Photo of John Honell with his beautiful and late wife, Judy Honell

Editor’s Note: John Honell has covered San Gabriel Valley area sports for decades, and now in his early 80’s, he’s just as sharp, witty and observant as he’s ever been. I am extremely grateful for his help and will allow him to cover anything he wants in making this site even more comprehensive.

Column by John Honell:

The chief cook and bottle washer for 210 Prep Sports, Brian Reed-Baiotto, has been undergoing some medical procedures the last couple of months and asked me to “come out of retirement” to cover some games for him. I wasn’t sure if I remembered how, but thought I would give it a shot.

Now that Northview has won its first CIF-SS (Division 10) football title since 1987, and its first CIF- State Southern (Division 4A) California Regional Championship in school history, I’m going to take advantage of his largesse and offer some stray thoughts that have popped into my head along the way.

Watching Northview play defense for the last few weeks at the same time I was watching USC not playing much of anything, made me think of two words:  Transfer Portal.

Since that seems to be the “new normal” way of recruiting these days, Lincoln Riley might start there and take the entire team. (An added bonus, they all know the USC fight song)

Speaking of Lincoln Riley, the day he was hired by USC, he was spotted in Monrovia at the home of Raleek Brown, the five-star running back from Mater Dei.

It appears Brown will be staying in California instead of heading for Oklahoma

Public high school coaches don’t get enough credit, and they certainly don’t get enough money for the time and effort they give to instill the values of teamwork, commitment and hard work into the next generation.

They do, however, get too much criticism from parents and fans.

Assistant coaches get even less recognition or money.

hey usually remain anonymous so they don’t get the hatred.

One of the best jobs I’ve ever seen by an assistant coach has come the last three weeks from Northview offensive coordinator Anthony Silva.
His patience is off the charts in not panicking and keeping 16-17 year-old kids from panicking as well, no matter the situation.

When he was out-manned, he used the clock to help keep his opponents high-powered offensives off the field, and at the same time, he was calling plays that kept long drives going.

The Vikings’ 75-yard game-winning drive against Colony used up 5:33 of the clock and left the heavily favored Titans with only 26 seconds to try and pull off a miracle against the best defense around.

Kudos to Silva for his offensive game plans and more kudos to head coach Marcel Perez, who has the management skills to know when he has a great assistant and allows him full control to call the game.

Speaking of the transfer portal, that reminds me of one of my favorite coaches, the late Jerry Tarkanian.

I first met him in 1970 when he was coaching at Long Beach State, before moving on to UNLV in 1973, where he carried on a lifelong feud with the NCAA.

He was always good for a quote.

One of my favorites had to do with transfers.
He said: “I love transfers, their cars are already paid for.”

Tark always said that the NCAA did its enforcement with vengeance in mind, not justice.

It’s a shame he isn’t alive to see what is finally happening with the NIL payments for players and the demise of the NCAA.

Brian has offered to buy me a steak dinner for stepping in to help out while he is recuperating.

He’s no dummy, did you read that “come out of retirement” phrase in the opening paragraph?

I’m retired, I don’t have any teeth! I’ll bet that steak dinner is going to turn out to be a large slurpee from 7-11.

Thanks, and it was great seeing all of you again.

John Honell