The Preps Box

Look back through The Preps Box archives and you’ll notice a lot of rankings. I’ve ranked players and teams in various ways and now I’ve come up with a twist on a team ranking list — the best teams SLO County had to offer for the 2008-09 school year.

The goal is to combine all the teams in the county and find the top 10. It’s not my intention to slight any of the county’s teams but my main criteria is focused on which were most successful.

1. Arroyo Grande girls water polo — The Eagles won back to back CIF-Southern Section Division IV titles. They finished the season 23-12 and lost during the first day of the Southern Section Masters Meet.

2.  Arroyo Grande girls volleyball — The Eagles went undefeated in league and won the PAC 7 for a third consecutive year. They were eliminated during the third round of the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs. Over the past three seasons, Arroyo Grande is 36-0 in the PAC 7 and has only lost one game during that span.

3. Atascadero football — It was a disappointing end to the season, losing 6-0 during the second round of the Southern Section Northern Division playoffs. The Greyhounds were up against Moorpark and star running back Nick Tenhaeff (shoulder) and linebacker Trevor Holloway (knee) were both severely limited due to injury. Atascadero finished the year 9-3 and 5-0 in the PAC 7, winning its third consecutive league title.

4. San Luis Obispo baseball — Junior starting pitcher David Murillo (8-1, 1.21 ERA) emerged as SLO County’s top pitcher and he carried the Tigers into the third round of the Division II playoffs. San Luis Obispo was 23-6 and 15-3 in the PAC 7. The playoff loss came after letting a 2-1 lead slip in the fifth inning and eventually falling 3-2 to Redlands East Valley.

5. San Luis Obispo girls track — Led by Angela Clague and AB Torres each competing in the maximum four events, the Tigers successfully defended their Southern Section Division III title. Clauge won the 200 meters, 400 meters, and was on the winning 4×100 relay and second-place 4×400 relay teams. Torres was part of the 4×400 relay team, placed second in the 100 hurdles and the long jump, and was fourth in the 300 hurdles.

6. Atascadero wrestling — It was close but the Greyhounds won their second Southern Section Division I individual team title since 2004 after edging past Centennial of Corona 167-165.5. At the meet Atascadero had seven place winners and three — Josh Mei (215 pounds), Nick Jackson (140 pounds) and Elijah Jackson (134) competed at the CIF State Championships.

7. Arroyo Grande boys water polo — There were a lot of unrealized exceptions when the Eagles were knocked out of the Southern Section Division IV playoffs during the semifinals. Arroyo Grande had lost in that round the previous season. Hoping to remedy the situation, the Eagles went overseas to play during the off season, hoping to emulate teams that had done the same and come back champions. Arroyo Grande finished 27-4.

8. Arroyo Grande boys basketball — The Eagles (20-9, 9-3 PAC 7) finished third in the PAC 7 but it’s arguable they were the best team in the county by the end of the season. Beginning with a 61-36 win over eventual co-PAC 7 champ San Luis Obispo, the Eagles won seven straight and made the semifinals of the Southern Section Division III-AA playoffs. In the semis, Arroyo Grande lost 44-41 to Santa Margarita.

9. San Luis Obispo boys basketball — It was a historic season for the Tigers (21-7, 10-2 PAC 7). They won their first league title in 20 years and proceeded to make a run into the quarterfinals of the Division IV-AA playoffs. San Luis Obispo was carried by nine seniors including Julian Demalleville (12.1 points, 3.7 assists, 1.3 blocks, 7.8 rebounds), Shane Kennedy (12.6 points, 1.5 blocks, 6.4 rebounds) and Mike Sabosky (9.2 points, 2.3 steals).

10. San Luis Obispo boys tennis — Two factors carried the Tigers this season all the way into the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division II playoffs — UCLA-bound Julian Arnold and their doubles teams. Knowing Arnold was usually good for two or three wins in the playoffs, the doubles usually picked up the extra slack. The tactic worked and the Tigers finished with a 20-3 record.

If this seems too slanted toward Arroyo Grande and San Luis Obispo it’s because they ran away with the league title counts. Of the available 22 PAC 7 titles, Arroyo Grande won 10 and San Luis Obispo claimed 8. The complete breakdown is below.

• Arroyo Grande 10 (girls volleyball, boys water polo, boys and girls cross country, girls soccer, girls basketball, girls water polo, boys track, girls swimming, boys volleyball)

• San Luis Obispo 8 (girls tennis, boys basketball, baseball, girls track, boys swimming, boys tennis, boys volleyball, boys golf)

• Atascadero 3 (football, wrestling, boys basketball)

• Righetti 3 (girls golf, boys soccer, softball)

The summer is upon us and now is the lull between high school sports seasons. I’ll try to post regularly this summer to keep everyone up to date on the happenings of SLO County sports, but there’s not a lot happening right now.

I’d like to use this time to congratulate every team and every player going back all the way to the fall season. I had a great time covering pretty much every sport this county has to offer. Everybody I’ve spoken with, and there’s hours of audio to back me up, was wonderful deal with and honest — two qualities a journalist loves.

As for this blog, thanks to everybody who reads and interacts. I will continue to encourage people to comment freely because it adds multiple dimensions and view points. I’m sure now that The Preps Box is on the map things will get really interesting come fall and football season (I can’t wait).

So stay tuned for the next few months as we make it though the summer. August and football practice is just around the corner.

The long-awaited Tribune County Baseball Player of the Year and all-county teams are finally here (I hope it lives up to the hype).

This year, Atascadero junior third baseman Bryce Cherry was selected as the county player of the year. He hit a team-leading .500 (42 for 84) and had a school record 18 doubles and broke Scott McClain’s school record for combined runs and RBI with 69.

Cherry was a major catalyst for the Greyhounds’ potent lineup that hit .355 with 190 runs, 58 doubles, 10 triples and seven home runs. His contribution was 31 runs and 38 RBI.

“Bryce is just a sponge, he just absorbs everything,” first-year Atascadero coach Dan Butz said. “You don’t really have to work with him, he just has God’s gift. The kid can flat out rake. But you don’t get that work ethic from God. You get it from your family. It’s passed down. It doesn’t come along very often.”

For more about Cherry, visit SanLuisObispo.com or pick up Saturday’s edition of The Tribune.

The all-county team is below. It’s headlined by SLO pitcher David Murillo (also was a candidate for player of the year), Atascadero’s Michael Lombardi, Arroyo Grande’s Eric Simon and Paso Robles Thomas Bernal.

Player of the Year — Bryce Cherry, Jr., 3B, Atascadero

First Team
P — David Murillo, Jr., San Luis Obispo
P — Dylan Prokop, Sr., Paso Robles
P — Kyle Peterson, Sr., Arroyo Grande
Catcher — Max Duval, Sr., San Luis Obispo
OF — Michael Lombardi, Sr., Atascadero
OF — Kyle Raubinger, So., Arroyo Grande
OF — Sam Aguilar, Sr., San Luis Obispo
1B — John Tiedemann, Sr., San Luis Obispo
2B — Eric Simon, Jr., Arroyo Grande
SS/P — Thomas Bernal, Jr., Paso Robles
SS — Logan Allen, Sr., Atascadero
UTIL — Connor McQuade, Sr., Mission Prep

Second Team
P — Ryan McNeil, Fr., Nipomo
P — Kenny Bock, Jr., Atascadero
P — Jared Levin, Sr., San Luis Obispo
C — Rickie Horn, Sr., Templeton
OF — Mac Stuart, Fr., Paso Robles
OF — Chris Erdman, Sr., Atascadero
1B — Jacob Petersen, Sr., Morro Bay
2B — Alex Detz, Sr., Mission Prep
SS — Davey Schultz, Sr., San Luis Obispo
SS — Jordan Kuhn, Jr., Morro Bay
UTIL — Josh Feld, Jr., North County Christian
DH/P — Brian Lemke, Sr., Atascadero

Honorable Mention
Arroyo Grande — Gabe Hernandez (Jr., 1B), Damien Oseguera (Sr., P)
Atascadero — Brent Poulin (Jr., 1B)
Mission Prep — Dylan Morrow (Sr., UTIL)
Morro Bay — Tyler Duclos (Jr., INF)
Nipomo — Chris Schweigl (Sr., C/3B)
North County Christian — T.J. Mitchell (Sr., C), Travis Roth (Sr., INF/OF)
Paso Robles — Trevor Lasley (Jr., C)
San Luis Obispo — Scott Shields (Jr., SS), Jon Brenneman (Jr., P), Matt Ward (Sr., INF)
Shandon — Thomas Harris (So. C)
Templeton — Dan Wheeler (Jr., INF), Chad McGill, Jr., Templeton

After Jim Wysong was surprisingly fired as the Arroyo Grande baseball coach it didn’t take long for him to join another program.

In a move that was confirmed to Tribune writer Joshua D. Scroggin by Wysong and Cuesta baseball coach Bob Miller, Wysong agreed to become an assistant coach at Cuesta.

Here is what Scroggin wrote:

Jim Wysong, who was controversially fired last month after five seasons as head coach at Arroyo Grande High, has been added to the Cuesta staff.

At the time of his firing from Arroyo Grande, Wysong said he was blindsided by the move, which he said was performance based. Wysong had a 61-75-2 career record with the Eagles, who missed the CIF-Southern Section baseball playoffs by one game this season.

“I don’t know exactly what happened at Arroyo Grande,” Cuesta head baseball coach Bob Miller said, “and I really don’t care.

“The thing about Jim is, he’s got good knowledge of the game, and he brings professionalism and enthusiasm. We’ll be happy to have him. I think he’ll be a good addition to the coaches we already have.”

Wysong said he will join the team in August.

“I just got a call from coach Miller seeing if I wanted the opportunity to coach, and I accepted his offer,” Wysong said. “I’m very elated. I couldn’t be happier.”

Welcome back to Buchanan High in Clovis which is home of the CIF State Track and Field Championships and today’s finals.

Today’s headlining event, in my opinion, is Mission Prep star Jordan Hasay trying to grab her fourth state championship in the girls 3,200. She doesn’t run until 8:45 but I’ll have an update once she finishes in the breaking news section on the home page at sanluisobispo.com.

Hasay is trying to break the national high school record in the 3,200 which is 9:48.59. She came close last year setting a state meet record of 9:51.13.

The 3,200 was the only event that didn’t require qualifying since they put the whole field on the track at the same time. Which leads me to my next point.

Friday’s qualifying saw three San Luis Obispo County athletes advance into today’s finals.

The day begins at 4:30 when Atascadero’s Markita Hinton throws in the girls shot put and following her into the ring is state champion hopeful Austin Field.

Field, a senior at Arroyo Grande, throws at 6:30 as is attempting to become the third boys shot put champion at Arroyo Grande since 2004. He has the leading qualifying distance of 61-0 1/2.

Taking to the track this evening will be Templeton freshman Savannah Camacho.  She was the leading non-automatic qualifier (the top three in the two heats automatically qualified) and races at 6:21.

I’ll be running updates after the conclusion of each event so keep checking back.

Well we’ve been under way here at the CIF State Track and Field meet at Buchanan High in Clovis for just over an hour. So far locally the biggest news is that Atascadero’s Markita Hinton leads after Heat 2 in the girls shot put with a throw of 43 feet 9 3/4 inches. (She’s the first of six SLO County athletes to compete today)

I have to go down to watch Heat 3 which has the top 10 throwers, so I’ll update when I get back. Hinton looks like she has a solid chance of moving on to tomorrow’s final, but I’ll know for certain in about 20 minutes. Her three throws were in this order: 42-3, 43-2, 43-9 3/4.

If you’re reading this blog for the first time and are looking for who is competing and when from San Luis Obispo County schools please read my previous posts.

Well I’m heading back down to the throwing pit. Be back soon. Ill post future updates in this blog in the comments section.