Wednesday, February 06, 2008

A slew of topics

Amidst all the football signings this week, I got word from Templeton that standout softball player and former County Player of the Year pitcher Kat Hicks will be off to play for Ivy League school Dartmouth next year.

There wasn't really a convenient place in the print edition to lump it in with the footall signings, but it was a big choice for a talented athlete all the same.

On another note, someone mentioned the upcoming track season. It's coming on faster than you think, and it should be a good one. Among others, expect plenty of highlights to come from junior all-everything Mission Prep distance runner Jordan Hasay and San Luis Obispo senior sprinter Tonie Williams.

On the boys side, Paso Robles' Nathan Nelson was the best all-around sprinter in the county last season. If he's shown just a little improvement, watch out. The Bearcats also have a slew of talented distance runners. In the throws, watch for Nipomo's Korben Boaz, Templeton's Justin Cutler and, as usual, the troupe from Arroyo Grande.

As for the David Cone debate you guys are having, I'll weigh in: I've only seen him play a couple times, but each time I've come away more impressed. I watched him control the key defenively and hold his own on the boards against an Oakland team with plenty of size earlier this year.

I like Cone's knowledge of the game. For a big guy he's surprisingly deft at taking off and dribbling, and the Bearcats have success with using him to break the press. He probably needs some work finishing in traffic, but he'll play college basketball somewhere.

He's definitely in the running for Tribune County Player of the Year. As are Royer, Hattar, Demalleville and maybe a few others. Playoffs are still to come, and how teams do should carry some weight in the discussion, but what are your takes now on POY frontrunners?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about pasos throwers mitchell van dyk mike ebarhardt and a slew a of other great throwers

Anonymous said...

How about them on the same par as the REST of the templeton throwers, eh? Sorry, but I happen to know a lot about the throwers in the county, so don't try to pass this one by me undetected.

And AG is still a great, but they've only got two(Justin Morrow, Kenny Sugishita if that's the correct spelling) that are truly good, the rest are on par with templeton and paso.

Anonymous said...

Track can wait a few more weeks,it's basketball season! Haha

Anonymous said...

do people really think that paso will go farther than mission prep in the playoffs? im not trying to get into an argument of whose better, the reality is that the central section is just easier. hopefully mp doesnt blow it again like last year. good luck to both teams

Anonymous said...

It just seems like MP is an all or nothing team this year. They either are on or off. In the playoffs there is a smaller margin for error.

Anonymous said...

MP is still central section, it is easier to get through the central section than it is southern section, especially with the "competitive equality" they have instilled. Im not positive, but PR is still D2 if that is true, Reghetti is ranked 5th in that division, yes PR beat them once, but the so cal teams are tough.
Morro Bay, St. Joes, and Lompoc probably have it the toughest. They have to play the likes of Cambell Hall and Price, those teams have a combined 8 state championships under the belts within the last 10 years

Anonymous said...

im saying royer for player of the year

he's avg 22.8 ppg only 5 less then hattar and morro bay is 19-7 and had the best record in slo county plus beat 2-3 good pac 7 teams, they were clearly the best team in the county, unlike templeton who is 10-13 and finished 2nd to last place in league and wont make the playoffs.

along with that the last game morro bay played templeton hattar only scored 4 points, and both games that they played eachother royer outscored hattar.

and if you compare their other stats royer avg 6.7 rebs, 2.4 ast, and 1.8 steals per game

while hattar avg 6.4 rebs, 3.3 ast, and 1.3 steals per game

so their fairly even but royer is better in 2 out of the 3 catagories

anyways those are my reasons for royer over hattar, those are the only 2 real candidates all the others are jus fill in players because they dont only wanna nominate 2 guys.

Anonymous said...

Of course somebody with the name "mbbball" is gonna say that. I say it's neither of them, both of their teams under performed. Royer and MB lost to teams such as Santa Maria and Templeton, while Templeton fell apart at the end of the season. That award belongs to someone who guided their team through a great season while being a great leader and producing on the floor as well.

Anonymous said...

....you realize morro bay did have the best record in the county, idk how much better of a season you can ask for?

Anonymous said...

They came in 3rd place!!!

Anonymous said...

Morro Bay's Win-Loss record doesn't make them the best team in the county. They have a very soft schedule and are not battle tested at all. You have to consider the quality of competition each team is playing when looking at wins and losses.

Take Mission Prep for example. Record is not very strong. But...they played in their own tourney and faced Compton, Horizon, Mission Hills...all highly ranked in the state. Then they went to the Torrey Pines tourney and again played tough teams.

The same can be said for St. Joe's. They played some TOUGH competition this season as well. Even SLO has played talented teams in Ocean View and San Marcos.

As for whose the top team in the county? Or the Player of the Year? Tough to say, but it definitely can't be determined based solely on wins and losses.

Anonymous said...

first off st joes aint in slo county

slo lost to mb and mb played a good team in oakland and beat them and their ranked 58 in the state according to max preps. so strength of schedule isn't the only deciding factor here.

Anonymous said...

Of course...always a MP fan to pump his fallen ego up. Sorry but I live in SLO and have watched MP play a bit this year, I just am not impressed.

Anonymous said...

dont start talking up SLO and Saint Joes or Atascedero for that matter since MB beat all of them

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't say that the person was "pumping up" his fallen ego. He only stated that MP had a much stronger schedule than Morro Bay or any other team in the county. And I think everyone knows that this is true.

He never talked about which team was better, he was only responding to a previous poster saying MB is better than all because they have the most wins in the county.

St. Joe's would be #1 if they were in SLO County. I feel at this point, they've got the strongest team. MB is a very talented team, but they've lost to too many teams that they should have easily beat (Lompoc, Templeton, Marantha, and Santa Maria).

Who is #1 in SLO County then? I think its a toss-up and we will just have to wait and see.

Anonymous said...

lompoc is a very talented team by the way, templeton was on fire during that game.. Mb came back and beat them by twenty the next game, maranAtha is ranked 2nd in their respective cif division and santa maria beat Mb on a twenty foot bank shot with 5 secs to go.. In my opinion MP is very talented as well.. i think if Mb and Mp played it could come down to which team was playing at home.. they are both easily matched, and both those teams are by far the two best in the county

Anonymous said...

i agree with anonymous above me, i mean its true on one hand MB shoulda beat most of those teams, but some of that was just dumb luck like santa marias shot and templeton shooting the lights out. and for all the lompoc bashers they did end up 2nd in the lpal so they couldn't have been that bad, they just started their pre season out slowly. if i remember right last year st joes did the same thing and ended up getting 2nd in the lpal too and nobody said they were horrible. and marantha went 18-7 and their from pasadena which has much better competition overall then slo or santa barbara county so idk why that was a horrible loss for mb.

i still think morro bay would beat mission, i think their a tad bit more talanted, mission doesn't have one star player on their team like mb does. i think mitch woolpert is their best overall player but he still doesn't match up to royer and he only avgs 14 ppg 10 less then royer.

Anonymous said...

I would also love to see MP vs MB. It's surprising they didn't schedule each other this year. I know the MP girls and MB girls played each other twice, and split.

Royer is obviously the leader of the Pirates. If MB's shooters get hot, watch out. They live and die by the 3 which is very dangerous.

MP is still as inconsistent as they were at the beginning of the season. Some days they look great, other days they look terrible.

Either way, a match-up between these teams would prove to be interesting and exciting. I agree that home court advantage will prevail in the end.

Anonymous said...

Maranatha is in Division V AA...that is like Morro bay getting beat by North County Christian.