Andy's Rants

By Andy Villanueva
After returning from a victorious night at Los Alamitos Racecourse, I give you the Christmas edition of rants to warm your spirit.
I watched the D-2 State Championship game between Cathedral of San Diego and St. Mary's of Stockton.
The feeling I got from the game was Southeast Champion Charter Oak would have made a strong showing and their defense could have shut down the Rams offense.
The Southern part of the California represented well as four of the five Champions came from South of Bakersfield.
Long Beach Poly and Corona Centennial represented the Southern Section and went 1-1.
The Jackrabbits were beaten by a very good Grant High School team from Sacramento, that took every punch Long Beach Poly had.
If you second guess Jackrabbit Head Coach Raul Lara is his playing calling with less then a minute left.
His two half-back passes were in bounds and were snuffed out by Pacers defense. It would have led to a quicker loss. They should have gone vertical after a successful first and down early in the drive.
The Huskies started out shaky against the Spartans when their first punt attempted was hiked over the kicker. The Spartans scored on the subsequent drive, but were held in check through out the game.
It was nice to have the Bowl committee to pit these two teams against each other. It was also redemption for Corona-Centennial who lost in the title game last year to Concord De La Salle.
Can someone explain to me (I'm sure Joe or John will) how Dodger shortstop Rafael Furcal can get $10 million dollars? Thats lots of cash for a player with recent back surgery.
You would think that Ned Colletti can do two things at once. He appears like the high school kid waiting to be asked to dance by a pretty girl when it comes to the Manny issue. If the Dodgers want Ramirez that badly, offer him what your willing to pay him or look elsewhere.
In Orange County, Angels General Manager Tony Reagins is in hot pursuit for switch-hitting first baseman Mark Teixeira who is also a Scott Boras client.
Ten years and $19.5 Million a year will get it done. I just don't think the Angels want to pay that type of money. Los Angeles, however needs to protect an aging Vlad Guerrero.
I know not many noticed, but David Beckham is trying to spread the word of soccer to A.C. Milan. If he couldn't do it here, what makes him think he can be successful in the Italian League. Oh, thats right. A.C. Milan is one of the most recognizable teams in the world.
Our interview with Ontario Reign head coach Karl Taylor was fun. I think a couple of times his Canadian came out and scared Tim Peterson.
A couple holiday hopes.
Joe Torosian - A week where one of us doesn't mention his name in one of our stories. Also, a fantasy league team that is better than John Scanlan.
John Scanlan – A starting quarterback for his Cleveland Browns.
Tim Peterson – Another Friday night at Muir Stadium.
Duane Barker – The perfect shot.
George Hernandez – An extra battery for his video camera.
Hope everyone has a Happy Holidays.
Andy can be reached at avillanueva3rd@yahoo.com

Aguirre Signs With BYU

I loved it. It's always great to see a local kid do well, and Lee Aguirre has done better than well. Today in front of what seemed like the entire South El Monte fraternity of football, his family, district leaders, and good friends he signed with the Cougars. See the story at http://www.midvalleynewsonline.com/

I think Lee shows that players from the Mission Valley League area can make it to the next level, but need to keep it all in balance from football, to class, to personal responsibility.

Happy for this young man and his family.

Have I shared my favorite Lee Aguirre story yet?

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

Scanning Sports: 12/17/08 Edition

By John Scanlan

So…what are the Dodgers waiting for?

Last week’s Winter Meetings in Las Vegas came and went and if you didn’t hear less than accurate comments from Ned Colletti about C.C. Sabathia saying he wanted to be a Dodger, you wouldn’t know they were there. They were less visible than Torosian’s fantasy football team in a playoff bracket.

They signed local boy (St. Francis) Mark Loretta, who provides offensive depth in the infield. He won’t contribute with the glove anymore, but he can spell Blake Dewitt or Casey Blake a couple times a week.

Speaking of Blake, the Dodgers resigned their midseason acquisition from last year for 3 years and $17.5 million. Somehow, Blake got a third year AFTER the Minnesota Twins dropped out of the running for his services and the Dodgers were the only real suitor. The Dodgers had wanted to only go two years, but in typical Colletti fashion, Blake ended up getting three once the Dodgers were only bidding against themselves. For good measure, an option year was added when Blake will be 39. All of this for a below average defensive 3B who will be 36 next season and just turned in a fairly pedestrian year while splitting time between the Dodgers and Indians. Now do you understand why there should be mass panic when Colletti has money to spend?

Speaking of mass panic, should we be worried about Colletti’s public hissy-fit regarding the Manny Ramirez negotiations? The market for Ramirez is dwindling, as the Yankees have to be nearly tapped out after adding Sabathia and A.J. Burnett for a combined $240 million. Boston is an obvious no-go. The Angels appear to be on the cusp of signing Mark Teixiera to a huge contract worth $20 million a year. The Nationals are making noise as if they’re interested, but the interest most likely isn’t mutual. The Cubs have ownership issues and the White Sox are shedding salary. The Giants are a possibility, but they have yet to show any real interest. Ramirez could always retire, but he’s been pouting about a new contract for a couple years now. He didn’t opt out of his current deal to sit at home. He wants to get paid.

Odds are, the Dodgers will find out where they stand with the Rafael Furcal situation and then approach the Ramirez issue from there. Look for something in the 2-year, $45 million range with a mutual option or incentive-triggering option for a third season.

The Dodgers will still need someone to replace Derek Lowe and Brad Penny. A good replacement for Lowe would be Lowe himself, who remains unsigned and stated publicly that the notion he wants to head back East isn’t necessarily true. There have been rumblings about the Mets being interested, but GM Omar Minaya hinted that they may be done after spending a ton of money (3 years, $37 mil) on closer Francisco Rodriguez. Apparently, Minaya didn’t get the memo that it’s better to spend that kind of money on someone who throws 6-7 innings per game rather than one.

Needless to say, the Dodgers have plenty left to do.

Before closing out the column this week, I want to acknowledge the unfortunate passing of a great colleague, Tony Simonian. Tony was an Auto Tech teacher at San Gabriel High School and a great asset to the students and the fellow teachers who were proud to also call him a friend. He’ll be greatly missed.

John Scanlan can be reached at scanman_33@sbcglobal.net and heard on the Mid-Valley Sports Show on Tuesday nights at 7:00 pm on KSPR Perspective Radio (http://www.perspectiveradio.com/)

Fanview

By Joe Torosian

“Joe you are literally giving me an ulcer!”
--- Connie Keenan

Charter Oak got to play at Mt. Sac.
Temple City got to play at home.
What did Rosemead get?
A long road trip, freezing weather, and limited seating.
No,…Rosemead got hosed!
Who puts a high school in the middle of the desert?
Diamond Ranch needed to go for two after they scored to make it 23-13 at the start of the fourth quarter.
CO’s A.J. Powell is the best player nobody knows about.
Paraclete beat Rosemead. Don’t ask how, they just beat the Panthers.
Mead, however, had a piece taken out of them when Knight High School was approved as the finals venue.
Nice field, good sidelines, great parking, but how could it be considered a championship site when the visitors side was one averaged size grandstand.
Spoke to former Trib star Aram Tolegian at the Southeast Division finals.
He is alive and well working for Fox.
Rapport with Fred Robledo (Trib) and Miguel Melendez (Star) has been solid but this living in the press box during the finals is weak. Scott French has been up in the box as well, I think Steve Ramirez too.
Prep football is great theater, no matter how cold the weather, you need to be on the sideline.
…Even when you have to stand on the sideline next to Peterson and have people blame you for his picks.
Charter Oak now has four CIF titles.
As one who likes passion in sport, I have always admired what the football player goes through just to reach a high place.
I admire the survival aspect of it all, because in football you can take care of your business on the field but still have the outcome subject to the decisions others in regards to seedings, coin flips, and venue.
If you have made it to the finals, the last game of the season, no matter what, rejoice.
Some tears are understandable, but they should be tempered by the blessing of a special season.
If losing a CIF final is the hardest knock you take in life, a life most likely to be filled with children getting sick, needing shoes, a mortgage, war, and uncertain career advancement, then you are going to do alright.
You’ve been blessed.
“I would have given anything just to have lost in the first round of the playoffs,” said Mid Valley intern George Hernandez, who played offensive tackle for Mountain View earlier this decade.
Diamond Ranch linebackers Kyle Lengyel and Bryan Bonilla were off the charts against the Chargers on Friday.
Lengyel is hoping to continue his career at the Air Force Academy.
He doesn’t have to impress me, but Rosemead offensive lineman Gilbert Ramirez was amazing to watch as he played through an injury to his right arm/shoulder Saturday night.
The dude was amazing especially late when things became evident they weren’t going to go the Panthers way he kept taking his act out onto the field.
Nice hit Alex Chang.
I expected the sound system at Mt. Sac would have been better.
I thought there were more people at the Smudgepot game than the Southeast title bout
Lesson learned this post season from Northview to Rosemead?
You can’t put it all on your defense. The offense has to make plays.
Speaking of making plays Rosemead’s Tra Sumler finished his four game post-season in 2008 with 919-yards rushing.
Our expansion this season to include the Mid-Valley and Southeast Divisions gave us a nice 15-week ride this year.
Of course the first Monday night after it all ends I get stuck watching McNabb Night Football.
…And of course the ESPN crew doing their standard sell job for the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback.
If you think Brett Favre gets too much praise…listen to Berman, Ditka, Johnson, Carter, and Jackson wax on about McNabb.
Did I hear it right? Is Charter Oak being considered for one of the state Bowl games?
Joe can be reached at joet13b@yahoo.com or http://joetorosian.blogspot.com/

Arroyo Tournament

Championship: Walnut 36, Bishop Amat 29
Offense was a rarity to begin with and Bishop Amat finished the 1st leading 6-4. Walnut rallied 10-3 during a stint in the 2nd and took command 18-14 before the break, headed by 5 points out of Josiah Gin off a pair of Zach Galman assists.

The Lancers marched back to even the score 23-23 on a Tyler Goldston layup prior to the 3rd’s bell but couldn’t really finish nor execute down the all-crucial 4th, shooting 2 of 9 from the field and completing only 2 of 10 free throws. Adam Balderas was on the brink of making it a 1 point game 2:45 from the wire for Bishop Amat before a rebounding violation nullified the second foul shot. Amat failed to score afterward and the Mustangs’ Karlo Galvez (named all-tournament MVP) kicked in when the team needed it the most, scoring 4 of Walnut’s last 5 points to clinch the trophy.

BA – Abel Rodriguez 13, Balderas 8, Goldston 5, Daniel Rodriguez 2, Scott Wiard 1
WAL – Galvez 9, Galman 5, Gin 5, Brandon Mason 5, Leonard Rhodes 4, Corey Quon 4, Chibuzo Okoro 2, Cameron Lew 2

3rd Place: Mark Keppel 70, La Cañada 60
Aztec guard Timmy Wong funneled 4 sssists, and sophomore wingman Sam Thim hit 4 3-pointers in the first half before capping the night with 8 consecutive free throws accounting for a game high 32 points in Keppel’s stoutly contested 70-60 win over La Cañada.

The Spartans jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead as Omar Rady hit back to back 3s but the Aztecs finished the quarter on a 17-5 run powered by 3 of Thim’s 4 trios. Keppel led by as much as 13 with 2:17 left in the 3rd.

Rocky Moore knocked down 3 of the initial 4 La Cañada deuces to narrow the gap at 6 2:59 remaining. The Aztecs called timeout and, whatever game plan head coach Hung Duong worked to perfection, as Keppel worked and ate up the next 2:08 on both sides of the ball. During this stretch a Dean Ichiriu-to-Aaron Lee layup plus a pair of Timmy Wong (11 pts, 8 rebs, 4 assist, 3 steals) FTs built a 10 point advantage that the Spartans tried desperately to close in a Mike McGlashan vs. the Aztecs back and forth run-n-gun chase that sent Thim to the charity stripe 4 times within about 20 regulation seconds.

LC – Rady 14, Jeff Grigg 12, McGlashan 12, Moore 9, Clarke Anderson 8, Andrew Schiller 3, Mason Holle 2
MK – Thim 32, Wong 11, Ichiriu 11, Lee 7, Jordan Young 5, Justin Young 4

5th: Monrovia 68, Los Altos 65 (1 OT)
Monrovia’s Derrin Jenkins heaved up a desperation 3 that banked in at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime where the Wildcats had a little 6-0 rush and survived multiple scares from Los Altos thereafter, walking out a 68-65 victor.

Gerad Chin couldn’t make it fall for the Conquerors in three attempts outside the arc in the extra period, and as time wound to mere ticks, a 30 footer from Johnny Medina rattled off the rim and was rebounded by a Monrovia player to seal the win.

The Conqs scored the last 8 of the 1st half to build a 16 point, 33-17 lead but Monrovia closed the 3rd on a 14-4 scurry to pull within 4 at 37-41, then all-out muscled the zone in the 4th through the trio of Chris Smith, Chris Bullock, and Isiah Brame. With Jenkins’ buzzer banker notwithstanding, the three amassed 20 total that period. Four Los Altos players finished with double figure efforts in the loss.

LA – Medina 16, Cris Hanacek 11, Leon Miles 10, Chin 10, Alvin Tan 8, Juan Su 6, Juan Rojas 2, Steve Flores 2
MON – Bullock 32, Smith 16, Brame 9, “J” Henderson 6, Jenkins 5

7th: West Covina 48, California 33
Once again Cal struggled offensively out of the gate, allowing the WC to build a 12-0 wall on the Condors halfway thru the 1st. A pair of Shawn Carter 3s pulled Cal to within 7, 18-25 at the break.

The 3rd was relatively anemic as both the Condors and Bulldogs combined to fail 10 of 17 FT attempts plus a morbid 4 for 26 mark from the field.
Jesse Ili garnered the WC’s only 2 FGs of the period.

West Covina heated up in the 4th scoring 15 unanswered points during a 5 minute stretch to put it away, capped by 3 consecutive possessions to buckets by Ricky Washington and some late points from Alonzo Nevarez.

WC – Nevarez 14 (plus 10 rebs), Washington 12, Estevan Sanchez 12, Mario Bracamontes 5, Ili 4, Kang Hsu 1
CAL – Carter 14, Chris Ortiz 11, Jordan Saleapaga 3, Michael Arceo 2, RJ Rodriguez 2, Victor Cruz 1 (with 14 rebs)

Consolation Championship – 9th: Arcadia 58, Wilson (Hacienda Heights) 48
Franky Yan caught a smooth rhythm to bulls-eye 4 of 5 from the field and all 3 FT attempts, totaling a co-team high 13 point performance on the night along with teammate Darnell Allen. Allen cashed via dominant low post, zone and baseline intensity and earned a spot on the all-tournament team for his effort in this game.

Taylor Lagace, Aaron Case, and Alex Chang powered the Apaches away from the Wildcats in the 4th, banding together for a 6 for 6 FG showing.

Wildcat center Ahmed Aboulatifa led all scorers with 17, doing most damage playing a strong up-tempo game in the paint early to tally 12 of Wilson’s 15 in the 1st.

ARC – Yan 13, Allen 13, Lagace 9, Kiran Koneru 7, Chang 6, Drew Matsuda 6, Case 4
WSN – Aboulatifa 17, Eric Cheng 15, Justin Buenviaje 10, Michael Wong 4, Jeffrey Nibo 2

11th: Montclair 60, La Puente 56
Cavalier shooters totaled 10 completions from past the arc, including a key 3 by Jordan Huyser that reclaimed the lead for Montclair 51.4 to go in the game. Huyser also put the icing on the cake for the Cavs’ victory via a pair of bonus FTs at the 1.4 second timepoint.

La Puente fell behind by 11, 39-50 heading into the stretch, where they came back 17-5 against Montclair for a 56-55 edge at 1:10 via Robert Cruz’s off the bench 3 before Huyser finished off the Warriors.

LP was led by a 20 point, 8 rebound, 6 steal try by Martin Garcia.

LP – Martin Garcia 20, Cruz 9, Andrew Garcia 8, Edward Bonilla 8, Jacob Sandoval 7, David Chacon 3, Roman Castaneda 1
MCR – Huyser 17, Tory Gilroy 12, David Castaneda 12, Raymond Moreno 6, Pascual Valdez 6, George Gerrardo 4, Adam Castillo 3

13th: Bell Gardens 72, Arroyo 56
Arroyo committed a whopping 25 turnovers in the 1st half and, in one 3rd quarter stretch forked over 8 consecutive possessions, all of which Bell Gardens fed off of to sail clear at closing, 72-56.

The Knights finally picked up some bit of momentum in the 4th where they added 22 to BG’s 21. Irvin Iraheta bucketed 10 of a team high 14 pts in this quarter.

Forward Robert Santiago rang up a game best 18 pt outing for BG, and wingman/shooting guard Gil Ceniceros collared 14 in addition to 6 rebs and 5 steals.

BG – Santiago 18, Ceniceros 14, Travon Williams 13, Scott Williams 8, Michael De La Torre 5, Albert Chavez 4, Albert Lara 3, Enrique Escobedo 3, Luis Preciado 2, David Varela 2
A – Iraheta 14, Mark Roche 11, Kevin Avila 8, Ronnie Graham 8, Marco Monsivaiz 6, Ricky Gonzales 4, Aaron Magno 3, Roman Monsivaiz 2

15th: South El Monte 49, Covina 44
The Southmen finished on the positive end of an evenly matched battle with Covina and clinched the match on a pair from the line by Manny Acosta, who totaled 18 plus 10 boards for a 2x2x.

Covina power forward Devin Bodney had 18 as well, plus 11 reb to top the Colts in scoring and reb. Bodney was efficient from the paint and outside.

SEM – Manny Acosta 18, Isaiah Alcantar 10, Lupe Peña 7, Eric Duenas 6, Jose Garay 5, Jimmy Curren 2, Jimmy Valencia 1
COV – Bodney 18, Tyrone Crump 8, Tyler Johnson 8, Jacob Gonzales 4, Rudy Espinoza 4, JC Ellis 2

Rosemead Stopped Cold

By Tim Peterson

(Palmdale) – In temperatures that dipped into the high twenties with the wind chill factor, it was the Rosemead offense that was stopped cold in a 21-10 loss to Paraclete in the CIF Mid-Valley Finals Saturday night at Knight High School.

The Panther offense mustered just three points – a 32 yard field goal by Bobby Maldonado just before halftime to cut the Spirits’ lead to 14-10. Rosemead’s lone touchdown was scored by the defense.

Tra Sumler had only 34 yard rushing in the first half and finished with 119 yards on 27 carries. But his longest run from scrimmage was 14 yards and he was never able to bust loose.

“We really couldn’t control the field on them. They made all the plays and we didn’t,” said Rosemead coach Matt Koffler. “They did a great job tonight. My hat is off to their staff and their kids.”

Paraclete got on the board on its first series. The Spirits marched 80 yards on ten plays. Dante Donato capped the drive with an eight blast up the middle.

Rosemead was stopped on its first possession but then the defense got into the act. On the Spirit 22, Sumler stood up quarterback Robbie Thompson, the ball popped loose and Gilbert Del La Rosa scoped it up and raced 12 yards into the endzone to tie it at seven.

On the Panthers next possession, a dropped pass by an open receiver cut short a potential go ahead drive. Paraclete immediately responded by driving another eighty yards for the go ahead score.

Thompson went over the top and connected with Matt Cordova on a 22 yard scoring strike to finish the drive for a 14-7 lead in the second.

Maldonado’s boot with five seconds left in the half cut the lead to four.

Both teams failed to score in the third quarter. Thompson had a pass picked off in the end zone by Sumler and the Panthers began to march. And march they did down to the Paraclete 45 and into the fourth quarter when the drive stalled and disaster struck.

From the 45, Maldonado booted the ball down to the Paraclete five yard line where Brandon Buteyn fielded it amongst a host of Panther defenders. Buteyn eluded a couple of tackles and broke a couple more. He got to the corner and outran the entire Rosemead coverage for a 95 yard touchdown return.

One play the Panthers are marching down the field to looking to take the lead and the next they’re staring at a 21-10 deficit with 7:42 left. The return not only broke the heart of the Rosemead faithful that filled the visitor’s stands, it broke the Panthers back.

“That was the first one to go on us all year so we didn’t expect that to happen,” Koffler said. “It looked like we were waiting for somebody else to make a play all game. On that one it looked like we were just waiting for somebody else to make the tackle instead of those guys running down the field.”

The Panthers got the ball back three more times in the contest but were unable to generate any momentum.

“We just couldn’t get anything going. We would move it a little and then get stopped.” Koffler said.

Angel Alejandre completed 18 passes for 150 yards but was under constant pressure from the Parclete front line.

Buteyn and Donato combined for 110 yards on the ground for Paraclete. Thompson connected on seven of 12 passes for 98 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

Paraclete turned the ball over four times but still managed to get the gob done. Rosemead had two turnovers but was hurt by missed opportunities and missed tackles.


For the Panthers it was its first CIF appearance since 1982. They finished the season with a record of 11-3.

They’ll remember this experience for a lifetime,” Koffler added.
Paraclete also finished 11-3 winning 11 straight after three losses to start the season.

Football Around the Mid: At the Semis

By Joe Torosian

“Feels great, we’re gonna make history.”
--- Cesar Chavez

Sumler’s Enchanted Evening
I wish I knew how many times over the last seven years we’ve used the last name Sumler in a witty headline; Things like; “The Sumler of All Fears”, “Sumler Breeze Makes Panthers Feel Fine”, to name a few and of course “Sumler’s Finals”.
All the attention deserves to be on the Rosemead team as a whole, and we’ll get there, but as Friday’s semifinal rolled into the fourth quarter I started adding up how much time we really had left with the Sumler family.
I don’t know them real well, haven’t had turkey at their pad, or exchanged Christmas cards, but Desean, Deon, and Tra have really made our job at the Mid Valley News much easier.
In the last ten years we’ve been covering sports we’ve seen brothers come through and make an imprint.
Temple City had Herman and Antonio Wagner in 2000 and 2001. There’s also high expectations for the Copping twins in the next few years.
Gus and Jonathan Mendoza at South El Monte, we caught the tail end of the Ziska run at Arcadia, and we saw a little bit of the Paytons at South Hills.
However, three brothers progressively getting better each season, we have never seen that.
Desean Sumler was a playmaker who told me in the summer of 2002 that I was going to be writing about him, and I did that season and the next (See “Mid Valley News Remembers: Rosemead-Monrovia 2003).
Deon Sumler broke out in 2003 and got better each season before culminating it in 2005 by helping to lead Rosemead to a perfect regular season record of 10-0 with awesome offensive performance.
Tra Sumler last season was the Mid Valley News Most Valuable Player and last night he might have been between 7:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. Pacific Standard Time the best high school football player on the planet.
Stats: 289-yards rushing on 40-carries, two touchdowns, a blocked punt, and a madman on defense.
“He did what he had to do, and handled himself,” Desean said of his younger brother. “I’m at a loss for words, I’m so proud.”
“It’s unbelievable,” said an emotional Tra before breaking down. “It feels like a fairy tale, I dreamed about this.”
Of course the fairy tale and the dream were about the Panthers getting back to the CIF finals for the first time in over a quarter of a century.
They got back to the semifinals for the first time since 2001 and also snapped a six year streak of losing in the first round.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Panther defensive end/tight end Luis Diaz. “I was little bit nervous but we took care of it. I’m so proud of them (team).”
“It’s greater than I thought it would be,” said Panther defensive back Alex Chang. “We ran out the clock and sealed the deal. We’re a family.”
The always respectful to the media Cesar Chavez spoke plainly. “Yes sir, we stopped them. Give props to the defense.”
“It was the players,” said Rosemead defensive coordinator Marc Paramo. “They work really hard. I have 6:A.M. meetings during the week and they are there. Give them the credit, I get to come out here and direct them, but they do a great job.”

Props to M-Town
Ryan Maddox and his team performed better this season than anybody would have thought.
Leading that charge was former Monrovia head coach Steve Garrison. “They’ve done a fantastic job this first year. Fantastic.”

One More Time
The good news for M-Town defensive back Dujawn Jones is that he is only a junior and will have a chance to erase the memory a sure interception off of Angel Alejandre and even surer return for six-points that went through his hands in the first quarter.

Looking Good
Don’t let anyone walk away from the 2008 season and say, or think, that the Wildcats don’t have a gem at quarterback in Nick Bueno. That dude is a playmaker and only a sophomore. Expect Bueno to do a lot Good in the future.
Monrovia defensive end Darwin Winfrey played very well in his final prep game as did Kendall Boggs.

Eerily Reminiscent
Bueno had a pair of snaps in the shotgun formation sail over his head that brought back memories of a pair of bad low snaps David Potts got in the 2006 game against Temple City.
It also raised to mind the often mentioned, but long forgotten, M-Town punter Ricky Romero (who remembers punters?) who preserved a tie against TC in 2000 with a heroic leap and one handed grab of a bad snap.

Last Word on Brother Garrison
“That kid hits the hole, and doesn’t mess around,” he said of Sumler. “I’m tired of looking at that family,” he laughed. “His brother got me for 200 hundred yards.”
When I mentioned that Deon got him 282-yards and three touchdowns in 2005 and Desean for 114-yards and score in 2003 he just looked at me. “You enjoy bringing up all these good memories?”
Garrison says that he is happy and has completed most of his “Honey-Do” list and was ready for football after spending his first fall away from the game since he was a child.
“The fires are still burning,” he said.

For Now

For Now, while everything is in turmoil with our website at the Mid Valley New we are going to be here