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Below are my mid-season high school football awards. In choosing my awards, I'm including players from all schools located in the main counties of our viewing area (Butte, Shasta, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, and Trinity). I hope you enjoy.
Team of the Year: Enterprise Hornets
Despite dealing with an injury to Senior Wide Receiver James Williams, the Enterprise Hornets have managed to jump out to a very impressive 7-0 record. With wins over their rival Shasta, Pleasant Valley, Foothill and Corning, the Hornets have proven that so far, they are the best team in the North State. Look for that trend to continue throughout the rest of the season because Head Coach Darren Trueblood keeps his team very focused on the task at hand. Senior Quarterback Anthony Williams and Senior Running Back Bryan Coleman have both been spectacular this year and they should continue to provide the Hornets with a two-headed monster that most teams won't be able to handle.
Runner-ups: Portola Tigers, Corning Cardinals
Player of the Year: Evan Taylor - Shasta Wolves
Shasta Running Back Evan Taylor is the epitomy of a great high school football player. The bruising back has dominated the North State for two and half years at the varsity level and should continue to do so throughout the rest of the season. He runs hard every time he touches the rock and is able to break off some of the more spectacular runs you will ever see. Just take this into persepctive, through seven games this year, Taylor has rushed 127 times for 960 yards, an average of 7.56, that's ridiculous. Also, he's managed to get into the end-zone a measley 18 times, that's also ridiculous. E.T. is a big time talent and so far, he's my choice for the North State high school Heisman.
Runner-ups: Bryan Coleman - Enteprise, Chris Huckins - Greenville
Coach of the Year: Darren Trueblood - Enterprise Hornets
At the beginning of the year, if somebody had told me that Enterprise would be the best team in the tough Eastern Athletic League at the half-way point of the season, I would have laughed. Well now, Darren Trueblood and his Enterprise Hornets are the one's laughing, laughing all the way to their first place position in the standings. Somehow, week in and week out, Trueblood has his Hornets extremely focused to play football. They don't make very many mistakes and they play to their strengths, mainly giving the ball to QB Anthony Williams and RB Bryan Coleman.
Runner-ups: John Studer - Corning, Steve Heskett - Portola, Javier Lopez - Wheatland
Offensive Player of the Year: Anthony Williams - Enterprise Hornets
Okay, okay, I know, three of my four first awards belong to the Enterprise Hornets, but believe me, the Hornets deserve them. If you ask their Head Coach Darren Trueblood who is the most important player on his team, he will tell you Anthony Williams and he will also sing a line of praise about his Senior Quarterback that will leave you wondering just how good Williams is. The answer, real good. Williams is the combination of intelligence, athleticism and leadership that every coach would love to have lining up under center. Ultimately, he's a better runner than passer but I think his most valuable asset is his ability to make good decisions with the football. Anthony Williams is the main reason the Hornets are 7-0.
Runner-ups: Lt Hisey - Dunsmuir, Scott Harrison - Hayfork
Defensive Player of the Year: Clint Johnson - Wheatland Pirates
Clint Johnson, a Senior Middle Linebacker for the Wheatland Pirates has already put up a season's worth of numbers and we're only half-way through the year. So far Johnson has accumulated 122 tackles, an average of 17.4 per game. He's also sacked the Quarterback 5 times, caused 2 fumbles and intercepted 1 pass. I repeat, we're only half-way through the year. Honestly, I can't wait to see the end of the season totlas for this beast from Wheatland, they should be pretty darn impressive.
Runner-ups: Aaron Ropp - Paradise, Derek Mench - Maxwell
Junior of the Year: Jamiel Hardman - Chico Panthers
If you haven't had the opportunity to watch RB Jamiel Hardman from the Chico Panthers, I suggest you do so as soon as possible. Hardman has been a big time focal point of the Panthers offense this season and he's rewarded Head Coach Jason Alvistur with 992 yards on 139 carries and 8 touchdowns. There's no doubt that Hardman has definitely broken out during his Junior season but I can't help but think just how good he can be next year as a Senior.
Runner-ups: Derek Mench - Maxwell, Scott Harrison - Hayfork, Jordan Rigsbee - Pleasant Valley
Most Versatile Player: Jordan Rigsbee - Pleasant Valley
Pleasant Valley Viking Jordan Rigsbee is a beast in the trenches. He plays both sides of the ball as an Offensive and Defensive Lineman. He's 6'4", weighs about 275 and will flat out run you over. I feel like the Junior is a little more polished as an Offensive Lineman and when you watch him block, it's a beautiful thing. He has a tendency to push whoever he's blocking ten to fifteen yards down the field and doesn't quit until the play is completely over. Look for him to dominate as a Senior next year.
Runner-ups: Marcial Lawson - Foothill, Darren Lee - Lassen
So there you have it, these are my mid-season awards for high school football around the North State. Let me be the first to tell you that there are very deserving players who were left off this list so if you feel the need to put in your two cents about players, coaches or teams that you think belong on here, please comment. Other than that, thanks for reading.
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Not only is Nnamdi Asomugha the best cornerback in all the land, he's got to be one of the smartest as well. Raider fans, I hope you realize how lucky you are to have a person like him suiting up for the Silver and Black and that's not just because he shuts down one side of the field every single game.
After talking to the Cal Berkley product in an interview about training camp and the upcoming season, I realized that playing the game of football comes way too easy to this intellectual. Every response he has to a question is ridiculously exquisite and I automatically felt inferior to his intelligence when we were talking about the game he plays. Simply put, the man is blessed.
After I had the chance to dissect some of his cornerbacking skills, I overheard another reporter talking to #21 and discussing something other than football. Nnamdi kept referring to some sort of conference he recently attended where he had the opportunity to sit down with Bill Clinton and discuss some concerning issues in the world. I was taken aback and immediately made a note in my head to make sure to do some research on the Raider when I had the chance. Here's some information I found. Basically the guy is a philanthropic genious as well as a phenomenal football player.
-Nnamdi serves as the Advisory Board Chair for his family's foundation, the Orphans and Widows in Need (OWIN) Foundation. This organization provides food, shelter, medicine, vocational training, literacy efforts, and scholarships to widows and orphans victimized by poverty or abuse in his home land of Nigeria. OWIN has two centers in Nigeria and plans to expand throughout Africa. For those who don't know, Asomugha is of Igbo descent, an ethnic group in southeastern Nigeria.
-In 2006, Asomugha launched an annual high school college tour program that teams up with the East Oakland Youth Development Center to help take students from Bay Area high schools on college tours throughout the United States. All the participants who graduate high school have gone on to attend higher education institutions.
*Here's what he was referring to when he was talking to the other reporter*
-Nnamdi joined former President Bill Clinton at the 2009 Meeting of Clinton Global Initiative University in Austin, TX, to discuss the importance of student activism and global service. CGIU is Clinton's youth initiative created to challenge college students to tackle some of the most pressing global issues. At this specific meeting, Nnamdi talked to over 1,200 student leaders, university presidents and leaders of the national youth organizations about his philanthropic efforts in Nigeria and Oakland, CA.
-Additionally, Asomugha distributes backpacks to the incoming freshmen each year at Narbonne High School in Los Angeles and he outfits the football and basketball team with shoes, a mandate HE wrote into an endorsement contract he signed with Nike.
All that was courtesy of wikipedia.org and it's honestly just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to read more about his achievements outside of football just google him, pretty much he's a legit baller who lives a ridiculously cool life. Raider Nation, be glad he's playing for Al Davis and not pushing Barack Obama for President of the United States. Actually, I'm going to call it right here right now, Nnamdi Asomugha in 2020. Bam! I'm out.
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Greg Papa is an American sportscaster working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been broadcasting for most of the Bay Area professional sports franchises for 21 years covering the Oakland Raiders, Oakland Athletics, Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants. Currently, he is best known as the radio play-by-play caller for the Raiders. During the first couple days of training camp this year, I saw him strolling the grounds of the Silver and Black and immersing himself into their culture. He was able to walk through parts of practice that weren't accessible to other reporters and I'm sure that's simply because of the reputation he's built throughout his broadcasting career as the voice of the Raiders.
At one point, when all the photographers, reporters and beat writers were standing in a crowd, somebody commented on the recent news about former Boston Red Sox sluggers Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2004. The guy said, "Hey did you hear about Ortiz and steroids?" Everybody looked at the guy and Papa replied, "Russ Ortiz?" Of course the original guy was talking about David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox and Papa thought he was talking about former Giants pitcher Russ Ortiz. It was pretty hilarious. You gotta respect a guy like Papa who automatically thinks anything sports related has something to do with the Bay Area.
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Last Thursday and Friday I was fortunate enough to get the chance to head down to Napa and report on the Oakland Raiders training camp. This is my third year in a row covering the Silver and Black and I'm truly thankful for the opportunity. This year in particular I noticed a slew of interesting happenings at camp and I'd like to share them with you. I'm just going to write about one experience per installment, so log-on, stay tuned and I hope you enjoy.
Quarterback JaMarcus Russell loves to eat his southern food and his slang is thicker than the sauce he slopped on his ribs in the offseason. During an interview session with the strong armed signal caller, one Bay Area sports writer asked the Louisiana State product how he felt about his weight entering camp. Russell replied in a very unique southern drawl, "I'm a little heavy," and then he laughed. We all laughed. I thought that was awesome. He doesn't care about being overweight at the start of training camp and he's willing to poke fun of himself in a group of media people. Good for him. We have the clip saved on one of our tapes and I hope it airs in a training camp story because it's pretty funny.
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A week has passed since the 2009 NFL draft took place and I've got a couple random thoughts concerning the Oakland Raiders and their top selection.
The Raiders took a Wide Receiver from Maryland named Darrius Heyward-Bey with the 7th pick. First reaction, whoops, that was dumb. With another wideout named Michael Crabtree still on the board and a number of highly touted Offensive and Defensive Lineman as well, the Oakland brass definitely did not use this pick constructively. Hold on though, not so fast, (which is exactly what Darrius Heyward-Bey, or DHB as I like to call him, brings to the table....speed. 4.29 forty) this pick just might pan out more than the entire world suspects. DHB is from Maryland which happens to be a school that has produced quite a few successful NFL players. Shawne Merriman is one. Vernon Davis isn't quite there yet, but he could be one, considering the fact that he has a world of potential. Quarterbacks Boomer Esiason and Frank Reich rep'd the Turtles. Both of those guys (especially Esiason) had pretty good careers in the league. Ultimately, the school has had a minor legacy of shelling out NFL talent and hopefully, DHB can follow in the footsteps.
How sweet would it be if current Raiders receiver Johnie Lee Higgins added "Lee" to his name on the back of his Oakland jersey? Then, Oakland would have two really fast receivers with two names on the back of their jerseys, "Lee Higgins" and "Heyward-Bey." Don't ask me why but I think that would be tight.
I predict that there will be great highlights between JaMarcus Russell and DHB in the future, but doesn't the Quarterback need four to five seconds to get a streaking receiver the ball? Oakland probably could've taken an Offensive Lineman with the 7th pick and then turned around and grabbed DHB in the 2nd round with the 40th pick. That way, they'd have someone to help protect the Quarterback as well as the speedy receiver Al Davis always covets. Best of both worlds. DHB definitely has the raw athletic ability to succeed in the NFL. The knock on him is that he has hands of stone. Well, you can't teach speed, but you certainly can teach someone to get better at catching the ball. Where's Tim Brown? Ask him to come to practice and offer the kid some advice.
Lastly, a lot of NFL draft analysts give teams a certain grade based on how they drafted. As most of you already know, the Raiders got an "F" for selecting DHB in the 1st round. I think draft grades are an absolute irrelevant joke. How can you give a team a grade for drafting a player that's never played a professional game? The Mel Kipers and the Todd McShays get paid boatloads of money to analyze players and their potential at the NFL level and it's ludicrous. These rookies haven't even been given a shot in the NFL yet and for the most part, their team's draft grade is based on how these analysts think they will do in the league. "If DHB and the Raiders got an 'F' then no doubt he will be terrible in the NFL." That sucks and it's ridiculous because certain teams look for certain types of players on draft day. Organizations tend to draft guys that they think will fit in well with their system. The Oakland Raiders sought a speedy wide receiver and DHB happened to fit that mold. From the Raiders perspective, they drafted a player with the grade A.
Who knows? Maybe DHB will turn out to be a steal. After all, Tom Brady was taken in 6th round and I guarantee you no draft analyst gave New England an "A" for swooping him up.
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No team has more of a reason to be upset about being left out of the NCAA tournament than St. Mary's. As a matter of fact the Gaels (26-6) didn't even receive a top seed in the NIT. They fell to the second line in the 32 team tournament as another tourney snub San Diego St. took number one in that specific bracket.
I feel like the Gaels definitely deserved to be a part of the Big Dance. With a healthy Patty Mills (their star guard - think Stephen Curry, but more of a playmaker than a shooter) this team opened the season 18-1. Then in the midst of conference play, Mills proceeded to go down with a wrist injury in the first half of a big game against Gonzaga. With Mills on the court during that game, the Gaels led by six at halftime, and then without Mills, they lost the second half by 13.
After Patty went down, the Gaels lost the next three out of four, but then rebounded and adjusted without him, and won five straight games while they waited for Mills' wrist to heal. When he returned to the line-up, St. Mary's won unimpressively against Portland, but then lost to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tournament.
I understand that they didn't quite end the season convincingly but think about this, St. Mary's won a total of 26 games. Twenty six games! And they still didn't get in, that's just ridiculous. I guess ultimately, the numbers proved to squeeze them out. Some bubble unfriendly conference winners (USC, Mississippi State, etc.) really shrunk the bubble which in turn really hurt St. Mary's chances of getting in despite their solid regular season record. With all that being said though I think the selection committee blew it when it came down to choosing possibly the last bubble team. I'm sorry Arizona Wildcats fans but hey, you know deep down that the team they put on the floor this year desperately underachieved in a weak Pac 10 conference. I guess sometimes the committee likes to award teams with rich college basketball traditions and I feel like that's the main reason Arizona was ultimately selected over St. Mary's.
Another factor that hurt the Gaels was the lack of a tough non-conference schedule. The Gaels only went 2-3 against teams in the RPI top 50 and they lost three times to conference foe Gonzaga, including a horrendous 83-58 defeat in the finals of the WCC tournament. Furthermore, they only beat three RPI top-100 opponents so their computer profile status obviously hurt them.
Nevertheless I think they were snubbed but after looking at how the team reacted to this situation I was impressed with their level of maturity concerning this issue. Mills was quoted as saying, "we did get our hopes up a little, but there's a great lesson to be learned on how to handle adversity and how to handle distractions and making the most of your opportunities." Good for him and he can definitely put his money where his mouth is if he can lead the Gaels to an NIT tournament victory.
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Alright, so maybe I ended up being completely wrong about Terrell Owens winding up as an Oakland Raider. Turns out, he's a Buffalo Bill and it sure will be interesting to see if he can finally figure it all out. Football is a team first game and if the Bills are going to make a Super Bowl run in 2009-2010, Owens is going to have to put the team first, something he hasn't been able to do throughout his storied NFL career.
Actually the fact that the Raiders did not sign Owens raises some red flags concerning the two Bay Area teams and their lack of interest in the free agency market this offseason. Both the Niners and Raiders could use some serious upgrades via free agency and unfortunately each organization hasn't been able to capitalize on the plethora of unemployed football players out there who are just waiting to be given the opportunity to play for a team.
The Niners made a considerable run at outstanding Quarterback Kurt Warner but I feel like anybody with half a brain out there could've realized that Warner and his agent were just playing San Francisco in order to get a better offer from the Arizona organization. Furthermore, do the 49ers really need to upgrade their Quarterback position? Or are there more important and prevalent needs that should be addressed? First of all, how about upgrading the trenches. The 49ers desperately need defensive line help. When was the last time the Niners had a solid pass rush? Let's not even delve into that subject because I can't even remember.
Also, let's say the Niners were able to woo Warner to the Bay Area and he did in fact sign with San Francisco. There is no way he would've been able to put up the same numbers he did for Arizona because the Niners receivers can't even sniff Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin's production over the course of their careers. Also, think about this; throughout Warner's career he's proven to be a great passer WHEN HE HAS TIME to dissect a defense. Well, as it stands right now, the Niners Offensive Line couldn't protect a QB if its life depended on it. This past season, the Niners allowed the most sacks out of any team in the NFL with an astounding number of 55. Yeah, I'm sure Warner wanted to line up behind that protection, give me a break.
How about Oakland? I would say they also really need some help in the trenches. With Running Backs like Darren McFadden, Justin Fargas, and Michael Bush, it sure wouldn't hurt to upgrade the Offensive Line. Just the thought of Kwame Harris lining up at tackle once again has me laughing. The Raiders need to find a way to open up rushing lanes on the ground and then protect JaMarcus Russell when he's back to pass. Multiple stud offensive lineman have already signed with teams during the early stages of this free agency period and Oakland should definitely try to tap into that resource before it dries up.
I also think the Raiders should get a deep threat or simply a good receiver for Russell to have at his expense. If Al Davis is so obsessed with throwing the ball downfield than why hasn't he gone after guys like TJ Houshmanzadeh and Terrell Owens? Is he really going to rely on troubled wideout Javon Walker? I sure hope not. Adding more weapons at Russell's disposal only takes pressure off the QB and the RB's and considering the fact that JaMarcus has underperformed during his two years in the NFL, that sure wouldn't be a bad idea.
As you can tell, the lack of movement by these two organizations during this free agency period has me a little worried and if the Raiders and Niners do choose to stand pat and not make very many moves than they can already kiss next season goodbye. However, there still is a lot of offseason left and each team is in a good position to upgrade their roster through the Draft. So I guess I'll have to just wait and see and hopefully when next year begins, this article will be a perfect example of one where I stuck my foot in my mouth. Yet, something tells me that just simply won't be the case.
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The latest release of Terrell Owens by the Dallas Cowboys has me wondering where the Wide Receiver will suit up next? Which franchise will be willing to deal with the prima donna? I have to admit, right off the bat, the Oakland Raiders come to mind. Owner Al Davis has had a penchant over the last few years to grossly overpay some players who haven't meshed well with his team. Cornerback DeAngelo Hall and Wide Receiver Randy Moss immediately come to mind. Do you think that Big Al has learned from these prior free agency debacles? Or will he shove a boatload of money towards T.O. in hopes that he comes to the Bay and provides the Raiders with the deep threat they've been seeking since Moss quit on them a couple years ago? Based on the state of the Raiders right now, my intuition goes with the latter. T.O. and the Raiders are almost a perfect match because no offense Raider fans, but it seems like Oakland might be the only franchise willing to deal with all the drama that comes with #81, and JaMarcus Russell desperately needs some weapons to throw too. Furthermore, Al Davis has reiterated over the years that part of his offensive philosophy involves throwing the ball downfield. T.O. is still one of the best players in the game and I guarantee you Russell would love to sling the rock to a streaking Owens game in and game out. The Raiders simply do not have a legitimate threat lining up outside and by adding Owens, other team's defenses can't key on the Raiders ground game like they did in 2008. By adding Owens, you instantly take pressure off of Running Backs Darren McFadden, Michael Bush and Justin Fargas. Owens has proven to be one of a kind throughout his career and if Al Davis can somehow magically make T.O. play for the betterment of his team, then signing #81 could prove to be a great move. So happy hunting Al but keep in mind, if Jerry Jones couldn't do it, I doubt you could.
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