The prep football doubleheader August 29 at Levi's Stadium featuring Wilcox vs. Manteca and De La Salle vs. Jesuit-Carmichael will be huge for the schools involved and for the community.
The event should also be heavily attended, with hometown Wilcox no doubt turning out in force and De La Salle anticipated to bring a horde of fans.
But don't expect the event to set a Bay Area prep attendance record. Not even close. Lowell vs. Polytechnic at Kezar Stadium on Thanksgiving Day in 1928 drew an estimated 50,000 fans!
The San Francisco 49ers, of course, did not exist back then and Lowell and Poly were playing for the league title. It also didn't hurt that Poly was located across the street from Kezar. Only the school's quaint gym remains from the original Poly campus now.
Kezar of course was massive then -- a 60,000 capacity bowl of wood plank seats. It was scaled down to 9,000 capacity in 1990, with a concrete arch emblazoned with "Kezar Stadium" constructed on the west side of the stadiumm as a nod to original venue.
Some doubt that 50,000 fan count for Poly-Lowell. But no matter what the exact figure it was a NorCal record for a prep event, said the late CalHiSports prep historian Nelson Tennis to Carl Steward of the Bay Area Newspaper Group in 2003:
"There's a possibility that it was exaggerated," Tennis said. "But those two schools did have a tremendous rivalry and drew huge crowds every year. Even if that 1928 crowd wasn't 50,000, there's not much doubt it was the largest ever in the north."
Lowell won 8-6 -- no doubt to the glee of this writer's mother who attended the game. The Lowell grad turns 100 years old in November.
Wrote Chris Arellano -- the son of Poly parents -- in a memoir on hailpoly.com of a school he never attended:
"I looked more closely at the yearbook and noticed that the Parrots of that era attracted more people to Kezar than the NFL 49ers I saw every week. The 49ers, whose games I attended as a boy, only drew 30,000 to 35,000 fans to their games but the Poly Parrots could fill the stadium."
Odd Kezar fact: Scenes from the 1971 Clint Eastwood movie "Dirty Harry" were filmed at the stadium.
LUCK O' THE IRISH: Sacred Heart Cathedral grad Kevin Greene managed to make the very short highlight reel from the 49ers' blowout exhibition loss on Sunday to the Broncos at Levi's Stadium, the Niners' new $1.2 billion crib.
The 49er tight end fortuitously caught a tipped pass for a 48-yard gain -- biggest of the day for San Francisco -- in the second half. Greene is an undrafted free agent out of USC.
CLAYTON VALLEY TRANSFERS: Highly touted defensive lineman Kahlil McKenzie is the most high profile transfer into Clayton Valley Charter, but the Eagles have some others. That includes Kahlil's "little" brother -- sophomore 6-4, 280-pound Jalen McKenzie who will play varsity. Eagles coach Tim Murphy is enthused about Jalen. Other new Eagles to watch for are defensive back Jamel Rosales (also moving over from De La Salle, like the McKenzies), running back Ray Jackson from College Park and defensive back Marshawn Davenport from Pittsburg.
FREE HOOPS: Eastside Prep girls basketball coach Donovan Blythe is starting a free skills' development academy at the peninsula school for boys and girls elementary and middle school players.
The event will run on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 to 11 a.m. beginning September 27 until late November.
Eastside Prep is at 1041 Myrtle Street, East Palo Alto.
DID YOU KNOW?: New Menlo School basketball coach Keith Larsen coached San Jose Mercury sports columnist Tim Kawakami at Mills High.
METHOD TO HIS MADNESS: Menlo's Larsen, years ago, brought chocolate chip cookies baked by his mom to the college president when he interviewed for the Cal State Stanislaus men's basketball job. That sounds a little crazy, until you realize he got the job.
GIRLS OF SUMMER: The CalHiSports Girls of Summer Basketball Caravan is complete and the prep sports site has ranked the 2015 class.
Mater Dei's Katie Lou Samuelson was rated tops in basketball ability with a mark of 9.7 (10 was tops). Here are area girls who scored 8.5 or above:
Asha Thomas (Bishop O'Dowd) 9.2, Josie Little (St. Ignatius) 8.9, Sydney Raggio (St. Ignatius) 8.9, Destiny Graham (Eastside Prep) 8.7, Hailey Pascoe (Clayton Valley Charter) 8.7,
Katie Rathbun (Carondelet) 8.7, Ma'Ane Mosley (St. Mary's-Albany) 8.6, Marissa Hing (Pinewood) 8.5, Aisia Robertson (O'Dowd) 8.5, Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman (Berkeley) 8.5.
NEW DIGS: Bellarmine College Prep is making improvements. In construction is a 9,000 square-foot wrestling building that will be ready for the winter season. Six thousand square feet will be dedicated to wrestling space, lockers and showers, a coaches' office and meeting room. Also included will be a training room and a study area with wifi.
STAR-STUDDED: The NorCal Clash prep all-star basketball game is Sunday at Contra Costa College. O'Dowd center Ivan Rabb is the brightest of the stars in the sixth annual event. He recently made the USA Basketball U17 World Championship team.
Here are the rosters:
Class of 2015): Tyrell Alcorn (El Cerrito), Paris Austin (O'Dowd), Noah Blackwell (Woodcreek), Marquese Chriss (Pleasant Grove), Lance Coleman (St. Mary's-Stockton),
Armani Collins (Stuart Hall), Jesse Hunt (Drake), Matt O'Reilly (Campolindo), Ivan Rabb (O'Dowd), Colin Russell (Folsom) and Anthony Townes (Modesto Christian). Coach: Frank Knight (Moreau).
(Class of 2016): Christian Ellis (Modesto Christian), Jordan Ford (Folsom), Oscar Frayer (Moreau Catholic), Peter Hewitt (St. Francis-Mountain View), Carlos Johnson (El Cerrito),
Ben Kone (Mitty), Brandon Lawrence (Moreau), Sayeed Pridgett (El Cerrito), Jordan Ratinho (De La Salle), Christian Terrell (Sacramento), Solomon Young (Sacramento). Coach: Richard Midgley (Modesto Christian).
SPORTING: Here's a list of the CCS Sportsmanship Games set for Sept. 2 involving area volleyball teams:
Branham at Oak Grove, North Salinas at Alisal, Independence at Milpitas, Harbor at Salinas, Soquel at Los Gatos, San Benito at Christopher,
Monterey at Carmel, Presentation at Aptos, Westmont at Gunn, South San Franciso at El Camino, Lincoln-San Jose at Leigh, North Monterey County at Alvarez.
Sportsmanship events raise money and the games do not count against a team's allowed number of contests.
Briefly: Greg Weigel has been named the boys' lacrosse coach at Menlo School ... St. Ignatius senior baseball star Robert Emery has committed to Dartmouth ... St. Francis senior baseball standout Conor Thane has committed to St. Mary's, reports Blaine Clemmens.
John Murphy is the Web Content Manager of Prep2Prep. He may be reached at jmurphy@prep2prep.com.
