Tim Peterson and some wierd looking hippie dude like the Dodgers
I didn’t know picking La Mirada as the number one team in the Southeast Division would create such a stir. Aren’t we still in August? Isn’t Zero Week still three weeks away? I mean it’s not like we tabbed Lynwood.
Apparently the crime that we committed was not picking West Covina number one. Yes we know the Bulldogs are good. They’ve won back to back championships and still are one of the elite teams in the division. But they lost a huge part of their offense in running backs Chris Solomon and Jimmy Frazier and key defensive players in Justin Meaders and Lonzell Barnett. So we looked at what La Mirada had coming back and there you go.
How hard did we slap West Covina in the face? How much did we disrespect them? How much did we dismiss the Bulldogs as a contender? We placed them number two. Yeah two! Wow I can just see Coach Mike Maggiore’s motivational speech now.
“Did you see what Mid Valley Sports did to us? Did you see where they put us in their poll? NUMBER TWO! YEAH THAT’S RIGHT NUMBER TWO! Now let’s get out there and show them who’s boss! LET’S GO!”
I’m sure he’s losing sleep over where we picked them. But seriously our polls are strictly for entertainment purposes only.
But the one thing that nobody can argue. It’s number one in everybody’s poll. It’s the undisputed king every year. Nobody can touch it and our recent division polls proved it once again. It wins the title every season and just keeps getting better and better. It’s not even close. The sport of football itself. NFL, college and high school- it doesn’t matter. It’s all anybody really cares about.
Heck we could run a pee wee football story next to a high school baseball or basketball story and football would take more hits. It’s just the way it is. Would anybody complain if we changed the name of our site to Mid Valley Football?
I don’t see it coming to that because it would be almost impossible to ignore the other area high school sports but honestly our site hits would increase.
It all starts for keeps on Thursday night August 23 with Bonita hosting San Dimas in the Smudgepot. That game will get the entire spotlight this year. There are really no other area games scheduled for that night so all eyes will be fixed on that one.
The next night features several key games including Arroyo at Los Altos, Baldwin Park at El Monte, Rio Hondo Prep at Arcadia and West Covina against Covina at Covina District Field.
I’m not a big fan of the season starting this early. It’s a disservice to the kids to put them out there in what could be triple digit temperatures. But it’s football so I won’t complain too much.
So who’s going to win? Well that’s the beauty of it. Nobody really knows until they hit the field. In the Mid-Valley Division the Mission Valley League may be as wide open as its ever been. Arroyo is the defending champ but Steven Rivera is now playing quarterback for Whittier College. El Monte has Brandon Martinez and Abel Barajas coming back and has its eyes set on a title. They’re making a lot of noise in South El Monte and there’s always Rosemead’s defense. I’ve even heard people honking for Gabrielino and everybody is talking about Mt. View’s performance at the SGV Shootout.
Can Northview unseat San Dimas in the Valle Vista? Has Covina fallen as far as some have suggested?
I’ve heard Alhambra, San Gabriel, Montebello, Schurr and Bell Gardens all mentioned as favorites in the Almont. Sierra Canyon and Paraclete are the big boys in the Alpha League, which is making its debut in the Mid-Valley. And in the Rio Hondo, anybody can win…well actually no. That one we do know. Nobody will touch Monrovia.
That’s my principle.
Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com.
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“From MVS Sports: People are good at what they do, but you have to figure they just pulled this out of a hat. This game should have been televised a year ago, they’d be much happier with the Smudgepot. Bad call by whomever is in charge of making calls.”
Bad call? I don’t think so, you guys are forgetting that West Covina /Covina has turned into a heated rivalry because of the way the games have gone these last two years. I keep hearing that Covina will be better than most think, those boys over there are gonna be pumped, a win over West Co would be a nice feather in their cap. Your also forgetting that it’s week zero, WC has had a few zingers in week zero.
I haven’t forgotten the 09 and 10 week zero games for West Co in which they were heavily favored in both games only to lose.
With time running out, Blair needs to act fast in getting both a coach and enough players to field a varsity football team. Despite the concerns of many, school officials aren’t ready to pull the plug on the season.
La Mirada guy,
I’m only going on reputation with Dominguez, don’t really know much on them except they looked pretty athletic when they came over to WC for a passing game.
Not disagreeing with you at all though, if they lost that many seniors it could be a tough year for them, but just the fact that they are Dominguez means you gotta give them the benefit of the doubt.
Found out that West Co. vs. Covina game to be televised. A ton of pressure on the new coach at Covina High. I’m not sure that game gives the SGV the early favorable view we hope for. I wonder if they considered covering the Smudgepot. A full house at Citrus college plus all kinds of side stories between the two well matched programs would have been fun to see on TV. Thats my envy talking of couse and I hope for great exposure for both programs.
From MVS Sports: People are good at what they do, but you have to figure they just pulled this out of a hat. This game should have been televised a year ago, they’d be much happier with the Smudgepot. Bad call by whomever is in charge of making calls.
@Dan
Dominguez has very few returners from last season, something in the order of 11 or 12 kids. This is a total rebuilding year for them. If you think there kids are athletes without experience, that’s your opinion. Paramount is returning half their team, Paramount is the team from the SGL to beat this year. Just IMHO
Tim, Joe P.,
It’s not unreasonable that you guy’s have us any where in the top 4 or 5. Each year is different, with teams from the San Gabriel Valley league coming in and La Mirada kids getting offers and the losses that West Co has from graduation anything can happen. By playoff time last year Solomon, Fraizer and Salgado were the best backfield in the SGV and almost scoring at will, the offensive line was firing on all cylinders and the defense was swarming like a hive of African killer bee’s. This year Solomon and Fraizer along with several studs on defense have graduated and for the third straight year we will replace our whole offensive line except for one returner.
We have a lot of skill, speed, and talent coming up in the ranks to be tested at the varsity level, in my opinion I think WC will be on or close to the level of last year, maybe even better on defense, but you really don’t know until the pads come on and the games start. Injuries and eligibility issues are other factors that could come into play.
I think Fred’s basing his opinion on what WC has done in the division the last two years and the skill he may have heard about from the passing tournament this year, but not every body shares the same opinion and thats the beauty of these blogs. As for your top ten I think Dominguez should be somewhere in the top 5, and Bonita had an undefeated freshman team two years ago which makes those kids juniors now, good possibility that they could beef up the varsity this season for the Bearcats, I think they will finish the season high on the list.
From Joe T.: Hey Dan, always enjoy your posts. We have no doubt that WestCo will be right in the mix of things. Are argument wasn’t based on a lack of talent, but if the returning talent had the same motors Solomon, Frazier, and Meaders had. They were very special. La Mirada seemed to exceed expectations last year and they were young. They will be even better this year. In regards to Dominguez, it was my vote that put them out of the top ten. They got hammered by graduation and it was just hard for me to go along with it just because they are “Dominguez”. We really don’t lose ourselves on what others think of us, we just try to do he best research we can. I have no doubt, they will be in the top ten real soon. They are a lot like Muir, they just reload. Muir could go either way, they have a lot of talent. I think Paramount is legit. Thanks for your time.
@tpetereson
Midvalleysports is way better than the others. Now, I just figured out how to watch your past tuesday Ustream shows, yes i know i am a computer neanderthal. But watching your past shows was worth the effort to find out how. BTW, we at La Mirada have our own facebook, check it out, its really kool.
How long do u think till Keppel is having a chance to win a game in the almont. My pick for the almont is Alhambra I think the way their coach motivates Them is going to the difference.