{"id":16912,"date":"2011-06-14T22:35:44","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T05:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=16912"},"modified":"2017-06-10T11:10:51","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T18:10:51","slug":"the-peterson-principle-61411","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=16912","title":{"rendered":"The Peterson Principle 6\/14\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Tim Peterson<\/p><\/div>\n

There was San Gabriel\u2019s run to the CIF Finals in 2003 and Rosemead\u2019s in 2008. South El Monte and Arroyo both had semi final appearances in the last ten years and Monrovia is still basking in the glory of last year\u2019s first ever CIF Championship. But the most improbable CIF title in the last decade (or at least since we have been covering high school football) had to be Schurr\u2019s championship in 2006.<\/p>\n

And of course I never thought it would happen. The Spartans lost to Alhambra on the last game of the regular season 55-22 \u2013 not exactly the way you expect a champion to go into the post season.<\/p>\n

They faced South El Monte in the first round and after seeing the Spartans the week before I picked South. Result? Schurr 48-20.<\/p>\n

They faced Westminster in the second round. I didn\u2019t know a lot about Westminster going into the game but I did know its running attack was dominant so I picked Westminster. Result? Schurr 38-8.<\/p>\n

La Habra was next on the agenda and it was time for the Schurr run to end. La Habra won its first two playoff games by the combined score of 90-12. They beat Arroyo 55-0 in the first round. A local coach went so far as to say that if Schurr beats La Habra he would buy myself, Sports editor Joe Torosian and staffer Duane Barker all new shoes.<\/p>\n

There was no way I was missing this one. I didn\u2019t even give it a second thought while writing \u201cGame Night\u201d. I picked La Habra \u2013 big.<\/p>\n

Hey, the coaches told me. The players told me. Other writers told me. La Habra would roll. Result? Schurr 9-7.<\/p>\n

I got my new shoes but I also received the wrath of Schurr Coach Elvin Dick. When Mid Valley staffer Jonathan Saller introduced himself to Dick after the game the first thing out of the coach\u2019s mouth was \u201cWe don\u2019t like Tim Peterson.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spartans went on to capture the CIF title the following week with a 40-22 win over Santa Fe to realize the dream. I think I picked Schurr in that game – at least that\u2019s how I remember it so I\u2019m sticking to it.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t matter the damage was done. I had the Spartans out in the first round and now they were Champions. I preferred my crow with salt, pepper and a side of barbecue sauce thank you.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of this great team and that four week period in late 2006 when I saw Coach Dick at a passing tournament Saturday in Las Vegas. Arroyo has gone the last couple of years and Barker, Torosian, and I decided to make the trek.<\/p>\n

Dick left after the 2007 season and moved to Vegas. He is now the Head Coach at Rancho High School and doing quite well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made the playoffs every year since I\u2019ve been here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been great. We\u2019re doing good.\u201d<\/p>\n

I approached him with some trepidation not knowing if he would snub me, or go Mike Tyson on me. But I came a long way so I had to give it a shot.<\/p>\n

He greeted me with a smile. He was courteous and cordial and answered all my questions. But yes he definitely remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes I remember. I remember you kept picking against us. I remember you picked La Habra to beat us by like 50 points!\u201d Dick said. Wow, was it that much?\u00a0<\/p>\n

He allowed us to snap a picture and continued to joke with us. But he also remembered something other than my wrong prognostications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always remember that championship season in 2006. It\u2019s great here but it\u2019s not like Schurr,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

No, nothing was like Schurr\u2019s season in 2006.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my principle.<\/p>\n

Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was San Gabriel\u2019s run to the CIF Finals in 2003 and Rosemead\u2019s in 2008. South El Monte and Arroyo both had semi final appearances in the last ten years and Monrovia is still basking in the glory of last year\u2019s first ever CIF Championship. But the most improbable CIF title in the last decade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12817],"tags":[114,4170,1330,365,1331,2156,50,5591,27,36,309,115],"class_list":["post-16912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fanview","category-petersonprince","tag-arroyo","tag-duane-barker","tag-elvin-dick","tag-joe-torosian","tag-jonathan-saller","tag-mike-tyson","tag-monrovia","tag-rancho-high-school","tag-rosemead","tag-san-gabriel","tag-schurr","tag-south-el-monte"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16912"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16915,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16912\/revisions\/16915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}