Patches for every player named to every list of the 2019 Cal-Hi Sports All-State Baseball Teams will be available to order through our partners at BillyTees.com. This is an image of the 2018 patch. The 2019 patch will be similar. A certificate to accompany each all-state baseball patch also is part of the package.[/caption]
For those just interested in seeing the names of players who are on the Gold Club post for this year’s All-State Underclass Team for baseball 2019, here is a simple alphabetical list. If you want the full presentation and are not Gold Club, please check out getting a membership today.
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Cal-Hi Sports Insider Blog
Quick-hitting, behind-the-scenes news and notes from the CalHiSports.com staff, including previews of upcoming content and events.
All-State Baseball: Patch List
Salute to Tyler Skaggs
We were overseas when the tragic news broke about former Santa Monica High pitcher Tyler Skaggs dying at a hotel room in Texas while with the Los Angeles Angels baseball team on a road trip. Skaggs was 27 years old. Upon returning from our trip, we checked into more about Tyler’s family and his senior season with the Vikings in 2009 when he was named all-state first team.
Moment of silence is observed for Tyler in San Diego.
Cal-Hi Sports happened to be part of Student Sports and ESPN in 2009 and because of that we also were more connected to the Student Sports’ Area Code Games. Tyler was in that event in the summer of 2008 and was an impressive pitching prospect. In the 2009 high school season, he had given up playing football and basketball at Santa Monica and his recruiting/draft potential improved. He eventually would be picked at No. 40 overall in the supplemental draft by the Angels, who later traded him but got him back. He was in his fifth season as a starting pitcher for the Angels this year.
Despite only going 2-3 in 48 innings, Skaggs gained his all-state honor by striking out an impressive 76 batters in those innings and he also only had 11 walks. He struck out 12 batters in a game three times. He also had signed with Cal-State Fullerton, but didn’t go there after the draft.
That 2009 Cal-Hi Sports All-State First Team was exceptional. The two main player of the year candidates that season were Tyler Matzek of Capistrano Valley (Mission Viejo) and Matt Hobgood (Norco). We picked Matzek as Mr. Baseball after he led Capo Valley to the CIF Southern Section D1 title with a home run at Angels Stadium in a win over Norco and Hobgood. The Norco standout (who also had 55 RBI as a hitter) was the Gatorade National Player of the Year. It’s the other players on that team, however, that make it even more special. Among those selected were future MLB standouts Nolan Arenado (El Toro), Mitch Haniger (San Jose Archbishop Mitty), Jake Marisnick (Riverside Poly), Matt Davidson (Yucaipa) and Ryon Healy (Encino Crespi).
The following year, in 2010, the Santa Monica High softball team, coached by Tyler’s mom, Debbie, won the CIF Southern Section Division IV title. The Vikings defeated North of Torrance 11-3 in the championship game, sparked by a grand slam from Emma Woo in the fifth inning that erased a 2-1 deficit. It was Debbie’s first and only CIFSS title in a nearly 25-year head coaching career and her son paid for championship rings. That championship was bittersweet since it came just one week after Santa Monica athletic director Norm Lacy had died from a heart attack.
We didn’t know until reading about Tyler and Debbie in the aftermath of Tyler’s death that longtime Valencia High softball coach Donna Lee is the twin sister of Debbie so Tyler would be her nephew. Donna coached at Valencia in 2007 when the Vikings went 32-1 and won the mythical national title.
Obviously, this is a terrible time for all who knew and loved Tyler. A lot of people not just in the California baseball community but in softball as well will be thinking about the family over the rest of the summer.
Kawhi’s Mr. Basketball writeup (2009)
Kawhi Leonard has gone from being Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year at M.L. King of Riverside to become an MVP candidate for the San Antonio Spurs. Photo: Scott Kurtz.
Here’s a look at the article we did in 2009 when we chose Riverside M.L. King’s Kawhi Leonard as the Cal-Hi Sports Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year. It might seem today as if it was an easy choice at the time. It wasn’t. Leonard was not a McDonald’s All-American and he was lower than many others on national recruiting lists.
Editor’s Note: This also is one of the best articles that managing editor Ronnie Flores has ever done for our site.
If you can’t see this post, it’s easy to become a Gold Club member to see this article plus next week’s new state rankings and all of our other great, unique content. For sign up info, CLICK HERE.
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More Baseball Coaches of Year
In addition to overall State Coach of the Year John Weber of Cypress, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2019 season going to Pat Fuentes of Los Banos (medium schools) and Greg Mugg of Sunnyvale The King’s Academy (small schools).
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Two from US women’s soccer from same California school
California leads the way for the 2019 US women’s soccer national team that will try to win the World Cup this month in France with five former high school players on the roster. Georgia is second with three. Two of the five from California are from Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton.
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More State Softball Coaches of Year
In addition to overall State Coach of the Year Matt Sweeney of Pleasanton Foothill, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2019 season going to Robert Vernon of Ripon (small schools) & Ed Medina from Godinez of Santa Ana (medium schools).
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CIF State Academic Champions
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) today announced 35 State Academic Team Champions for the 2018-2019 school year. The CIF State Academic Team Champions program was initiated in 1996 as a way to reward teams with the highest collective grade-point-averages, based on an unweighted 4.0 scale, in their respective sport.
CIF State Academic Team Champions will receive a banner, suitable for display in their school gym, to recognize this accomplishment. All nominees were their respective CIF Section Academic Team Champions. Section offices forwarded their winners in all sports to the state office for consideration.
The Southern Section had 16 teams represented, followed by seven teams from the North Coast Section. The Central Coast and Central Sections had three teams each, followed by Sac-Joaquin, San Diego, and San Francisco Sections with two teams apiece.
Mission San Jose (NCS), Poly Pasadena (SS) and Whitney (SS), each had four teams accomplish a state-high team GPA. Pasadena Poly also was tops in three of the five sports that are primarily covered by CalHiSports.com — Football, Boys Basketball, Softball.
Three girls cross country teams accomplished a 4.00 GPA; Bakersfield, Moreau Catholic of Hayward and San Francisco International. The gymnastics team from Wilcox of Santa Clara also achieved a 4.00 GPA, along with the boys’ cross country team from San Francisco International.
Below is a list of the top team GPAs in each CIF approved sport (listed by GPA):
Boys Cross Country San Francisco International 4.00
Girls Cross Country (tie) Bakersfield 4.00 & Moreau Catholic of Hayward 4.00 & San Francisco International 4.00
Gymnastics Wilcox of Santa Clara 4.00
Boys Golf Webb of Claremont 3.95
Girls Tennis Whitney of Cerritos 3.94
Boys Swim & Dive Centennial of Bakersfield 3.93
Boys Water Polo Whitney of Cerritos Southern 3.93
Girls Water Polo Poly of Pasadena 3.93
Girls Swim & Dive Liberty of Bakersfield 3.92
Boys Volleyball Whitney of Cerritos 3.92
Boys Tennis Hart of Newhall 3.91 & Whitney of Cerritos 3.91
Girls Basketball Crean Lutheran of Irvine 3.91
Girls Golf Villa Park 3.91
Girls Volleyball Yeshiva (YULA) of Los Angeles 3.91
Softball Poly of Pasadena 3.90
Girls Soccer ABLE Charter of Stockton 3.89
Girls Track & Field Sacramento Country Day 3.88
Boys Track & Field Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.87 & St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano Southern 3.87
Boys Basketball Poly of Pasadena 3.86
Girls Wrestling Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.85
Boys Soccer Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.83 & Woodside Priory of Portola Valley 3.83
Badminton Archbishop Mitty of San Jose 3.82
Baseball Viewpoint of Calabasas 3.82
Girls Lacrosse Branson of Ross 3.82
Girls Field Hockey La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad 3.79
Boys Wrestling Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.74
Trad. Competitive Cheer Heritage Christian of Northridge 3.68
Football Poly of Pasadena 3.68
Boys Lacrosse Santa Fe Christian of Solana Beach 3.66
Competitive Sport Cheer Carondelet of Concord 3.53
More Baseball State Teams of Year
In addition to overall No. 1 and Division I No. 1 De La Salle of Concord, others that can say they are mythical state champions for 2018 are Santa Margarita of Rancho SM (Division II), Los Banos (D3), Winters (D4) and Rio Hondo Prep of Arcadia (D5). Read more…
More Softball State Teams of Year
In addition to overall No. 1 Norco, others that can claim they are mythical state champions for 2019 are Cypress (Division II), Oakdale (D3), Ripon (D4) and East Nicolaus of Nicolaus (D5).
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All-NBA: Cali rules, but where’s Klay?
This year’s All-NBA teams were announced earlier this week and it’s just another example of the great players from California high schools who are making this such a golden era for the Golden State (pun intended).
NBA superstar Klay Thompson speaks at ceremony held at Santa Margarita when the school retired his No. 1 jersey. Photo: @SMCHSAthletics/Twitter.com.
The first team, second team and third team of five players each is based on voting by media members (broadcast & print) who regularly cover the NBA. The first five highest point totals are first team, the next five highest vote totals are second team and next five highest are third team. There’s no indication in the point totals who ranked 16th and may have just missed. It also doesn’t list positions for each player, meaning that there didn’t have to be a required number of centers, forwards or guards on any team.
James Harden (Artesia, Lakewood) was one of two players who received 100 first-place votes, which means all 100 voters named him on the first team. Harden, who led Artesia to the CIF Division III state title in 2007 and who was the MVP of the NBA for last season, was joined with 100 first-place votes by Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
But Harden wasn’t the only Californian on first team. Paul George (Knight, Lancaster) was named first team by 71 voters after the sensational season he had for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
There also were two Californians on second team — Kawhi Leonard (M.L. King, Riverside) of the Toronto Raptors and Damian Lillard (Oakland) of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Making it five out of 15 on the third team was triple-double machine Russell Westbrook (Leuzinger, Lawndale) of the Thunder.
Much of the conversation after the teams were announced, however, was about another California player who wasn’t in the first 15. That would be Klay Thompson (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) of the Golden State Warriors. Thompson maybe didn’t score as much or rebound as much as some others on third team — such as Blake Griffin, Rudy Gobert and Kemba Walker — but he’s a huge reason that the Warriors have advanced to their fifth straight NBA Finals and could win their third straight world championship. The exclusion of Thompson also is much more significant than just talking points because being on one of the top three teams is part of the criteria for a player to get a so-called super max contract. That doesn’t seem fair or make sense, but the players themselves did vote in favor of the bargaining methods that the league and teams will use to determine super max players.
In thinking about Thompson some more, you’d already have to say that he’s firmly on track to eventually be in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and that he’s the best player ever from an Orange County high school. George Yardley (Newport Harbor, Newport Beach) is the county’s only Hall of Famer as of now, but Thompson has had an even better career so far and there’s more still to come. There’s not a Mater Dei player for sure who can match him.
