Andy's Rants

By Andy Villanueva

After being smart and not braving the elements up in Palmdale, I give you my rants from a room with a fireplace with a cup of Starbucks to discuss my rants for this week.

What a ride for Charter Oak. Unbeaten in 2008 and they will be slighted when the state bowl bids come out for the Division II.

In a world of ifs, its a tie to eventual Central Champion Rancho Cucamonga that hurts their chances of getting a serious look.

The Chargers performance on Friday night wasn't their best in terms of high octane, but their defense came out and gave Diamond Ranch quarterback Gus Viramontes fits and held wide receiver Brandon Taylor with no catches.

Charter Oak running back Adam Muema will need to get some more muscle if he intends on playing for a Division I college next year.

The run Rosemead had ended up hitting a huge road block on Saturday evening.

Paraclete plays smash mouth football and in frigid wind chill conditions it works. The Spirits aren't pretty to watch and have no big name players, but they got the job done.

The Panthers were taken out of their game in the first half when Tra Sumler only had about 30 yards rushing and was no factor.

I wonder if it would have been different if the game was played at a neutral site that was beneficial for both teams. The only reason the game was played in the High Desert was due to a coin toss.

What CIF needs to do is designate a couple of Junior College stadiums for the Mid Valley and Southeast.

Southeast would have Mt. Sac, Citrus, and Cerritos. This would cover all teams that occupy the teams that play in those leagues that play within the Southeast.

Mid Valley would have Pasadena, College of The Canyons, Pierce, and Citrus. That would cover those leagues in the Mid Valley.

I think it would only be far to play the games in average conditions for both teams. Not due to a coin toss.

When is Terrel Owens going to get it. He was a cancer in San Francisco and Philadelphia. Now he has managed to make it about himself again in Dallas.

Note to high school players and younger kids. “THIS IS NOT A ROLE MODEL YOU SHOULD FOLLOW.”

Sure he is a gifted receiver and has talent, but team comes before me.

All indications are and my own gut feelings show that the Arena Football League will suspend operations in 2009.

The statement made during the week was just to buy time to get most owners on board.

Following the league for 22 seasons, it is obvious that the league needs to get healthy and have all teams stable. Its not good for any league to not know who will be playing the following year.

The teams are losing too much money every year and something needs to change. A single entity would help all teams make money in the long term.

If the league does go in 2009, don't look for it to comeback in 2010.

Ontario Reign is coming to the Mid Valley News starting next week. I have been a big fan of minor league hockey since 1995 when I caught my first Long Beach Ice Dogs inaugural game at the Sports Arena.

It’s great to see players that want to improve enough to make it to the show. Its one of the reasons why I also love watching minor league baseball and spring training.

Speaking of baseball, Manny Ramirez is now getting what he deserves. What the owners are doing is as close to collusion as you can get without the MLBPA screaming it is.

Agent Scott Boras is a mastermind at getting his players what they deserve, but in the case of Manny he will fall short. He will end up with the Dodgers when all is said and done.

Time to cover some basketball for area High Schools. See you out there.

Andy can be reached at avillanueva3rd@yahoo.com