What a difference three weeks makes.
In the space of 21 days, all of this happened:
--Bellarmine stunned the mighty Milpitas football team in overtime.
--Los Gatos stymied defending CCS Open champ Serra.
--Sacred Heart Prep grounded high-flying Los Gatos.
--Serra said "Thanks-but-no-thanks" to the CCS consolation title game.
--SHP slayed its final giant, blanking Bellarmine for the CCS Open title.
--My mother, Catherine Murphy, sadly passed on.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: You might have missed it on my blog but, yes, my mom died November 22, but not until living to the amazing age of 100 years, eight days.
She was the president of the Girls Athletic Association at Lowell High and fostered my love for sports, signing me up for baseball at age 5.
Around sixth grade I was practicing hoops for my grade school team at the San Bruno Rec Center. I picked up a loose ball and headed the other way when my feet got tangled with Don Flynn's and I fell to the floor face-first, cracking my two front teeth. My coach drove me home and my dad was upset. "Why do you have to play so hard?" he said.
My mom didn't even blink. She knew it was all part of being a kid and competing. She took me to the dentist the next week and got me stainless steel caps -- cheaper than porcelain and more durable. My mother was both frugal and wise. Miss you mom.
PADS PASS ON CONSOLATION GAME: Another in-case-you-missed-it development was Serra forfeiting Friday night's CCS Open consolation title game against Milpitas, fearing an injury in a meaningless game. This story which took me all of Friday afternoon and into the evening was easily the most read on our site last week.
Said Walsh Friday evening regarding his team's first consolation bracket game against Palma: "With every snap against Palma I was saying 'This is so wrong.' On the first play of the Palma game -- it wasn't malicious or anything -- but Leki Nunn was horse-collared. He wasn't hurt, but it ate at me."
Walsh is a good dude and I respect his decision, however late it came. I also get Milpitas' beef that the decision was painfully tardy, made only after the Trojans prepared for the game, got ready to possibly win a school-record 12th game of the season and also held an elaborate team meal Thursday night. Yes, It stunk for the Trojans.
Milpitas assistant coach Vito Canjemi said Friday the issue has more to do with the folly of the Open Division, a competition he says whose time has passed due to process by which CIF-State picks teams for the regional and state bowl games.
"The Open Division needs to go away," Canjemi said.
Call me an anarchist, but I'd like to see the whole state playoff bowl system scrapped. The process has always been flawed anyway. Go back to enrollment-based divisions for the CCS and let's say sayonara to the state bowl games and end the season after the sectionals.
Oh it will never happen because too many in power are behind it and there's money at stake. But the playoff bowl games rarely produce a true state champion because of the politics involved.
Ironic that at a time when everyone is concerned with concussions and wanting to limit full-contact and at the same time paying lip service to the importance of education, that the season just keeps getting longer. Makes no sense.
SELECTION SUNDAY ALMOST HERE: OK, so I'm not a huge state playoff bowl guy. Nevertheless, I will dutifully report Selection Sunday for CIF-State regional football games has almost arrived.
The teams selected to play in the regional title games will be decided on Sunday, along with the two Open Division foes. The teams will be announced first via Twitter on @CIFState and via Facebook, said a release from CIF-State.
After the picks are made, CIF Executive Director Roger Blake and CIF Football Advisory Chair Jim Monico will address the media by teleconference call at 2:30 p.m. Prep2Prep's Nate Smith will be all over it.
Only Section champs are eligible for the regional. Teams are also picked according to their won-loss record, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition and common opponents.
VERY SUPERSTITIOUS: In a recent interview I had with Sacred Heart Prep football star Andrew Daschbach he detailed the eating regimens and superstitions of Gator linemen on post-season game days. They're legendary.
The Gators invade a Menlo Park eatery, Jeffrey's, and Daschbach always orders the same thing, fearing any deviation will scuttle SHP hopes for victory.
"We go to the same place for breakfast and sit in the same seats and order the same dish," Daschbach said. "We've been doing this for two years. I get a three-egg omelet, hash browns and sour-dough toast and then I order two more eggs, bacon, more hash browns and another order of sour-dough toast. Then by the fourth quarter of the game I'm not starving for more energy."
Well, that's one way to look at it.
On Tuesday's, if SHP rushes for 300 yards or more the previous playoff game, assistant coach Matt Moran treats the Gators to lunch. The bottom-less pit known as "Dash" to teammates habitually orders two half-pound bacon burgers, one Caesar Salad with steak on top, a basket of fries and a chocolate shake.
Said Dash: "There are times I don't want to order that much, but I then I remember the tradition has to be properly respected and executed."
Mission accomplished.
MAGIC MOMENT: As Prep2Prep student writer Matt McHugh eloquently reported, one-armed St. Francis defensive back Riley Quinn intercepted a pass late in the Lancers' CCS title win against Mitty, causing warm feelings just about all over.
“It’s perfect," St. Francis coach Greg Calcagno said. "It’s a fitting end for Riley to make that interception at the end. He’s a special, special kid, and as long as I coach he’s going to be one of the best kids I’ve ever coached because of who he is and what he’s been able to accomplish.”
The feat is reminiscent of former Carlmont and Menlo College player Mark Speckman, who -- despite missing a hand because of a birth defect -- intercepted a pass during his playing career. He's now an assistant coach in the Canadian Football League after becoming a guru of the fly offense in numerous California prep coaching stops including Gilroy and Merced. So, Riley Quinn, you're in excellent company.
Notable: Serra has a 6-foot-9 freshman on its varsity basketball roster named Jack Wilson. He's from Half Moon Bay, my spies tell me ... Foothill-Pleasanton quarterback Kyle Kearns has decommitted from SMU, reports Brandon Huffman of Scout.com ... Aptos meets St. Ignatius (D-III) and Terra Nova takes on Monte Vista Christian (D-IV) in section football title games tonight.
