MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Peterson

So everything is set and all of the high schools are ready to kick off the football season the weekend of March 12th. Uh, not so fast.

El Monte Unified High School District has already canceled Fall sports it was officially confirmed last Friday in a meeting. Montebello School District hasn’t given clearance either…at least not yet.

“We are conditioning right now with the ‘”official” clearance being targeted for Monday. But we still use this week as 1 of our 3 weeks of practice,” said Montebello OC Peter Gonzalez Jr. “We’re waiting on San Gabriel and Keppel to say if they’re playing or not but we are going to play.”

Gonzalez went on to say that Schurr, Bell Gardens, and Alhambra are all in along with San Gabriel and Keppel as long as they have enough kids to play. But if the District gives the green light on Monday the players would need to be in pads within days for a first game of March 19th.

“With us starting this week we are on track to play 5 games if we play a whole league season or can find other teams to play,” Gonzalez said.

Ok but still as of now Montebello isn’t cleared to play.

Baldwin Park and Sierra Vista in the Baldwin Park School District are still waiting.

“No schedule yet! BPUSD hasn’t cleared us to compete yet!” said Sierra Vista head coach Matt Villasenor via Twitter.

There was another tweet that indicated that BPHSD had given its approval late Tuesday but according to Villasenor that report was erroneous. “We haven’t been cleared to compete,” he reiterated.

In Baldwin Park the big game, the rivalry, the battle for city bragging rights, is Baldwin Park vs. Sierra Vista but right now that game is in serious jeopardy.

“If we play our first game will be March 26th, then after that will be our 3 league games. BP supposedly has a game March 26 so this Spring you won’t see BP vs. SV unless something changes on the 26th,” Villasenor said.

Yes a majority of schools are getting geared up for the season. Yes, things look a lot brighter than they did three weeks ago. There is a light at the end of this year long tunnel. But not for everybody. For some schools football isn’t yet a reality but is still only a hope…a hope and maybe even a prayer that they too can return to the field soon.

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Glendale, which had to cancel some games last year due to lack of players, is playing this year but they are not playing in the Pacific League.

“We’re going freelance for this season and the Fall. It was long overdue,” said first year head coach Jacob Ochoa. “We tried to go the re-league route but no one outside of football wanted to move. So we (football program) made the move.”

Glendale has a four game schedule that will start March 26th against Birmingham. The Nitros will host La Canada on April 2, which is a good chance to see former Rosemead quarterback Ivan Ostry behind center for the Spartans.

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News and Notes:

Attention coaches: If you have a Freshman team and are looking for a game give West Covina HC Mike Maggiore a call.

“We have 45 freshman. We have a lot of kids that aren’t experienced or necessarily skilled but we do have 45,” Maggiore said.

Nothing can replace actual in game experience.

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It doesn’t look good for Azusa this Spring. According to sources the Aztecs have only 5 kids…total.

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Kevin Pearson and Warren are good to go. “We started practice last Monday and we practiced from June through July and again September through November. We scrimmage this Saturday against Millikan,” Pearson said.

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In case you forgot Noah Rodriguez, formerly the quarterback at Alhambra, is now at Monrovia. With a big arm combined with mobility and an abundance of talent around him, Rodriguez is definitely worth a look.

That’s my principle.

Tim can be reached at tim.midvalleysports@gmail.com or on Twitter @tspeterson40 or Facebook Tim Peterson.