Rio Hondo Prep has won CIF championships in football before. But that was in lower divisions. The Kares had previously competed in divisions like 12 or 13 but this year the Kares were placed in Division 9. They won’t be able to win at this level right? I mean Rio Hondo Prep only has 150 students. The Kares are in over their heads right? Wrong!
With Mark Carson at the helm, the Kares, after a 9-1 regular season record, marched through Division 9 and indeed did win the CIF Championship. And even more remarkable, they won the last three games, including the championship game, on the road.
Rio Hondo Prep beat St. Margaret’s at Kare Park in Irwindale in the first round, and then had to hit the road to knock off Orange, Vista Del Lago and Santa Monica to capture the CIF Crown. Against Santa Monica the Kares had to rally from a one-point halftime deficit and then hold on at the end to stop Santa Monica on a two-point conversion attempt to win 29-27.
Rio Hondo Prep had a hard road to the Finals, maybe the toughest of any of the other 2023 CIF Champions. But Mark Carson coached, guided and navigated his troops through all of the adversity and strife and was there to lift the CIF championship hardware with his team at the end of the journey.
Mark Carson is the 2023 Mid Valley Sports Coach of the Year.
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Yup, detached observer is the real life uncle Rico. “ Back in ’82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile.”
You have had very little success coaching , you coached at a private and did terrible and have bounced around public schools as the local get back coach. You were allowed to bring donuts for the staff on Saturdays congratulations.
These statements and accusations prove your lack of knowledge and grace . You don’t know who you’re talking to or what you’re talking about . The readers know the real Detached Observer
DO is BO. Way to full of himself. His endless takes stink.
Let’s see how Bateman does when you don’t get a player of the year to transfer in? How many schools get a transfer Rb that becomes a 2k rusher. Give me a break. Coach Carson is developing guys, the new Santa fe staff are constantly trying to get kids in.
You haven’t coached anywhere or won a ring anywhere. You were a stat guy and can’t coach anymore.
The narrative that it’s easier at a private school is nonsense . I’ve coached at both . Happy New Year to all!
In fact, Carson and Bateman share the great attribute of being able to motivate young men to play football with passion. The main difference between these two lies in the fact that at a public school, the boys have to be persuaded to go out for the sport. At the private places, the kids have almost always made up their minds to play in advance, usually at the urgings of their tuition-paying parents.
Because of the greater need to coddle the youngsters at the public schools, I have greater admiration for someone who does this extra chore well. To do this in one’s first year at a place where football has been virtually flushed down the toilet is exceedingly noteworthy.
I am not a Santa Fe loyalist by any stretch, but I recognize hard work when I see it, and that’s the basis for my choosing Bateman as the winner of this category. As a closing thought, I’d like you all to have great success and happiness in the category of 2024!
Santa Fe
Other big wins :
Montebello 4-6
Rosemead 2-8 bottom of woeful MVL
Whittier 1-9 program is in free fall
This is your coach of the year ?????
Come on now !
If Tim wants to create a Turnaround Coach of year ( how’s that for an idea?) , then sure maybe.
Win something . Beat somebody . Respect other successful programs
Holy Cow
I’ve only said nice things about Santa Fe and Bateman thus far , but devaluing Rio accomplishment is too much
Let’s look at Santa Fe ; Bateman took over for Agnew who was a dumpster fire there . They had worst season and were at low point . Typically Santa Fe has been decent . Agnew somehow got hired at Savanna and continued his magic going 2-8 with -40 CalPreps
Lat years debacle allowed Santa Fe to have a D14 schedule …. they were trounced by Freeway League cellar dwellers Fullerton and Buena Park !
Who did they beat ?????
Burbank 3-7 last in Pacific League
Pioneer2-8 last in 605 league lol
Cal Hi 3-7 worst team in years
El Rancho 2-8 worst finish in memory with injuries etc
They had home game vs 4-6 team in first round of playoffs D12
Great year, but didn’t win anything and didn’t beat anybody !!!!
Kudos to commenter “LOL” for informing us that yes, RHP is a football factory, far more than being an academic institution. It’s understood, far and wide, that you go there if you’re not quite good enough for the better private football factories. Peterson would have us believe that Carson pulled rabbits out of a hat to create a fairy-tale miracle in Arcadia. Nope, the guys at that school simply had a better-than-usual campaign, which resulted in a D9 title and a lot of miles on the bus traveling to state games.
What Bateman did at Santa Fe, however, is much closer to pulling rabbits out of a hat. That school has gone through a slew of otherwise good coaches, none of whom aroused much on-campus buzz for football. How many of us readers (or sports website proprietors) could have done that?
From T. Peterson: Agree to disagree. Again, yes Rio Hondo Prep has won titles before but not in Division 9. The jump from D13 to D9 is huge. And they won 3 of the 4 games on the road! Believe me I was at the Santa Monica game. To get that W on the road was a big time win. So to win in DIV 9 Carson did essentially pull a rabbit out of the hat. So players go there because “they’re not quite good enough” in your words. But they won a championship. Why? Because they were coached up. Have you also noticed how disciplined they are and fundamentally sound? That’s all coaching. Ok you’re a Santa Fe guy. I get it. Yes, Ryan Bateman did have a great year. He was my third choice, which is pretty good when you think of all of the coaches that were considered. Derek Bedell at Mayfair had a remarkable year as well.
The job Coach Carson has done is remarkable and this award is well deserved. But comment or LOL brings up a good point. RHP is the closest thing to a true football factory that you will find in the SGV.
They are the one school that has a true feeder program and school that starts from the time the kids are little. While not everyone in The Kare Youth League stays at RHP, it definitely boosts the football program. No they’re not some group of 100 preppy students, it’s 100 students who are geared to play sports.
If other regular public schools were to go to the model of other states then the average high school football team would be much better. States such as Texas have middle school football, where the feeder middle school football team are treated the way freshmen or JV teams are treated in Southern Cal. Thi would help keep kids home at their local schools and avoids some of the poaching and illegal prior contact that occurs throughout CIF. It would also limit the need for some of these questionable academies with shady characters such as Winners Circle and Stars.
I see some seem to be upset regarding Mark Carson beings MVS coach of the year. If you saw the way he totally outcoached St Margaret’s with a time off possession 40-8 to capture that win and then take the next three rounds on the road and win both convincingly, as well as beating D-10 Champ Torrance handily. I’m not quite understanding that.
OK, LS also had a fantastic season, but keep in mind the WUHSD has open enrollment and many kids who would have attended some of the other schools just happen to end up at La Serna.
SF, you guys improved and had a nice run, but two champion coaches in the area make it hard to award your guy over them. Hey, it’s something to build on.
Give the MVS staff some credit and trying to look at.tgings from.the bigger picture and understand they see many different programs and teams over the season. Some us can get very myopic regarding the programs we are involved.
From T. Peterson: Exactly correct.
@ Lol,
I would challenge you to go visit the RHP campus. You are woefully misinformed if you about what goes on there. You are correct though in one aspect, it is a unique and special place where the students are taught and cared for beyond anything you will ever find in any public school. Simply put, the TRUTH matters, is taught, and valued.
These SF coaches are annoying and childish, you didn’t get the award. Get over it.
Anonymous saying bologna like ‘belong in d1’ is ignorant because they will get murdered in d!. in D4 , this season, they finally succeeded dude know it all yet sekdom correct!
S.F. without transfers from norwalk and other fairly local better players SF will take over dude? several years ago
SF ended the ‘Malstede advantage ‘! SF and some other district schools ( district superintendents decision) stopped many transfers , some college scholarship possibles, because of low grades/state test scores. ) May suggest ‘scientific cause and effect’ reactions why SF began losing football talent and league power:? Under Malstede ( wrong spelling?) his teams always had a few players more talented and faster than other district teams. No i comment ‘in general’ not every season. ‘Administrators care more about state test scores than winning football. Why? because the state superintendent office ( and nationally since NCLB) started evaluating schools and districts based on scores. When school’s scores very low , or under potential, state officials may take charge if occurs two straight years in a row. Terrible for the school and district
Yeah they DELETED LS. Rio Hondo should play the lancers of Whittier
C’mon now. The coach is not just walking into the classroom at RH with a student body of 100 and telling some rando kid “I’m going to coach you up and make you a football champ”. Every boy that goes there knows its a football academy for lower divisions right now but wants to be a Sierra Canyon soon.
SF won’t even get 2nd place in 2024
Chiefs will beat up La Serna in 2024. Bet on it.
Sure chiefs I guess your running clock game this year,was a indication of how you guys have closed the gap.
Maybe you can give LS coach the slight of hand award. Ls fanboys always talking up how Ls is
all homegrown talent. no transfers, not taking from other districts. When he did like a magician and got a transfer right before league started. Took a team that has been saying they are a Div 1 or 2 program.
And gets gifted with a Div 4 seeding. That “courage, character, commitment”, sure rings kind of hollow.
Local kids? where was that running back from?
Watching the Holiday Bowl last night, I was greatly surprised by the performance of Miller Moss. Very few of us expected that type of performance from a guy who was, from all expectations, not on the level of Caleb Williams. This was also my reaction to the Santa Fe Chiefs this year: nobody expected what happened to that team under Ryan Bateman.
Did LS and RHP do better than usual? Yes. Was the performance of either program such that we couldn’t imagine the outcomes? No. Those two teams did about 20% better than usual, that’s all. Santa Fe did at least 80% better than usual, and that’s a lot.
And they trounced Torrance who was D10 champ; moreover , the local public schools won’t play Rio( aside from El Monte who just completed contract ). They played Arroyo a few years ago when Arroyo was Arroyo and won 35-7 or something like that !
Congrats to RHP and Noah Penunuri!
#theshacksystem martial arts
I guess you can’t give La Serna coach George the award. LS can’t win everything even though he was hands down winner unless you are going to name him in some other award.
From T. Peterson: Andy George was actually our second choice. If RHP didn’t have the kind of year that they did we would have given it to George. But the Rio Hondo Prep story was too good to ignore. Ryan Bateman of Santa Fe was our third choice.
Rio Hondo Prep finished the year ranked #98 in the Southern Section which is the second highest Southern Section ranking in the schools history. The 2011 was ranked #88.
If Rio would play Santa Fe , Rio wins 42-7
It’s only a matter of time for Batemans chiefs to take back the reins. The Santa Fe you all remember!
Who does Rio Honda even play? This is a no for me dawg.
From T. Peterson: Rio Hondo Prep is Division 9. Hope you’re not comparing them to Santa Fe. Santa Fe is Division 12 dawg.
Snubbed. I can not think of a quicker turnaround in the area, not even the sports writers and twitter guru fanboys bestie at ‘Nogales’ can turn it around in such fashion with local kids! SF head coach should be MVS coach of the year.
Chiefs…really?
This guy should be coach of the year for the state of California
Surely you jest
Yes Bateman did a good job in a league that saw ER and Cal have fall off seasons …..but the level of accomplishment is more contrast than compare !
Was Ryan Bateman even considered?
From T. Peterson: Yes he was but we only chose one. We don’t go with honorable mention or co-coaches or anything like that. It’s just one coach. This year we felt with what Mark Carson did at a school that size and in a higher division he was the right choice.