Both Mater Dei teams — from Santa Ana and Chula Vista — plus McClatchy of Sacramento and Peninsula of Rolling Hills Estates earn tourney crowns.
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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.
Girls BB: So Cal Prep Classic Winners
It’s Official: Mater Dei State TOY
Mater Dei players and coaches get their photo taken following win against St. John Bosco for CIF Southern Section D1 championship. Photo: AngelusNews.com / Mater Dei HS.
For the third time in its history, but second year in a row, Mater Dei of Santa Ana collects State Team of the Year honor in California prep football. Read more for why this year’s Monarchs reminds us of the school’s and head coach Bruce Rollinson’s very first CIF Southern Section championship squad.
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Boys BB: Major Showcase Schedules
In November, we will begin to release our preseason 2018-19 Cal-Hi Sports boys basketball state rankings. As a preview to how things could shake out, here is a list of the major 2018-19 tournaments and classics involving California teams that figure to be ranked. Look for our preseason Cal-Hi Sports state rankings on the week of November 5, as the winter sports calendar has been moved up beginning this school year. The CIF state basketball championships will take place March 8-9, 2019.
Jayden Daniels State Record
In most career state record categories, Cajon of San Bernardino QB Jayden Daniels is behind former Folsom QB Jake Browning, but there is one state record of Browning’s that he did break. In honor of Jayden announcing his verbal commitment on Thursday of this week, here’s a rundown of his records. Note: All according to Cal-Hi Sports (no other state record compilations exist from any other source).
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CIF Football Pick ’em Scores
We don’t have a contest or anything but feel free to send in your picks for this week’s 10 CIF state football championships. Just to see a list of the scores we are going with, read on. If you want the full breakdown, CLICK HERE. If you are not a Gold Club member and now would like to see our full breakdown, you can get it for a low as $3.99. For details, CLICK HERE.
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Folsom vs. Central set some records
Final official totals from last Friday’s 84-46 win by Folsom over Central of Fresno in the CIF NorCal D1-AA championship game are out and it was indeed a shootout of statewide historical proportions.
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Aaron Judge: Bi-Coastal Standout
Fresno State fans remember him as an all-conference phenom who led the Bulldogs to the Western Athletic Conference championship in 2011. New York Yankees fans know him as an All-Star outfielder who had a record-breaking rookie season in 2017. As one of the many fresh-faced stars in MLB, Aaron Judge is also one of those rare players who has captured the baseball world’s attention from coast to coast. Here’s everything you need to know about this on-the-rise bi-coastal star.
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Salute to “Big Lou” Cvijanovich
There’s an exclusive group of high school boys basketball coaches in the history of California who’ve won 600 games or more. It’s a smaller group when you get to 800 and an even smaller group of those who’ve actually been the winningest in state history.
Count Lou Cvijanovich, who coached at Santa Clara of Oxnard from 1958 to 1999, in that smallest category. One of the most legendary coaches in Ventura County history in any sport, Cvijanovich died last Saturday at age 92 in the Oxnard home he shared with his wife, Martha.
The news broke on social media on Saturday afternoon, initially from current St. Bonaventure of Ventura head coach Pat Frank, who is a close friend of the Cvijanovich family.
More Than a Coach, a biography of Lou Cvijanovich, is a book written several years ago by Thomas S. Johnson. Photo: Ebay.com.
A tweet from the school later in the day said: “With heavy hearts, the Santa Clara High School community mourns the passing of legendary coach, Lou Cvijanovich. Coach C was a mentor, teacher and friend to so many.”
Upon his retirement in 1999, Cvijanovich was the winningest boys coach in state history with a total of 829 victories. He also retired with three CIF state titles, 15 CIF Southern Section championships and 30 league titles. In addition to basketball, Cvijanovich coached for several seasons in football and baseball and he won CIFSS crowns once in those other sports as well.
Based on our own Cal-Hi Sports state coaching records (they don’t exist anywhere else), it was sometime in the early 1990s when Cvijanovich surpassed the 650 wins by former Compton and Palm Springs coach Bill Armstrong for the top total in state history. It may have been reported later with a different win total for Armstrong, but additional research revealed there had been some JV wins on Armstrong’s total.
After Cvijanovich retired in 1999, it took four years for Oakland Bishop O’Dowd’s Mike Phelps to move past the 829 total. Phelps’ career ended shortly afterward at 843, and that total was surpassed several years ago by current Santa Ana Mater Dei head coach Gary McKnight, who is now over 1,100 all-time wins.
According to a story in the Ventura County Star, McKnight visited with Cvijanovich on Friday for one hour since his team was playing in Santa Barbara. Pat Frank also visited on Friday.
When Cvijanovich was honored with a Hall of Fame award by the California Coaches Association in 1998, we were lucky to be sitting next to him. On the same night, Cal-Hi Sports founder Nelson Tennis was selected as the first-ever recipient of the Edmond Strelow Media Award. Big Lou gave Nelson a pep talk before Nelson had to get up and say a few words, which was something he wasn’t comfortable with. We all thought Nelson did great.
In the last few years, several others have surpassed the 829 win total that Cvijanovich retired with. Judging from the reaction of the impact he had on his players and community, however, that was just a microscopic slice of the man’s life.
California High School Boys Basketball Coaches
With 800 Or More All-Time Wins
(Before start of current season)
(All according to Cal-Hi Sports)
For the complete Gold Club list of everyone who is above 600 all-time wins, CLICK HERE.
To join our Gold Club to see more state records plus all weekly state rankings, CLICK HERE.
1,107 – Gary McKnight, Santa Ana Mater Dei, 1983-2018 (1,107-105) (current)
906 – Mike LeDuc, La Verne Damien, 1980-86, 2016-18 & Glendora, 1987-1992, 1994-2015 (906-238) (current)
876 – Ed Azzam, Los Angeles Westchester, 1980-2018 (876-271) (current)
852 – Don Lippi, Alameda St. Joseph, 1980, Vallejo St. Patrick-St. Vincent, 1982-86, Oakland Skyline, 1987-1990, San Francisco St. Ignatius, 1991-2003 & Alameda St. Joseph, 2004-2018 (852-265) (current)
843 – Mike Phelps, Alameda St. Joseph, 1971-78 & Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, 1979-1990, 1992-2003 (843-196)
832 – Tom Orlich, South Lake Tahoe, 1976-2000 & Fresno Clovis West, 2003-2016
829 – Lou Cvijanovich, Oxnard Santa Clara, 1959-1999 (829-261)
823 – Harvey Kitani, San Fernando, 1980, & Los Angeles Fairfax, 1982-2016 &
San Pedro Rolling Hills Prep, 2018 (823-271) (current) (+1 win by forfeit)
803 – Willie West, Los Angeles Crenshaw, 1971-2007 (803-140)
802 – Abe Abrami, Emeryville Emery, 1955-1993
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle:
NorCal Tip Off Classic Recap
UCLA signee Jake Kyman shined with 23 points as Santa Margarita defeated Modesto Christian on Saturday in matchup of state-ranked teams. Photo: Ronnie Flores.
Here’s the results and recap from the 12th Annual NorCal Tip-Off Classic at Newark Memorial. State No. 7 Modesto Christian battled one-loss and No. 12 Santa Margarita in the marquee matchup. The SoCal club came away with the victory behind a 23-point, 11-rebound effort from UCLA-bound Jake Kyman. State No. 5 Sheldon of Sacramento and Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland also win key games.
Girls VB State TOYs (1972-2018)
Here is the official Cal-Hi Sports State Team of the Year list for girls volleyball with Mater Dei of Santa Ana added on for 2018 and going back to 1972. This is the fourth straight year with Monarchs at the top of the state since the previous three years it was the Archbishop Mitty Monarchs of San Jose.
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