All-star football coaches uncertain if they'll have jobs at their schools this fall due to budget cutbacks…..Highly-regarded QBs Pete Thomas and Nick Montana commit to Pac-10 colleges….Primer for Mr. Baseball & Ms. Softball state player of the year announcements….Marin County rowing team wins another national title….Plus, baseball coach moving forward in fight against cancer.

By Mark Tennis & Harold Abend
Contributing: Paul Muyskens

Brian Barnes from Tesoro of Las Flores and Scott Swartz from McNair of Stockton both enjoyed historic football seasons coaching their teams last fall and both will be leading all-star teams later this summer.

Swartz, in fact, is knee-deep in coaching this week as he prepares the North team for Saturday's 36th annual Central California Lions All-Star Football Classic at the University of Pacific in Stockton. Barnes will get going later on as he will lead the South team on July 10 at Orange Coast College in the 50th Brea Lions Orange County North-South All-Star Football Game with the North being directed by his father, John, the longtime head coach at Los Alamitos.

With plenty of seniority, the elder Barnes doesn't have to worry in the current educational climate of budget cuts and financial tightening. Younger coaches like his son and Swartz, however, are in limbo despite the success they had last season.

Brian Barnes and his team at Tesoro went 13-1 and were on the verge of 14-0 before losing the lead in the fourth quarter and falling to Long Beach Poly in the CIF Southern Section Division I final. It was by far the most successful season in school history.

Barnes still recently received a termination notice regarding his teaching position from the Capistrano Unified School District. He was given the same notice a year ago, but was rehired. He is hoping for a repeat of that sequence later this summer and told the Orange County Register he is planning on being at Tesoro again this fall and is not exploring options elsewhere.

Swartz's team at McNair was one of the state's top turnaround stories of the season. The Eagles started out with a 19-game losing streak but ended up earning the school's first-ever CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoff berth. Swartz, a former quarterback at powerhouse Oak Grove of San Jose and a former NFL and college assistant, also received a layoff notice, in his case from the Lodi Unified School District. He knows he won't be able to come back to McNair in the same teaching position, but is hoping to come back in a different capacity. McNair principal Jim Davis told the Stockton Record he doesn't want Swartz to leave and was waiting for a school board decision that would allow him to do so.

Swartz's North all-star team is going for its seventh straight win against the South, which will feature a potentially high-powered offense coached by Dennis Stubbs of Los Banos. Kickoff for the Lions game is at 7 p.m.

Here's hoping that both of these coaches get to continue what they've started at their respective schools.

Football Recruiting Updates

*Pete Thomas, a 6-5, 220-pound quarterback from El Cajon Valhalla, has committed this week to Arizona State . Thomas committed over offers from Colorado State, Harvard and Northwestern. As a junior, the signal caller threw for 3,169 yards and 28 touchdowns to earn all-league and all-area honors. He took an unofficial visit to Tempe last week and committed a day later.

*San Diego Scripps Ranch running back Brennan Clay made a surprise commitment last week to Oklahoma. Clay, 5-11, 190 pounds, had been leaning to Oregon and Michigan and never visited Oklahoma but said the Sooners' offense was the best fit for him and added they gave him the best shot to win a national title. Clay was the running back MVP at the loaded SoCal NIKE Camp and became the first back in San Diego to ever rush and catch passes for over 1,000 yards last season. He rushed for 1,453 yards and 20 touchdowns and caught 70 balls for 1,055 yards and six more scores.

*Quarterback Nick Montana, 6-3, 185 pounds, from Westlake Village Oaks Christian has committed to Washington. Montana took an unofficial visit to UW last weekend and said the opportunity to play early and his relationship with new head coach Steve Sarkisian put the Huskies over the top. As a junior, Montana threw for 2,404 yards and 33 touchdowns and led his team to a 14-0 record and and a CIF Southern Section Northwest Division championship. The son of NFL legend Joe Montana chose the Huskies over offers from a host of schools, including Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, Washington, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina, Florida State, Maryland, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

*Linebacker Zac Stout, a 6-2, 210-pound teammate of Montana's at Oaks Christian, has committed to BYU. Stout had been considered a longtime BYU lean and picked the Cougars over offers from Nebraska, Oregon State, Washington and Arizona. His commitment to BYU came during the same week that the football program also landed commitments from national recruits Jake Heaps, a quarterback from Washington, and Ross Apo, a wideout from Texas. Some consider Heaps, who will be throwing passes against Stout and the Oaks Christian defense in a huge game in September, to be the No. 1 QB prospect in the nation.

Ms. Softball honor coming Sunday, Mr. Baseball set for Tuesday

After the school year comes to a close, it's awards season for us. We've already announced our two major coaching honors, with San Mateo Serra's Pete Jensen getting it for baseball and San Pedro's Tony Dobra for softball.

Up next is the Ms. Softball State Player of the Year, which will be released on Sunday, and the Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year, which is coming out on Tuesday.

Finalists for Ms. Softball would be Ally Carda (Pleasant Grove, Elk Grove); Teagan Gerhart (Norco); Jolene Henderson (Sheldon, Sacramento); Baillie Kirker (Crescenta Valley, La Crescenta); Jessica Moore (Sutter) and Keilani Ricketts (Archbishop Mitty, San Jose).

Finalists for Mr. Baseball would be Matt Hobgood (Norco); K.C. Hobson (Stockdale, Bakersfield); Tyler Matzek (Capistrano Valley, SJ Capistrano); and Max Stassi (Yuba City).

State players of the year in both sports for juniors, sophomores, freshmen, medium schools and small schools also will be selected.

The player of the year honors will then be followed by the selection of the baseball & softball all-state teams. Our year-end package of honors concludes with our annual State Athletes of the Year and State Schools of the Year.

Marin girls' crew tops nation for second straight year

CalHiSports.com doesn't cover the sport of crew because there really is no organized high school competition in California, or any states for that matter.

That doesn't mean that there are not countless numbers of young student-athletes that use crew as a ticket to some mighty fine educational institutions.

A perfect example is the Marin Rowing Association, located in Larkspur, whose teams have sent countless young men and women on to college and successful rowing careers.

Founded in 1968, it began as a boys program for only the Redwood of Larkspur boys and later girls, but now has student-athletes from high schools throughout Marin County as well as San Francisco participating in its highly-regarded program.

The current stars of the program for high school age boys and girls is the Women's Varsity 8+ that just returned form winning its second straight Junior National Rowing Championship, June 12-14 at Harsha Lake in Cincinnati.

On June 8, CalHiSports.com was actually on the water in the chase boat, watching the girls in a capacity as a local Marin journalist.

We rode shotgun in the pontoon-style boat with MRA Executive Director and Women's Varsity 8+ Coach Sandy Armstrong while the girls were practicing for the Nationals on Corte Madera Creek near Highway 101 in Larkspur, just off San Francisco Bay waters. The part that seemed so exciting was the start as they practiced on their own without an official starter.

Coxswain Chelsea Lucas, a recently graduated senior from Redwood who will be on the Cal crew team next year, was in total charge.

"Attention, (pause) go! Pryyy,” said Lucas, drawing out the y in pry as she encouraged the girls to pry the water.

With that command, the girls shot forward and Lucas continued to bark commands and encouragement crouched from her seat.

"Slow down and let your knees come to your chest so when you have the blade to the water you can feel the connection,” said Armstrong from the drivers seat of the chase boat after the girls practiced several starts in the deep choppy waters.

"Good power. I like what I see. Nice blade to the water. We're good to go,” continued Armstrong after the girls had fine-tuned things to her liking.

Whatever Armstrong imparted to them about their start must have worked because on the chase boat she admitted that the girls' starts have not been their strength in the past.

In Cincinnati, the girls blew away from the starting line and led from start to finish, winning in 6:45 for the 2000m race, and by five seconds over Phillips Exeter Academy from New Hampshire.

Besides Lucas, the rest of the national title team included: Stroke, Erica Rippe, Drake (San Anselmo), senior, Cal; Caitlin Morgan, senior, Drake, Stanford; Michelle Leason, junior, Tamalpais (Mill Valley); Caroline Rosetti, senior, Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco), Cal; Kristy Wentzel, junior, Drake; Olivia Ley, senior, Branson (Ross), Princeton; Fiona Duffy, senior, Tamalpais, Columbia; bow seat, Audrey Wooster, senior, Redwood, Princeton.

Redwood's Wever fighting cancer and still coaching

First-year Redwood of Larkspur baseball coach Stefan Wever hasn't slowed down one bit since being diagnosed in early May with a rare form of cancer called anaplastic large-cell lymphoma. He coached his underdog team to a 3-1 opening round victory in the NCS Division II opener knowing what was in store.

Then, after an appointment with an oncologist that morning, he took the field still wearing a hospital wristband and coached from third in a 4-3 loss to Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa in the second round.

To the very end, the boys seemed to be giving it a little extra for their coach, who has vowed to be back next season and is currently coaching summer ball despite undergoing chemotherapy.

"I feel better now than I have in a long time. I couldn't understand why I was fatigued in the past,” said Wever, a 1976 graduate from Lowell of San Francisco where he starred as a pitcher, getting as far as a cup of coffee with the New York Yankees.

Besides coaching the Future Prospects 16-18 team out of Novato this summer as he has the past few years, Wever is the co-proprietor of the popular Horseshoe Tavern in San Francisco's Marina District.

Since being diagnosed, Wever's story was eloquently told in a feature by Gwen Knapp in the Sunday, May 24, San Francisco Chronicle Sporting Green.

"That story in the Chronicle meant a lot to me, and so do all the e-mails and notes I've received from parents, players and coaches, not only from Redwood, but lots of other teams. I'm very optimistic and feeling pretty good,” said Wever shortly after the Chronicle story was released.

His daughter Megan, an incoming senior at Redwood, is a big source of comfort to him, as is his ex-wife, Melinda, of Corte Madera, who has been accompanying him to chemo since he began on June 2.

"Two days after the first chemo I started feeling better and the large lumps started to go down. Also, I have so much more energy,” Wever told CalHiSports.com on Wednesday as he readied to go out and coach the Future Prospects.

Wever credits a lot of his current success in his battle with the disease to positive thinking, laughter and healthy eating.

"I'm probably going to have a bone marrow transplant after the fourth chemo and I'm getting one every three weeks, but right now I'm not thinking about it every day,” he remarked. "I'm just thinking about going out and coaching.”

Comments or corrections? Email mark@studentsports.com and be sure to leave a comment so others can check out what you have to say.