High School Football scores from around the area:
Thursday September 12
Schurr 27 Chino 14
Monrovia 28 Don Lugo 27
El Rancho 30 Montebello 7
Maranatha 45 Arroyo 32
Gabrielino 33 Workman 6
Ganesha 49 Pomona 6
Kennedy 41 Pioneer 24
Burbank 39 Fillmore 14
Lynwood 61 Orange Glen 0
Walnut 24 Rowland 21
Woodrow Wilson 63 California 10
Gahr 14 Garden Grove 12
Culver City 37 Salesian 7
Friday September 13
Bonita 47 San Dimas 7 Annual Smudgepot Game
Northview 49 Covina 21
Muir 28 St Francis 18
El Monte 42 Whittier 6
La Salle 24 Alhambra 7
La Quinta 42 Mt View 12
Yorba Linda 29 Charter Oak 28
Colony 24 Valley View 17
La Serna 31 Tesoro 28
Bishop Amat 47 Vista Murrieta 42
La Puente 57 Mendez 0
Crescenta Valley 41 San Marino 14
Rim of the World 21 Arcadia 12
J Serra Catholic 28 Lincoln 19
Hemet 35 Diamond Ranch 7
Santa Fe 28 Fullerton 7
Mira Costa 34 Damien 30
La Canada 28 Santa Paula 13
South Hills 16 West Covina 13
Los Alamitos 38 St Paul 13
Temple City 35 Bosco Tech 0
South El Monte 34 Garey 6
Mayfair 38 Lakewood 31 OT
Burroughs 21 Los Altos 16
Golden Valley 21 South Pasadena 7
Baldwin Park 40 Sierra Vista 8
Azusa 40 Mark Keppel 8
Rosemead 41 Bassett 13
Rio Hondo Prep 53 Marquez 19
Downey 21 Westlake 0
A quick update: The wooden floors in the AHS gymnasium were beautifully redone during the summer break; I subbed there today and got to see them for the first time since last spring. It took a long time, but the Alhambra Unified School District finally took a step in the right direction.
@ MOIST AND PLUMP: You didn’t add to your argument at all by assailing the manhood of someone you dislike or disagree with. More to the point, I believe that it’s juvenile and disgusting behavior.
I understand your frustration; I totally get it. All of us hate to lose, and certainly to the extent that we’ve been losing lately. None of the adults I know in the program are OK with it.
I’ve been helping out at AHS since 2003, so I can take a longer view here. Our varsity teams, under six different head coaches, have had a composite record of just below .500 during all that time.
The football program did far worse in previous decades; Alhambra had only six winning seasons between 1956 and ’93. As an AHS graduate, I have to say that I lucked out because I got to witness three of those winning seasons during my four years there. (Timing is everything, as they say.)
However, the abrupt decline in the last two years is disturbing. The teams we’ve had from 2022 until now have been crushed at times, but they also lost at least eight very winnable games.
You wish to focus on the coaching, and that’s your perogative. Yeah, “fire all the coaches,” since you believe that would immediately solve all of Alhambra’s problems. And who would you replace them with; recruiter types such as Matt Villasenor, Mil’von James, Robert Maxie, or Jude Oliva?
That approach would be one of winning at all costs in the short term, and then most likely paying for it later in the form of transfer violations, academic fraud, forfeits, and/or a program left in disarray. We have chosen not to go that route.
It’s highly convenient for you to talk right past me after I brought up serious issues not related to coaching that have affected the athletic program and the entire school for decades. Just because a problem has been allowed to exist for a long time doesn’t always mean that it’s not getting progressively worse.
The AHS gymnasium (circa 1964) has plumbing and ventilation issues that have not been fixed, and the 100-year-old boys locker room building has roaches. (It also looks like crap, and that’s especially true after the nearby trees got cut down.)
The football facility at Moor Field (which is roughly half a mile from the school campus, for those who don’t know) has been barely adequate to substandard—and mostly the latter—since the 1960’s. It got so bad there that Alhambra High had to play its home games at East L.A. College for around 15 seasons in the 1980’s and ’90’s.
I’ve been to dozens of high school football stadiums over the years, and virtually all of them are—or were—in better condition than Moor Field is in now.
The rot starts at the top in the Alhambra Unified School District, which has not done right for its namesake high school or for that school’s athletic program. In the meantime, the district spent lavishly on improvements at San Gabriel and Mark Keppel High Schools, and those improvements were certainly needed.
The part which stinks is that Alhambra High hasn’t gotten anything resembling equal treatment. The City of Alhambra doesn’t get off the hook, either, because its refusal to relinquish the block of Fourth Street that divides the AHS campus effectively vetoed the plan for a more comprehensive makeover of our facilities.
Then, just think for a minute about how the corrupt president of the Alhambra Thunderbirds singlehandedly destroyed that organization due to his greed. The collapse of the youth football program not only adversely impacted Alhambra High, but also has affected families across the city for a decade or more.
There is plenty of blame to go around for our current travails, but I believe that a turnaround is still possible this season. San Gabriel and Montebello haven’t been setting the world on fire, so to speak, and Keppel is Keppel. Alhambra might yet end up in third place in the Almont League and make the playoffs; weirder things have been known to happen.
@ Detached Observer: You’re welcome, and I appreciate the vote of confidence.
I’ve done high school football stats for 32 seasons (11 of them at Bell High in LAUSD/L.A. City Section and 21 at AHS). In addition, I’ve enjoyed doing writeups on the games for the schools I’ve represented, as well as for this fine media outlet.
I received my journalistic training at Alhambra High and Cal State L.A., and I’ve always tried to adhere to professional standards in my writing and reporting. (Back in the 1970’s, we were actually taught to be as objective as humanly possible; imagine that.)
You will never hear me claim to be perfect, but I usually know what I’m talking about. Thanks again.
The days of Adam Tate in Alhambra have been decades long gone.
@Ron Vrooman, AHS stat man there you go again making excuses. there are plenty of other schools in the area that have it WORSE then alhambra does and they ALL manage to win games and send kids to college. what is it that’s unique to alhambra that they have to have everything literally perfect to be able to do what every other high school in the zip code does?
tell the truth. like you said there coach has been there forever and the team has gotten progressively worse every year that she has been there, no matter what capacity she was coaching in the program gets worse and worse.
these are the facts and you cant duck you cant hide you cant obfuscate you cant filibuster you cant distract. until alhambra gets real coaches in the chair, they will be winless and terrible.
Ron , you are correct. You really don’t have to defend or clarify however as anyone following this site for period of time knows your authenticity. They also know that M and P is Mindless and Perturbed .
We get a closer look at Alhambra than most other schools . Thanks !
@ MOIST AND PLUMP: It is pretentious and dishonest of you to spin my remarks to fit your false narrative that coaching is THE issue with the Alhambra High football program. Also, I do not have to “tell the truth moving forward” because I’ve always made a concerted effort to be truthful about the program.
Do I know everything? No, but no one does. Am I privy to everything that happens at practices or behind the scenes? The answer to that question is also no. However, I don’t need to be in everyone else’s business in order to do my job well. As far as I’m concerned, the less extraneous noise I have to deal with, the better.
I watch the games, I record the stats accurately, and I write stories on the games that are as factual, informative, and entertaining as I can make them. I also express opinions about what I see on the field of play and elsewhere, but I do my best to utilize facts in making my comments.
Whenever our teams have played poorly, I have said so; I’ll also let everyone know when we’re doing well, and we’ve had a few good seasons.
We won a league championship in 2019 and reached the semifinals that year, and we made it to the semifinals again three years ago. It is also a fact that we accomplished those things with several of the same coaches who are on our staff now.
Just about every football coach can occasionally be second-guessed about a particular play call, a system they run, or sticking with one player over another at a certain position. But, I can honestly say that the coaches at Alhambra are knowledgeable and hardworking guys who try hard to make the team better. They are thoughtful, and they try to learn from their own mistakes as well as the ones their players make.
We have serious issues at Alhambra High that some in the community are apparently ignorant of or are trying to gloss over. Many of the facilities are a mess; the two oldest classroom buildings on campus have been under renovation for a few years now, and the project is nowhere near completion.
Also, some of our athletic facilities have been substandard for decades, and that is particularly true of those which are used by the football and track programs.
For example, the 100-year-old boys’ locker room building, which also houses the football weight room, is decrepit and has a cockroach infestation. The installation of a new playing surface and artificial track on Fourth Street has been delayed for at least another year.
In addition, we can thank the embezzling president of the Alhambra Thunderbirds for tanking that youth football program a decade or so ago. And, so far, nothing has risen to replace it.
It can be safely argued that our occasional successes have been achieved in spite of the school district, the uncooperative City of Alhambra, and the nonexistent youth football program. They certainly shouldn’t get any credit.
You can focus on “poor coaching” all you want, but our program and the entire school are being adversely impacted by serious problems that have festered for years. The current conditions are not an inducement for aspiring athletes to attend AHS, let alone anyone else.
But blaming the coaches for everything is always an easy way out.
@ Sports Man: Mike Mackintosh is in his first year as Alhambra High’s head varsity football coach, after serving for five full seasons as the offensive coordinator.
Coaches Bergstrom and Mackintosh, with the help of at least a couple of our current assistants as well as others, led the 2018 and 2019 Alhambra teams to records of 8-2 and 12-1, respectively. The difference back then was that they had groups of players who were generally talented, and some of the players had actually been on youth football teams before entering high school.
In addition, those teams played cohesively and with great intensity; it was clear that those guys were playing to win from the time they stepped on the field.
The last time I saw that sort of team cohesion and intensity for an extended period was during the second half of the 2021 season, when we rebounded from a 1-4 nonleague start to make the playoffs and advance to the D14 semifinals.
I believe the coaches did some of their best work with that team, which was fairly young and greatly lacking in varsity or even tackle football experience. For their part, the players worked hard and showed the capacity to learn and improve their physical skills and mental approach.
The teams we’ve had since 2021 have been similar in composition, but the results have been vastly different. The 2022 and 2023 teams each lost three games that were clearly winnable, and this year’s team has already lost two such games (against South El Monte and La Salle).
It’s been largely the same coaching staff at Alhambra, but the results have varied. Coaches, being human beings, aren’t perfect, but there are also other important factors in play—some of which I’ve already discussed on these comment threads.
@ Sports Man: Coach Mackintosh is a little on the low-key side, but I believe it works for him because he has good rapport with our athletes and can get his points across. He’s personable and approachable, as well as intelligent and caring. Coach Mackintosh also has a staff of capable assistants, most of whom have been with the program for several years, if not longer.
I believe that they all have a positive approach to coaching and have shown great patience with our players in trying to help them develop their skills.
In addition, I think that losing is the best form of negative reinforcement, and that winning is the best form of positive reinforcement imaginable. The will to win is a powerful force which can drive teams to victory, sometimes even when the odds are against them. The difference between teams that are fairly evenly matched often comes down to which team wants to win the most.
When you’re successful you should have some say so if not more than anyone else when you’re out there day in and day out. Loyalty was why he left El Monte no bridges burnt there trust me. Sierra Vista you tell me about SV and what they’re doing. Chino a nice place just wasn’t a fit once you look at their history of coaches.
Del Rio Watcher? how do you know Pioneer has the best teaching staff in the district?
@Sports Man,
Maybe its just me?? But i have no idea the point you are trying to make.
Or what you even are talking about.
@FBfan 100% what I heard, you think admin wouldn’t want a successful hood coach? Not if it comes with a whole bunch of headaches! Bottom line
Hahaha Pioneer? Hahaha
Has anyone ever considered that Ceniceros has not built the best reputation outside of football? Perhaps, there are greater issues?
From I have heard, ego got the best of him at El Monte so he left there after a few years. Then, he kept Sierra Vista in the dark for a long time until finally stepping down. He was also only at Chino for a couple of years.
Administrators talk to each other and that can leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth. Never a good idea to burn bridges regardless of how successful yo are. Word is he was also a finalist for Ontario, but the reputation didn’t help him.
So he has a track record of leaving after a few years and saying it’s time to hit the reset button. Perhaps that can be an issue???
The coach is in first year as head man .
Taps do you truly think WHS and other del rio league administrators want to only support La Serna? That is terribly ridiculous suggestion! There is a cause ” such as the scientific cause and effect relationship’ reason why those schools are very unsuccessful in football, and I truly believe this is also factual with the non efficiency in their other very important athletic teams! Why such disgraceful non opportunistic leaders of our public schools not caring one ounce about developing better quality opportunities for the most important focuses on campuses? (The comments concerning ignoring Coach Ceniceros is a huge mistake. Only if they needed to pair up the teaching openings to the head coach hiring can be a solid reason for hiring under achievers to lead and direct our teenagers on athletic fields? One very possible cause of bad hiring , or never caring, in these super important cases may be the ‘loss of quality, and all around knowledge /previous achievement can very well be why the schools administrations just have zero idea about the value of what is learned on football fields. And baseball fields and other sports value to each student. Also most concern is state tests that have consumed a very high percentage of where effort is placed. Maybe more college football playing students will begin feeling like never ending their sport involvement and more will get into high school coaching the sports they have always loved. Do not count on it. I have always keep track of why leadership can care less (maybe less than zero concern) about trying to have the best athletic teams possible. Sorry DELETED people are the ones making these terrible decisions
Ron Vrooman, AHS stat man
September 17, 2024 – 9:30 pm | Permalink it takes much more than the average or below average head coach to put an end to terrible programs without any real success over the years. The job is definitely needing a man who has a few special talents, such as being a good active motivator of people/players and students. Knowing how to use positive reinforcement ( not often part of the coaching, and too bad it is not) and when to use positive , even corrective negative reinforcement, will help developing some team cohesiveness. I cannot believe there are not enough small college football players that want to coach and teach available
Pioneer is rising though not in the Del Rio any longer.Despite Whittier trying to gerrymander Pioneer out of existence, Pioneer has some of the best paid and finest recognized educators and finest facilities including a great stadium, new boys and girls gyms and aquatic center. LS can’t compete with that. LS only has a few zillion dollar homes near by to brag about but that nobody that plays football at LS lives in. More boys staying home in Los Nietos and So. Whittier to attend Pioneer. As for Cal, La Serna will always take their best athletes until the district stops enrollment policies or the parents figure out Cal is a good school. As for Whittier High control the grafitti, it scares the heck out of parents.
if the Alhambra head coach is in his first year then he needs a break from criticism. But if not then go ahead and tell feelings (correct or incorrect like most of us) . I suggest if not a new head coach, then he is not a motivator or don’t have inspiration skills. I believe the best directors , the head coaches, have a kind of natural /inborn motivation skills. I have not observed many coaches that ‘learned how to motivate or build team ‘cohesion’! I think the best head coaches (whole staff too) have very good ability to ’cause a definite, and desirable, change in student athletes behavior’ . Almost impossible ( I think) to turn a very much below average program ,over the last few years or forever haha, into an average statistical team with a ,500 winning percentage. May take a ‘Master Motivator and great knowledge of Positive Reinforcement’s ‘ potential effect on a team
Willig is the OC this year and I believe that is contributing to their success. Juarez is head coach to my knowledge. They are working together
St Bernard hasn’t had a football team since Covid . Manuel Douglas fiasco etc .
DRL if Cal does go 0 and 10 the high school deserves their record for not going out and 100% , considering it a must, hire a better staff. They have not hired an ex head coach since 2013 when the previous head coach left. Keep hiring from their assistant staff coaches who have never been in a winning situation overall. Yes I think the current head coach was with La Serna when the previous coach had to resign a decade ago or so. If there are not some current decent to statistically successful coaches out there who would love to take over Cal’s way below average program. This program went from late 1900s to 2012 with pretty good staff members with previous winning knowledge under Patricio . Does Whittier even care about athletics? I previously ( info from an educator in the district) made it very clear that WHS had a activities administrator who ruined Whittier’s very successful basketball program head coached by head coach who made playoffs 7-8 straight years. But too bad this goof was hired to hire coaches and he fired the very good coach and put in a teacher he liked. Baseball sucks! Football sucks, and the one major sport that , year in and year out, were winners is basketball
Moist and plump, shut up and coach if you know so much about football. Otherwise you ain’t helping.
If Juarez is still head coaching ? , Rise of the Titans? If Juarez is the director then I agree plenty with you because the man can coach.. He got ripped off terribly by the new Principal years back . Oviedo fired (????? or ??? asked him to resign) him to hire her St Paul friends , and quality athletes at SP when they were the real deal, who at their best statistically did not help Pioneer football
Ron Vrooman, AHS stat man ” well cohesion is a, unfortunately for Alhambra, top priority team skill! And may be difficult to ever develop until players have a solid understanding of the offensive and defensive strategy
not playing up to their potential going on three years now? Ron Vrooman, AHS stat man. I believe (no claim that I know more than most, even though i do think I do lol). If the O and D schemes are still too demanding, and it is the third year in a row, then the coaching staff is very poor.. Well this is if you are credible to make these comments
Let’s not forget the Cantwell Sacred Heart score. They are taking on some Big Boys and hanging in with them other than La Canada! CSHM-48 vs. St. Bernard-32.
Ron Vrooman, AHS stat man so your admitting that i am CORRECT and right and that it is a coaching issue. thank you very much. now tell the truth moving forward.
@ MOIST AND PLUMP: You could try reading my story about the Alhambra-La Salle game, which was posted on Mid-Valley Sports Monday night. It was a tight contest until the last few minutes.
I do a written play-by-play every game, and I use that information as the basis for the stats and my game stories. My sequence of events is accurate, and everything I wrote is factual.
Coaching could be a factor in Alhambra’s struggles, but it’s one of several. One thing I noticed during the La Salle game is that we scored our one touchdown after going to the jumbo offense, which is a simple, compact, and run-oriented formation. As I stated earlier, maybe making the schemes a little simpler for the players in our program might be the way to go.
In addition, I’m concerned our players have become too accustomed to losing during the last two-plus seasons and don’t seem to be that affected by it. That sort of mindset, if it exists, can be overcome, but it will take a lot of dedication, hard work, and cohesion as a team.
We have good athletes, and I believe they’re capable of improving over the course of this season. And, the coaches haven’t been slacking, to my knowledge. They will do everything they can each week to put our players in the best possible position to compete.
@ Inquiring Mind: Nope, I’m not saying that at all. What’s true is that we have athletes who haven’t been playing up to their potential. It’s been the case with our teams since 2022.
Perhaps some of the offensive and defensive schemes could be simplified so that our players might be in a better position to succeed. However, I don’t know the players nearly as well as the coaches do; by now the coaches should have a good sense of what they are capable of accomplishing.
The current Alhambra team is, and the two previous ones were, somewhat lacking in tackle football experience. However, the 2021 team also faced the same issue, but went on a 5-2 run and made it to the Division 14 semifinals after a 1-4 start. All of these squads had similar makeups, but the results have varied greatly.
What this says to me is that discipline, drive, perseverance, and a willingness to learn can make all the difference in the world. I steadfastly believe that this team is capable of improving.
Ron Vrooman, AHS stat man,
You saying one can’t make a chicken salad from chicken $#!+?