Author Archives: Harold Abend
State Coach of Year: Vanessa Nygaard
Hopefully there will never be another high school basketball season like the one the Coronavirus ended prematurely, but nonetheless the awards go on, and despite falling just short of qualifying for the CIF Open Division state championship, this year’s State Coach of the Year is unquestionably one of the top coaches in the state and […]
Ms. Basketball State POY Finalists
These five players can be considered finalists to be considered for the Ms. Basketball honoree for California for 2020. Look for the winner to be announced several days after we have honored the annual State Coach of the Year. We like to write up finalists before doing the actual Ms. Basketball feature since it can […]
NorCal/SoCal Players of the Week
No sooner did we get started with baseball and softball Players of the Week than due to circumstances way beyond our control this will be the last one for at least a few weeks and until we find out if spring sports will resume. Hopefully, we will be able to re-start this feature this season. […]
Girls BB State Team of Year 2020
With no final state championship as a crowning moment, we revert back to the entirety of the season to name the 2020 State Team of the Year for girls basketball and for only the fourth time ever it goes to a school from the CIF San Diego Section. We have State Teams of the Year […]
SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week
By this time next week, a lot of spring games may be cancelled by the likely spread of the coronavirus, but for now we’ve had plenty of games to go through to find this week’s four honorees — two each for baseball and softball. They represent the communities of Porterville, San Juan Capistrano, San Francisco […]
NEW State Top 25 Girls BB Rankings
The funnel is now as narrow as it gets with just two games remaining in each and all of the six CIF state divisions, and to no one’s surprise the top seeds held suit in the CIF Open Division regional semifinals. Those teams are now all ranked in the top nine for the state, led...
NEW State Top 25 Girls BB Rankings
Despite our wholehearted support of the state CIF and the difficulty of seeding so many teams in so many divisions with competitive equity looking over the shoulders of the seeding committees, we can’t help but think a different format may be needed for the Open Division going forward. Are five or six teams (and in...
SoCal/NorCal Players of the Week
For the final quartet of players of the week from the 2019-20 season, the trick has been not just to find deserving candidates but those who don’t have section playoff games on a Tuesday night. All four, in fact, are on teams that already have clinched berths in section finals (including one on Monday night). […]
NEW State Top 25 Girls BB Rankings
While the teams in the CIF Southern Section Open Division were beating each other in what is arguably the toughest non-state championship playoff bracket in the nation, we still have to find out if the favorites will prevail in the new CIF North Coast Section Open Division. State top-ranked La Jolla Country Day still looks...
