Glendora QB Bryce Wooldridge threw for a pair of scores but it wasn’t enough in a 27-24 loss to South Hills.
Scores from Thursday and Friday around the Mid Valley area:
Thursday
Mission Valley
Arroyo 55 – Marshall 0
Pacific
Arcadia 35 – Glendale 0
Suburban
Norwalk 69 – Cerritos 6
Valle Vista
Covina 56 – Baldwin Park 28
Friday
Almont
Schurr 49 – San Gabriel 6
Montebello 49 – Keppel 0
Bell Gardens 49 – Alhambra 21
Angelus
Cathedral 49 – La Salle 6
St Francis 69 – Salesian 0
Del Rio
La Serna 42 – Whittier 7
Cal 34 – Pioneer 13
Santa Fe 30 – El Rancho 27
Gold Coast Ocean
Sierra Canyon 51 – Campbell Hall 7
Gold Coast Valley
Viewpoint 42 – McCauliffe 6
Hacienda
Charter Oak 35 – Walnut 0
Diamond Ranch 67 – West Covina 14
Los Altos 41 – Chino 30
Miramonte
Pomona 42 – La Puente 0
Mission Valley
El Monte 51 – Gabrielino 14
South El Monte 28 – Rosemead 27
Montview
Nogales 42 – Duarte 7
Azusa 56 – Sierra Vista 21
Olympic
Maranatha 58 – Whittier Christian 29
Pacific
Burbank 37 – Crescenta Valley 20
Pasadena 68 – Hoover 6
Muir 40 – Burroughs 17
Palomares
South Hills 27 – Glendora 24
Claremont 36 – Bonita 31
Rio Hondo
San Marino 49 – Temple City 19
South Pasadena 41 – La Canada 6
San Gabriel Valley
Downey 62 – Lynwood 6
Paramount 48 – Dominguez 0
Suburban
Norwalk 69 – Cerritos 6
La Mirada 42 – Bellflower 7
Valle Vista
San Dimas 56 – Wilson 0
Northview 61 – Rowland 23
Non-League
Valley Christian 56 – Monrovia 20
@ Bank: I don’t expect you to like me, and you can disagree with me all you want, but let’s try to keep it civil.
I’ll give you credit for being right about the Alhambra-Bell Gardens game, although you could’ve been biting your nails through the end of the third quarter. I’m glad you didn’t lose anything on that one.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the football season, and I agree that things need to get better at Alhambra.
@ Bank: There you go again, automatically questioning the motives of someone you disagree with.
I have actually agreed with you a time or two, and I believe I’ve typically shown a lot of patience in addressing other people’s comments, including the most outrageous ones.
You’re great at double-talk, stating that you’re not attacking me while doing just that.
I spend almost no time ingratiating myself with my employers; I devote my precious time to giving my best effort at two jobs and trying to be a positive individual in the community.
I’ve shared way too much information about myself only because you’ve been relentlessly attacking my motivation and credibility. You’ve created a self-fulfilling prophecy by attacking my character, and then criticizing me for being a self-promoter when I provide pertinent facts in an effort to prove my credibility.
I don’t make a huge amount of money, so, to me, my reputation is priceless and deserves to be defended.
I’ve never claimed to have all the answers. I attempt to provide factual information about the Alhambra High football program and the games that I observe.
When I state an opinion, I make every effort to base it on the facts that I have at my disposal.
And, I’ve never made comments on here that I’d be ashamed to attach my name to. It’s easy for individuals such as you to hide behind a pseudonym and type ignorant, cynical garbage.
Vrooman lacks union protection for his substitute teacher situation, and this is the salient reason he would be more inclined to ingratiate himself with his employers. Despite the man’s protestations about $130 per day, he keeps plugging away at that grindstone because in this economy, that’s more than a lot of folks are getting. I have noticed he puts the “I do stats for free” mantra into every other post, which is probably a way to boost his nice-guy image, in case AHS one day exercises its option to let him go. This is not to attack the man, but to emulate his self-stated sense of honesty and frankness.
@ Anonymous: I also understand why parents are disappointed. I’ve done stats at every Alhambra game since the beginning of the 2003 season, and some of the losses during the last several years have been difficult to watch.
Fortunately for me, I have the advantage of being a somewhat dispassionate observer due to my journalistic role. It has to be far tougher for the players, coaches, and parents.
We’re all disappointed.
Two of the main factors that have hampered this year’s team are erratic line play and untimely turnovers.
Alhambra has passed the ball better this season than at any other time since 2011, but we’re not running the ball nearly as well as we did a year ago. Our defense has generally done OK, but it got worn down in the second half against both Montebello and Bell Gardens.
The Ruedaflores teams of the early 2000’s were more competitive against quality opponents, generally speaking. And, when they lost to good teams, it was often by closer scores. In addition, they played in Southern Section Division VII, as opposed to Division XI or Division XIII, where Alhambra is now.
I’ll agree with you on those counts.
Ruedaflores had a much greater struggle during his first 11 years. Of his four teams that made the playoffs back then, only the 1994 team (9-2) and the ’96 squad (8-4) had winning records. The 1990 and ’95 teams both ended up below the .500 mark despite making the playoffs.
Alhambra remained in the Foothill League during Coach Ruedaflores’ first three seasons (1989-91). Hart and Burroughs typically had the best football teams in that league, and I mean they were really tough.
The Moors entered the Almont League in 1992, and they’ve been there ever since.
The Almont League has been in a down period for several years, but it’s on the upswing now. Schurr and Montebello have good teams, and Bell Gardens has improved substantially under Coach Margarito Beltran.
Alhambra had a chance against both Montebello and Bell Gardens this season, but mistakes and a lack of staying power killed us.
We’re not in the basement any more, but we don’t like being mired in the lower end of mediocrity, either.
But, if you really want to see the basement, take a look at the football programs at San Gabriel and Mark Keppel. All of this is a sad commentary on the state of high school football in the Alhambra Unified School District.
However, I will remain a loyal supporter of the Alhambra High football program, no matter who’s in charge, and no matter how bad things might get. Our student-athletes certainly deserve the support.
Mr. Vroman,
You forgot to note that Ruedaflores coached teams qualified for the playoffs 4 times in his first 11 years. Ruedaflores teams played much tougher schedules, including competing in the Foothill League early on. Also, never competed in Division 13 Like Alhambra Currently. I believe Ruedaflores coached teams were much more competitive versus quality competition, records don’t reflect that. So with all do respect, Stop comparing the two, there is no comparison. Lastly, Almont is terrible compared to days past. Hopefully your boy Bergstrom improves but I could see why parents are disappointed. Alhambra Football was one a proud program under the direction Ruedaflores, now, its back to the basement. Young men of Alhambra deserve better.
@ Bank: By the way, I’m a mere substitute teacher for the Alhambra School District. I do not have the union protection that regular teachers have, so the people at Human Resources can fire me any time they want.
As a part-time (and unpaid) journalist, I’ve done my best to report events in a factual and straightforward manner. I’m positive that my commentary has, on occasion, rankled some in the district.
However, I believe I continue to be tolerated because I stick to the facts as closely as I can, and because I have a reputation for fairness.
Have a pleasant day, sir.
@ Bank: Yes, Coach Wooden had winning teams at UCLA almost immediately, and even won some Pacific Coast Conference titles. However, he did not win an NCAA championship until 1964, some 15 years after he began coaching at UCLA.
Right after Wooden retired, Gene Bartow and Gary Cunningham each lasted for only a couple of seasons in Westwood, despite the fact that they produced conference championships with their Bruin teams. The public expectations for the UCLA basketball program had become so unrealistically high that these two excellent coaches got run out of town way too soon.
Now, let’s talk about high school football, where the talent level is not the same, and the talent pipeline is not as consistent at many schools. And, of course, the quality of the coaches and school administrators also varies wildly.
At Alhambra High, Coach Gil Ruedaflores had winning seasons in only two of his first 11 years. But, of course, that was OK because the varsity football team had a winning record in just six of the previous 33 seasons under his predecessors.
The expectations at Alhambra must have been abysmally low when he replaced Dave Lawson in 1989. So, the people there either didn’t care, or they had developed an extraordinary amount of patience.
Coach Ruedaflores didn’t start winning on a consistent basis until the early 2000’s. But, he had winning records in eight of his last 10 seasons before he retired in 2009, and the Moors made the playoffs 12 times under his leadership.
Unfortunately, his playoff coaching record was only 2-12, with 10 first-round exits.
AHS also had an excellent head football coach in Lou Torres, who was a longtime assistant to Ruedaflores and a former athletic director at the school. He compiled a 13-9 record in two seasons, including a 9-3 mark in 2011, when the Moors reached the CIF quarterfinals.
But, Torres was inexplicably forced out as head coach after the 2011 season, and that action by the previous school administration unleashed a chain of events that got us to where we are today.
In 2012-13, we got Joe Kanach and his sexual harassment, followed by the Creatine scandal under Chuck Leonardis, which resulted in a near-implosion of the program. We have been on a slow rebuilding course ever since.
We could’ve kept Coach Torres, who was subjected to meddling parents, booster club members, and school administrators even during the highly successful 2011 season. I still don’t know what reason or reasons were used to justify his removal by then-principal Brad Walsh.
For everyone who wants to blame Eric Bergstrom for all of the problems affecting Alhambra High football, the real story is far more complicated.
Eric is a man of character, and I haven’t known him to be a quitter. He and his staff will continue working hard with the players they have until the end of the season.
Then, we’ll see what happens next.
I have researched the overall record of John Wooden, and discovered that this man had only ONE losing season in his entire career, including High School and College. He turned a losing UCLA program around instantly, compiling a winning record in his first season, making the University aware that their assessment of this man had been spot-on.
It’s not correct, then, to look back at the old days and declare that people were more tolerant of slow-builder types of coaches. John Wooden brought immediate winning to UCLA, and the school was eager to stick with him for that reason, not because he hadn’t yet won a national title.
Eric Bergstrom, by comparison, brought instant losing to Alhambra football, a state of affairs that continues as we speak. The question of how long this man should be allowed to continue this way is valid: does it pay tribute to the hard work of the players, the time and money spent by parents, and the devotion of the alumni? Some seemingly benign commenters urge patience with this man, but many of them have reason not to rock the boat among their employers at Alhambra Unified. I have no financial considerations to color my views of the situation, and am here to proclaim, once and for all, that Bergstrom’s time is up.
Co and Sierra Canyon would give Bishop a run for their money.
I believe we could compete in a higher division is that our fault we aren’t in it? No we just gonna win and keep getting moved up. We’ll catch up to you cause I know you ain’t going anywhere soon.
@ Bank: I’ve never been one for tear-jerking. However, I do have an issue with individuals such as you who habitually mischaracterize other people’s comments and thrive on belittling others.
This kind of behavior must make you feel really good about yourself. But, I’m willing to bet that you lack the courage to attach your real name to any of your snarky remarks.
It should have been obvious to everyone—except for the densest or most willfully ignorant—that I was not comparing the two in terms of their coaching. One (Wooden) was an all-time great, while the other (Bergstrom) is still in the beginning stage of his high school coaching career. Quit twisting my words.
I hope to continue working on behalf of the Alhambra High football program, regardless of who might be in charge. I’ve given my best effort for five coaches dating back to Gil Ruedaflores.
For me, it’s about the program, the school, and our student-athletes. Those factors transcend everything else, including your compulsive negativity.
Knight knight …
wake up already … you bash on Del Río when your league itself is garbage … Del Río has more teams in higher divisions for a reason … not by mistake .
So educate yourself and stay humble … Bishop Amat is 4-4 right now and would still cream puff every team in this site! Don’t kid yourself bud…
I wish El Rancho did play more local teams and hopefully with medrano it will start… but obviously win or lose our strength of schedule is much better to keep us in higher division than Arroyo … and that’s after a CIF championship.. LOL …
Want to walk and talk like a big team… then play Big teams … your nothing more than Cathedrals ugly sister
In Vrooman’s tear-jerking moment of lamenting how today’s rude society doesn’t give every coach a ten-year window to perform, he informed us that John Wooden needed this length of time to blossom. Now, stat man says he is making no comparison between Bergstrom and Wooden. What, then, was the motivation for the name-drop?
Mountain View would run right through that league they are a borderline playoff team if they beat Mead they would of finished 6-4 but will probably end 5-5 now.