two weeks ago with a 21-0 win over El Camino was a collective shoulder shrug.

But Friday’s win is a definite eye opener. Not only because of who the Bearcats beat, but how they did it. For the first time since 2010, San Mateo beat crosstown rival Aragon. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg because not only did the Bearcats beat the Dons, they dominated. The Bearcats posted a second straight shutout, to the tune of 34-0 as the racked up more than 400 yards of offense, including 368 on the ground.

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One thing is for certain this season: there will be a new PAL boys’ water polo champion.

There has been a major shakeup in Central Coast Section water polo as Menlo has left the PAL for the challenges of playing in the West Catholic Athletic League, one of the premiere leagues in Northern California and the state.

Menlo had won 18 of the last 19 PAL Bay Division titles and all five PAL tournaments since it was first played in 2014.

The Knights now join CCS powers Sacred Heart Prep, Bellarmine and St. Francis to make the WCAL even stronger.

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Drew Shiller and Grant Liffmann, a pair of Burlingame High School graduates, best friends and the co-hosts of the “Warriors Outsider” program on NBC Sports Bay Area, will be featured speakers at the Burlingame Parks and Recreation Foundation event Oct. 14 at the Burlingame recreation center.

This is a fundraiser for the park & rec district, with 100 percent of the $20 tickets going to Burlingame parks. You can register by calling 650-558-7300 or go to https://registration.burlingame.org/public/class/33063/group/77.

Anyone familiar with Peninsula sports knows Shiller, the former three-sport standout for the Panthers who had his football No. 16 and basketball/baseball No. 1 retired by the school. Since graduating Stanford, Shiller has done a good job carving out a career in sports broadcasting.

Liffmann, on the other hand, was not a necessarily a jock, but had a passion for sports. After graduating Burlingame, Liffmann went on to become an actor before transitioning into sports broadcasting. Since his turn the “Warriors Outsiders,” Liffmann is starting to see regular work as a pre- and post-game anchor on Oakland A’s broadcasts.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext.