Tim Peterson
In the not too distant future all of the coaches will not be gathering together on CIF selection Sunday. It won’t be necessary. It’s really not necessary now. All of the playoff pairings are online already and a lot of gas money would be saved by simply having the coaches log in to check it out.
What about the coin flips to determine the second round home game? Well like an area coach told me Sunday at Covina High School where the Mid-Valley selections were held, “Web cams or Skype would work just fine.”
How about exchanging film? “Everybody is on “Hudl” now anyway. All you have to do is log on and view the opponents game film. It’s really easy,” one coach said.
It was really evident Sunday. Usually there are hard copies available but there was a problem with a fax or printer or something and everybody was advised to view them online. El Monte Coach Joel Sanchez was cool enough to give me his bracket sheet.
“Hey, I don’t need it. I’ll just look at it online,” Sanchez said.
It’s the wave of the future. Everything else is done by computer, why not selection day? The whole process took maybe five minutes and everybody was out of there. Covina Head Coach Joe Brown did bring the donuts. Hey, grab one for the road.
I saw Paraclete HC Norm Dahlia and his staff on hand and all I was thinking was wow! That’s a long haul for a five minute stay.
Is it necessary for the media to attend? Let’s just put it this way. If I would have stayed home the pairings would have been posted about an hour earlier. The interaction with the coaches is nice, but that’s what practices, games, text messages and phone calls are for. Next year I’m staying home and logging on. Heck, the coaches might too.
Former Covina Coach Darryl Thomas was there dressed in a CIF Southern Section T-Shirt instead of the usual Colt gear. “Yeah, that’s why I’m the least stressed guy in here,” Thomas said with a laugh when I asked him if he was only representing the CIF now.
Arroyo could have done a lot worse than Bell Gardens. BG had a solid year but remember there are monsters named Paraclete and Monrovia lurking out there. Maybe CIF was trying to make amends for past indiscretions against the Knights.
“It could be 7-6 or it could be USC-Oregon,” said Bell Gardens Coach David Ramos. “You just never know.”
Despite the frustrating loss to South El Monte Thursday night Sanchez is happy with where the Lions are at.
“Our players kept thinking that we didn’t win the league title. One player asked me ‘Coach, did we finish second?” Sanchez said. “In terms of seeding yes we did but we still won a share of the league title. We were 1-9 a few years ago. If you look at where we were to where we are now, it was a great year. Now we’re in the playoffs and at home. You have to look at the big picture.”
El Monte is home against Montebello.
“We played San Dimas tough. They (San Dimas) kept their starters in the whole game. It should have been 7-7 at halftime if not for a bad call,” said Northview assistant Dominic Angelo. “I like the way our kids are playing.” Northview, second in the Valle Vista, is taking a road trip out to Sierra Canyon.
“Hey, we’ll see what happens,” Angelo said.
Despite the CIF trading out the Montview and the Olympic Leagues for the Alpha this year, there are plenty of competitive first round match ups.
Besides El Monte-Montebello and Arroyo-Bell Gardens, there is also Schurr at San Marino and Covina at South El Monte. Parity isn’t dead in the Mid-Valley yet although one coach wasn’t entirely thrilled.
“Why was the Olympic moved out? That league is down overall this year and they were a perfect fit for the Mid-Valley. And as far as the Alpha League, they’ll be out after this year anyway. That’s a lot of changes for just one year,” he said.
Yeah, we’ll see what happens.
That’s my principle.
Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com
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