At least four CIF sections vote to oppose regional football bowl game plan. Plus, H1N1 virus causes school to halt athletics, Orange Lutheran basketball coach dies, NFL Draft rewind, reaction to Jeremy Tyler's decision and more from the best prep notes column in the state.

By Mark Tennis & Paul Muyskens

At the CIF state basketball championships in March, CIF executive director Marie Ishida seemed confident that a proposal would pass in May that would add a regional round of games to the CIF state football bowl lineup.

The proposal, which comes before the CIF Federated Council next week, calls for there to be a Northern and Southern Regional bowl game to determine the finalists for the actual CIF state bowl games, which expanded to five divisions last December. Under the plan, the new regional games would take place for 2010 after the second year of the five divisional format is completed this December.

At least four of the 10 CIF sections, however, have indicated through votes of their governing boards in the last two weeks that they will vote no on the plan and one of the those four is the massive CIF Southern Section. The CIFSS Council, in fact, unanimously instructed its representatives on the CIF Federated Council to vote against the plan. On Tuesday earlier this week, the CIF San Diego Section followed, although that vote was not unanimous.

It has also been learned that the CIF North Coast Section and the CIF Central Coast Section's governing boards have voted to oppose the regional play-in games. 

 With the CIFSS in the no column and being so large with more votes on the CIF Federated Council than any other section, it doesn't take much of a coalition of sections to agree in order for a proposal to pass or fail. And with the CIFSS apparently joined by the CCS, NCS and San Diego, the plan seems to be not likely to pass. Those sections that are reportedly in favor of the proposal are the Sac-Joaquin Section, Central Section and L.A. City Section.

Note: The CIFSS also voted to oppose the initial CIF bowl games proposal, but there are those in the section office who do support many proposals that would benefit the state in general. Still, a quote carried by the L.A. Times was too much to ignore. Said Tesoro High principal Dan Burch: "Our league has never been in favor of those post-(section) championship games. Our Southern Section is so big, that championship means something to our kids. The other stuff is another opportunity to go out and lose games.” Since Tesoro is in the CIFSS Pac-Five Division, Burch's comments are understandable. If his school was in one of the myriad of other divisions, maybe he'd think differently.

Schools Battling H1N1 Virus

Branham High School in San Jose has been the first reported school in the state to halt athletic competition due to the current outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus. Due to a case in Santa Clara County, Branham teams won't be playing until at least May 6.

Don't look for the CIF to issue a broad ban like what occurred earlier this week in Texas and Alabama. Something like that would have to be implemented at the section level anyway. The CIF is advising all school districts to be extremely vigilant in monitoring its student athletes and has issued a number of directives and warnings on its web site.

Salute to Tony Matson

Tragedy struck the Orange County and state girls basketball coaching fraternity last week when Orange Lutheran girls basketball head coach and father of three, Tony Matson, passed away suddenly at the age of 44.

Matson was working at his construction job in Corona and collapsed, for reasons that remain unknown, and died after being transported to Corona Regional Hospital.

Just last month, Matson led the Lancers to their first appearance in a CIF-Southern Section championship game since 1981 and was named the Orange County Register's Girls Basketball Coach of the Year. In his 10 years with the Lancers, he led his team to five league championships with a combined record of 197-75.

Before going to Orange Lutheran, Matson an assistant for head coach Jeff Sink at Brea Olinda for six years before taking the head coaching job with the Lancers. Coach Sink was still in constant contact with Matson and referred to him as a close friend in an email.

The memorial service will be held on Monday at 4 p.m. at Rose Friends Drive Church and is open to the public. Donations can be made to the "Matson Memorial Fund” at the church through its website, www.rdf.org, or mailed to 4221 Rose Drive, Yorba Linda, CA, 92886.

2009 NFL Draft Recap

In the NFL Draft that was held last weekend, three former California prep stars were selected in the opening round while two more just missed being selected in the first round.

In what was likely the most talked about trade of the day, the New York Jets traded up to the No.5 pick to take quarterback Mark Sanchez, who before his USC days played at Mission Viejo.

Santa Barbara San Marcos High's Alex Mack was the first center drafted at pick No. 21 by the Cleveland Browns and five picks later Clay Matthews from Agoura High was selected by the Green Bay Packers. Mack was a three-year starter at Cal and was the top scholar-athlete in college football last season. It's easy to confuse Clay as being from nearby Oaks Christian since his father, the former longtime NFL linebacker by the same name, is now defensive coordinator at Oaks Christian and a younger brother was a linebacker there as well. Clay, who played at USC, also is the nephew of NFL Hall of Fame tackle Bruce Matthews.

Eureka's Rey Maualuga (also of USC) was projected to be a first-round pick but ended up falling to the sixth pick in the second round by the Cincinnati Bengals. Eben Britton, a tackle from the University of Arizona and from Burroughs High of Burbank, went the very next pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

This year's total of three in the first round is about one less than average and two less than last year when a total of five former California prep stars were selected in the first round with Sedric Ellis (Chino) being the first one selected at pick number seven by the New Orleans Saints.

Despite never having more than five former prep stars selected in the first round in any draft previously, a total of seven where selected in the opening round from New Jersey this year to lead the way. California's best first round draft total was back in 1968 when Ron Yary from Bellflower High was the number one overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings and eight others followed as selections in the first round.

Odds are high that even if you watched the draft you likely were no longer watching by round seven to see defensive end Nick Reed out of Oregon get selected by the Seattle Seahawks with overall pick No. 247. With just 10 picks left in the draft, the Seahawks selected the Mission Viejo product who was a teammate with Sanchez when the Diablos were 14-0 and were the State Team of the Year.

Like Cal's Alex Mack, Reed was a first-team Academic All-American.

Jeremy Tyler: At Least He'll Always Be A Caver To Us

Our reaction a week ago in the aftermath of San Diego High standout Jeremy Tyler's decision to turn pro after his junior year of high school was one of disappointment. It's not so much whether we agree or disagree with his decision or whether or not we think the NBA needs to go back to the way it dealt with high school players previously in 2006, we were just looking forward to following Jeremy's development as a player and young man.

This last season, correspondent Steve Brand, who covered Jeremy when he was a freshman for the Cavers, says the 6-foot-11 center improved his game by leaps and bounds. It's just too bad that he had to play amid all the craziness surrounding the program and because of that had to battle triple and double teams in every game.

Tyler will now never be listed as a Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year, although we can still claim him as being from San Diego High because he won't be playing for any other high school, either.

If Jeremy had come up in a more stable high school program, like those in the L.A. City Section under Ed Azzam (Westchester) or Harvey Kitani (Fairfax), it's good bet he would now be getting ready for his senior year of high school instead of planning where he might play in a pro league on the other side of the world.

Hamilton's Walking Man

In a 17-5 baseball win last week by Hamilton over Williams in the Northern Section, slugger Brad Lohse of Hamilton received the ultimate sign of fear when he was intentionally walked five times. According to Kevin Askeland of MaxPreps (and still Mr. Northern Section to us even though he now works for a competitor), Lohse was walked intentionally three times in that game with the bases loaded.

This all stems from an earlier game this season when Lohse, who is the cousin of MLB pitcher Kyle Lohse, connected for a tape-measure home run against Williams. Head coach Travis Hayes of Williams walked Lohse the next he came up in that game with the bases loaded and hasn't let Lohse swing at a pitch in the zone since.

Last fall, Lohse quarterbacked the Braves to a Northern Section title in football and played in the CIF Small Schools State Bowl Game against St. Margaret's.

Media Relations Shuffle

Thursday of this last week was the final day for CIF media relations director Emmy Zack to be at the CIF state office in Alameda. Emmy was a true pro for six years and it was a pleasure working with her on various projects. One of the reasons for her departure is the impending move of the CIF state office from Alameda to Sacramento. Emmy grew up and still lives in San Mateo County.

On Monday of next week it will be the first day on the job for new CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Director of Communications Will DeBoard. Will just left his job after 17 years at the Modesto Bee and he is the first person to be holding this position. Thom Simmons of the CIF Southern Section will now no longer be the only section-based media relations director. It's about time that the Sac-Joaquin Section added some staffing as well. The section continues to add schools every year and is now easily the second-largest CIF section in the state.

20 Ks For Pitcher Not Enough

Pitcher Michelangelo Guzman from Soledad High painted the corners of the plate and nearly wrote a spot for himself in the state record book earlier this week as he struck out 20 in an eight-inning 2-1 loss to Pacific Grove.

Through seven innings, he struck out 18 and added two more strikeouts in the eighth before a full-count pitch walked in a runner who reached base because of an error. The state record for most strikeouts in a seven-inning game is 23, which was set by Shinjiro Kitano of San Marino Southwestern back in 1990. The state record for most strikeouts in a loss is 25 by Steve Young from Amador of Sutter Creek, who did that in a 3-2 loss in 11 innings against Riverbank in 1982.

Couldn't Be A Better Guy for NHSF Hall

Despite it being announced more than several weeks ago, we still wanted to congratulate Guy Anderson from Cordova High of Rancho Cordova as the longtime baseball coach will be among the 11 chosen for induction to the National High School Hall of Fame on July 1st in Chicago.

Anderson, who started this season with 808 wins, the second most all time in the state, has won 15 league championships and six section championships since first taking charge back in 1965. Geoff Jenkins from last year's World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies and current New York Mets skipper Jerry Manuel are among the dozen that Anderson has coached at Cordova to reach the Major Leagues in a coaching career that has lasted five decades. He is more than just a coach too, as he was a teacher and administrator at Cordova for 37 years before retiring from his non-baseball duties in 2000.

El Segundo's John Stevenson, the state's winningest baseball coach of them all, was inducted into the same Hall of Fame in 1999. Let's hope more California baseball coaches follow with Sam Blalock (Rancho Bernardo of San Diego) and the retired Dave Demarest (Westminster La Quinta) at the top of the list.

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