Westchester of L.A. boys basketball coach Ed Azzam is shown with new Fairfax of L.A. head coach Reggie Morris Jr. At right is Newport Beach Corona del Mar receiver John Humphreys, who has 77 career TDs and 31 this year entering CIF regional playoffs. Photos: Ronnie Flores & Twitter.com.
From the state record book in this post, we have updates for boys basketball coaching wins, quarterbacks in football with 10,000 career passing yards, Corona del Mar’s quest for dual record holders and consecutive PATs made by a kicker. Go inside as well for a look at California’s State Stat Stars for the last two weeks.
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Getting to 900 career coaching wins this season was about as easy an accomplishment as could be imagined for Westchester of Los Angeles boys basketball coach Ed Azzam. The longtime leader of the Comets since 1980, after all, reached 899 at the close of the 2018 season. He would have obviously preferred that the 900th would have happened in the CIF SoCal playoffs last season.
Azzam won No. 900 earlier this week when Westchester opened its own with a 79-20 romp past Horace Mann of Los Angeles at the Trevor Ariza Tip-Off Classic. He became just the third boys hoops coach in state history to hit the 900-win milestone. The other two would be Gary McKnight of Santa Ana Mater Dei with 1,136 to start this season and Mike LeDuc from Damien of La Verne with 931 (also his total to start this season). Most of LeDuc’s wins came when he was coaching at Glendora in the 1990s and 2000s.
It would take 28 wins this season, but it is possible that California will have another coach hit 900 wins if head coach Don Lippi and his team at St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda win that many games. McKnight, LeDuc, Azzam and Lippi are all still coaching, which shows how much they like what they do.
The next coach on the all-time state list to reach a milestone will be Tom Bonfigli from Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa. Bonfigli began the 2019-20 season with 795 career wins. Once he gets to 800, he would be just the 11th in state history to enjoy that feat.
FOR GOLD CLUB MEMBERS, TO SEE THE ALL-TIME STATE BOYS HOOPS COACHING RECORD LIST, CLICK HERE.
Uigalelei was last season’s State Junior Player of the Year. Photo: Mark Tennis.
TWO 10,OOO YARD QBS WERE ON THE FIELD AT END OF ST. JOHN BOSCO-MATER DEI SHOWDOWN
It wasn’t the case at the beginning of last Saturday’s monster matchup between St. John Bosco and Mater Dei that both of the quarterbacks on the field were members of the state’s 10,000 Yard Club. When the game was over, though, both D.J. Uigalelei of the Braves and Bryce Young of the Monarchs were in the club and Young had moved into third on the all-time state list.
Uigalelei passed for 444 yards in Bosco’s 39-34 victory and went to 10,084 yards since he started playing for the varsity team during the 2017 season. As many remember, D.J. wasn’t the starter at the beginning of that season, but took over after a few games. He also will be able to add more to his career total when Bosco meets De La Salle of Concord on Dec. 14 at Cerritos College for the CIF Open Division state title.
Young, who was trying to lead the Monarchs to their third straight CIF Open Division state title, passed for 405 yards in his last game. The future Alabama QB also raised his final career total to 13,250 yards. That includes the yards he passed for as a freshman and sophomore at Cathedral of Los Angeles before he transferred to Mater Dei. He edged past Hank Bachmeier from Murrieta Valley (Murrieta) by 100 yards on the all-time state list but still is quite far from the No. 1 and No. 2 totals of 16,775 and 14,007.
With one player who is unreported for this year (Jaden Casey of Calabasas) and who may or may not be above 10,000 yards, there are now at least 19 players in California prep football history who are in the 10,000 Yard Club.
FOR GOLD CLUB MEMBERS, TO SEE THE UPDATED ALL-TIME CAREER PASSING YARDS LIST, CLICK HERE.
CORONA DEL MAR QB-WR
STATE RECORD WATCH
With possibly two more games still to play, the duo of quarterback Ethan Garbers and John Humphreys at Corona del Mar of Newport Beach already has one state record, could get one more and could get a CIF Southern Section record.
Garbers, who passed for 281 yards and four TDs and rushed for 105 yards and three scores in last week’s win over Grace Brethren for the CIFSS D3 title, pushed his season TD pass total to 66 after that game. The Washington commit isn’t going to reach the state record of 90 set in 2014 by Folsom’s Jake Browning, but he only needs one more to tie and two to move into third (Browning also had 75 TD passes as a junior in 2013) on the all-time state list. That current third-place total of 67 set in 2016 by then Mater Dei junior J.T. Daniels and tied last year by Anthony Munoz of Anaheim Western also is the current Orange County and CIFSS record.
Humphreys, committed to Stanford, already has the state record for career touchdown catches with 77. He broke the previous state record of 72 set two years ago by Marquis Spiker from Murrieta Valley (Murrieta) in the unbeaten Sea Kings’ first CIF Southern Section playoff game.
With the three TD catches that he had from Garbers last week, Humphreys also now has 31 for this season. He needs just three to tie and four to break the state record of 34 set in 2014 by Cole Thompson of Folsom and tied in the next season in just 10 games by Derrion Grim from McNair of Stockton.
All of the other quarterbacks in the state with 40 or more touchdown passes this season are on teams that have lost in the playoffs. Two who could go past that total, though, are D.J. Uigalelei of St. John Bosco (39) and Jameson Silva of Fresno San Joaquin Memorial (38). Uigalelei had 48 TD passes last season.
FOR GOLD CLUB MEMBERS, TO SEE THE UPDATED ALL-TIME SINGLE SEASON TOUCHDOWN PASSES LIST, CLICK HERE.
FOR GOLD CLUB MEMBERS, TO SEE THE UPDATED ALL-TIME SINGLE SEASON TOUCHDOWN CATCHES LIST, CLICK HERE.
FIGURING OUT A RECORD:
CONSECUTIVE PATS
We get media requests about state records often and received one before the CIFSS semifinals about Pacifica of Oxnard senior kicker Scooter Carranza.
Derry Eads of the Ventura County Star reported at the time that Carranza hadn’t missed a PAT kick in the past three seasons of kicking for the Tritons. The total he had for Scooter was 146 in a row.
In the last state record book that we printed in 2008, we had the record at 115 by Roman Ferreira of San Diego Cathedral Catholic (2007-08). The current CIFSS record is listed at 106. We started to dig through various lists, including kicking stats on MaxPreps, and had a hunch that Manny Berz from Citrus Hill of Perris (he kicked there for four years from 2014 to 2017) might have a streak much longer than 115 and perhaps longer than 146.
Luckily, we still had contact info for Manny’s father, Lenny, and luckily he got back to us. Manny was perfect indeed on PATs as a junior and senior (129 of 129), but his dad recalled a couple that were blocked in 2015. Berz’s stats for that season aren’t on his career page at MaxPreps, but we did find them. The last block seems to have come in the next to last regular season game. Counting from there, we came up with a total of 152.
So guess how many PATs in a row that Carranza has entering Pacifica’s game this week against Birmingham of Lake Balboa in the CIF SoCal D2A regional finals? Well, he went 6-for-6 in the Tritons’ 42-41 win last week over unbeaten La Serna of Whittier (yes, a missed PAT was the difference) and would now have 152. One more this week and we’ll credit Carranza with a new state record.
STATE STAT STARS OF THE WEEK
(After games of Nov. 22-23 & Nov. 29-30)
(Does not include any NorCal/SoCal Players of the Week)
(Thanks to CIF Central Section historian Bob Barnett)
Rae’Kwon Alvez (Mojave)
This player’s team won its first Central Section title with a 65-38 triumph over Riverdale Christian 65-38 in the eight-man division. Alvez had a monster night by rushing for 473 yards on 20 carries and scored seven touchdowns. Game was played on November 15th.
Tyler Buchner (Bishop’s, La Jolla)
A candidate for State Junior Player of the Year, Buchner was spectacular in defeat when Bishop’s lost that wild-and-wacky 75-59 game to El Camino of Oceanside in the CIF San Diego Section D2 final. The Notre Dame commit rushed for 350 yards on 18 carries and scored five times while also passing for 286 yards (20 of 47 attempts) ad three TDs. He had 636 of his team’s 671 total yards. In the semifinals the previous week, Buchner wet 17 of 23 passing for 404 yards and six TDs in a 44-7 win over Santa Fe Christian.
Finn Collins & Jalen McMillan
(San Joaquin Memorial, Fresno)
Junior quarterback Collins had an outstanding night passing in a 35-16 win over visiting Tulare Western in the CIFSS D2 final. Collins passed for 270 yards on 12 of 20 for three touchdowns. Senior receiver McMillan had 4 receptions for 139 yards & one touchdown. Jalen has 251 receptions 10th best, 5,121 yards 3rd best & 54 touchdowns 8th best in state history. Running back Jordan Hornbeak added 20 carries and 120 yards, one touchdown.
Tyree Martin (Dos Palos)
In a game two weeks ago, he rushed for a career high of 328 yards on 16 carries, the 3rd best yards in school history and scored on three long touchdowns of 72, 85 and 48 yards in a 46-21 win over Yosemite. The bright spot for Yosemite was Holden Eames going on a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, a new school record.
Kiah Reid & Noah Sega (El Camino, Oceanside)
In that previously mentioned 75-59 win over Bishop’s, Reid had a big game at quarterback for the Wildcats with 285 yards passing (12 of 18) and five TDs. Sega also ran wild at running back for 326 yards on 26 carries. In the team’s previous game, Sega also had a big game when the Wildcats defeated Vista in the semifinals 35-21 with 15 carries for 142 yards, two catches for 59 yards and two TDs and a 33-yard interception return TD.
Trabron Russell (Manteca)
A key returnee for a Buffaloes’ team that was expected to be very strong this season, but stumbled a bit early on, Russell is rolling now. He rushed for 226 yards on 21 carries and scored four times as Manteca ground past Placer of Auburn 33-14 to win the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D3 title. Russell reached the end zone on runs of 1, 45, 55 and 59 yards. Manteca won its seventh section title and will now be trying to win the CIF D2-A state title.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He also is author of “High School Football In California,” the No. 1 best-selling book on Amazon.com in the teen/young adult football category for several weeks after its release. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
