Little League baseball official Howard Reeves put his arm around me at a recent game and said, “You don’t have anywhere better to go today, do you?”
My energy was low. My body sagged. It was time to hit the gym.
The prep sports season is melting away like an ice cream bar on hot asphalt. But there’s enough of the season left to spur excitement on the Aquinas High campus.
Back in the 1960s, a few years after the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, I was a brown-haired lad playing third base for Ram’s Sporting Goods of the San Bruno Pee Wee League.
“April showers bring May flowers” is the saying, but there wasn’t much rain this year. Blossoming instead were these notions about the Spring sports season:
Obrey Brown, the former sports editor for Century Newspapers, is still alive and kicking, despite the email we received recently from Redlands East Valley High sports dad Bruce Cavarno.
REDLANDS — The Citrus Valley High baseball program is still emerging from the shadow of Yucaipa and Redlands East Valley, longtime powers in the Citrus Belt League.
Churches, businesses, gyms and many other establishments are now opening back up for business.
I covered “A Run Through Redlands” Sunday, April 18, and it was a happening. For something that only sorta happened, that is.
Harold Strauss’s players bunched together like they were peeking at risqué pictures. His offenses with their wild maneuverings induced opponents to jump offside. His team’s jersey numbers were so hard to read they prompted sportswriters to curse.
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One sure way to a football lineman’s heart is recognition. They don’t normally get much of it.
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There weren’t many fans. No band played. And the Aquinas High football team lost its season opener 24-14 to visiting Lancaster Paraclete.
Touching down at Ontario International Airport in the summer of 1992, my first stop en route to a job interview at the Victorville newspaper was at a convenience store. There I noticed for sale all the newspapers in the area. I didn’t know I’d someday work at most of them.
My assignment to cover this area concludes this week. Retirement’s on tap, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget covering these digs. Lots of stuff going on. To my way of thinking, for every story I’ve written, there’s a dozen, or more, that go unwritten. Can’t do ’em all, I’ve always said.
Football’s back.
It is incredible how a year has gone by when traveling was limited in the state of California.
In coming weeks, you’re going to see a feature on a 1961 Redlands High graduate named Danny Wolthers. Basketball player. Six-feet-four-inches tall. Twenty-five points a game. All-CIF. Played for Jerry Tarkanian. You might’ve heard of that guy.
Ryan Porter rattles off the names off his 1998 San Gorgonio High football team roster like it all happened last season.
Highland Community News contributor Paul Prado recently gave a presentation to the Highland Area Historical Society on historic locations in Highland that can still be visited by residents today. Following is a timeline of many of the points of interest he mentioned.
I feel bad for young kids trying to play quarterback. From this point forward: How’s anyone going to ever achieve what that man in Tampa Bay has done over the past two decades? Best anyone can hope for is to shoot for second best — Montana, Elway, Favre, Rodgers, Brees, Roethlisberger, the M…
In honor of LV.
If you have ever heard a bird making a high-pitched short whistle in the brush in our local parks, like Aurantia Park in Highland, chances are you are hearing our state bird calling to one another. The California quail is the state of bird for the Golden State.
How about a county championship cross-country championship race at, say, Glen Helen Regional Park?
My son, Chet, sold my golf clubs the other day. Sadness has crept into my golf-playing soul. I have fondness for almost every sport, but golf stands out.
Right about now, we need a little colorful sports reporting, folks. We aim to please. Here we go:
Yes, you’re right.
Ever since the NFL came up with the idea of spotting the PAT kick at the 20 — why didn’t they come up with this plan when the game was invented back in Jim Thorpe’s infancy? — I’ve long felt that sports could be “improved” like that.
There were high expectations — sky-high, in fact — when The Man himself was on the move last night.
Let’s see, Megan Rapinoe or Tom Seaver.
Rival offensive coordinators probably have a checklist approach when it comes to accounting for Miami defensive end Jaelan Phillips. He’s got to be on top of that checklist.
Local runner Cheryl Donahue completed running marathons in all 50 states in the United States on Saturday, Nov. 21.
There it was. Lost, perhaps, in a gloriously written piece by William Wade Norris. A small notation on Dino Ebel. Published last week. Ebel, a Dodger coach. World Series champion. A ring will be presented. Opening Day, 2021.
Matt Maeda didn’t need to share personal data about his health.
Thinking back to Nov. 11, a Veteran’s Day Wednesday, at a few area high school campuses, consider that some special events were taking place.
Dr. Ken Lane, a longtime wrestling medic who’s shown up at anything from high school championships to international, sent a photo from the U.S. National Senior wrestling championships in Iowa this August.
This was a tough column to write.
When I was 8 years old, I got my first camera for Christmas — a treasured point-and-shoot film camera. My favorite uncle gave me my first photo lesson the next month as he and my parents prepared to embark on a vacation flight to Bimini in the Bahamas. Uncle Les worked as a photographer and …
I couldn’t take it anymore. Had to get away. Where they’re playing real high school sports. Honestly, the last live event I covered for any newspaper was a BMX state qualifier over in Yucaipa ⎯ back in July.
First of all, longtime San Gorgonio High baseball coach Bill Eatinger should definitely un-retire. The recently retired Spartans’ coach has incredibly too much time on his hands now that he’s out of the education business. That includes coaching.
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Bad news up front: Don’t expect that Highland Circuit Race running through the area for 2021 Redlands Bicycle Classic.
High school athletic transfers are down, significantly, in recent months. Yes, it’s COVID-19 related.
Citrus Valley High has been looking for a girls’ basketball coach. A lot is riding on this. Plenty, in fact.
Now that 10 “Last Dance” episodes are in the books … a few stray thoughts from spring’s Michael Jordan showcase:
The Sam Ricardo San Bernardino County Branch Library is open. While its services are somewhat limited, it is possible to borrow books.
Kylie Fitts should be easy to spot on the field when Arizona takes on Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco in this week’s NFL opening weekend.
Yes, we lost the Indianapolis 500 from Memorial Day weekend, but we also lost something else from that Memorial Day time frame. The San Bernardino County Amateur Golf Championship, which was a nice little prize for area golfers to shoot for over a three-day period, is now off the horizon.
From the desk of one San Gorgonio High athletic director about another:
Obrey Brown sent a text out to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame president on a Monday morning in July.
In recent weeks, I’ve reached out to Lance Armstrong.
Long before that mess at the University of Redlands over a haphazard Twitter remark from head football coach Mike Maynard, there was a nice gathering of Bulldog players, their coaches and a former assistant coach.
Driving the city. Highland. What’s going on out there? At a standstill. Not many good sports notes, though. No baseball at the Little League compounds. Fall high school sports are out. It’s a virtual zero summer.
Welcome back, Mike Maynard!
There was a misunderstanding when acting San Bernardino United Schools’(SBCUSD) Interim Superintendent Harold Vollkommer; during a midweek school board session on Tuesday, June 30, displayed a chart with an obvious omission.
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The earliest deaths of Redlands residents from the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 were among those who left to serve in World War 1. George Corwin’s story is one example.
On Sunday, June 28, the Newport Legacy boat set sail on a dolphin and whale-watching excursion at 10 a.m. out of Davey’s Locker Whale Watching in Newport.
It’s getting scary out there.
It’s an occasional effort that a parent will use. An athletic parent in particular.
Who knows what could’ve happened if Tiger Woods didn’t run into a stampede of roadblocks along the way?
I had something else completely different planned for this corner until … Saturday. That’s when the sky started falling in on some curious tweets traced back to University of Redlands football coach Mike Maynard.
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