Softball: By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor A pandemic may have cut Julia Valenzuela’s high school athletic career short, but it couldn’t diminish in the slightest her role in taking the Westridge softball program to its high-water mark in 2019. Valenzuela teamed with senior star Deijah Bradley, freshman sensation Hailey Yoshida and the rest of their […]
Editors Note: This site is going to honor an SGV area mom and dad on Mother’s & Father’s Day, who went above and beyond for their children, school and community. Pictured: Hunter Woods & Mom, Kimberly Green, then & now. Mother’s Day: By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor There are thousands of great moms in the San […]
Baseball: By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Mikey Kane left quite a mark athletically at St. Francis. Kane contributed the last two years for the Golden Knights’ football program and he was a three-year starter in baseball. If you ask his teammates and coaches, though, Mikey Kane is a far better young man and student than […]
Football: By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Over the past three years, an argument could be made that no SGV area football player did more in more ways to help his team win games than St. Francis running back Kevin Armstead. He rushed for 3,143 career yards and 39 touchdowns. And keep in mind, Armstead missed […]
Softball: By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor There might be a number of softball players in the SGV area that are better known than Azusa High School senior Natalie Wilson. But without question, Wilson’s four-year run statistically puts her in a very elite club. In the spring of 2020, Wilson’s senior year ended abruptly after just […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor As Charter Oak hosts Glendora today in a CIF-SS Division 2 wild-card game, the Chargers are as battle-tested as anyone. They finished one-game back of Hacienda League champion South Hills, after dropping a 2-1 contest last Thursday. All four of their league losses (South Hills twice, Walnut & West Covina […]
How sweet it must feel for the Arcadia baseball program. They waited eight long years to be able to call themselves champions of the Pacific League. And they dethroned Crescenta Valley on the Falcons home field in the process. Arcadia used a combo of Preston Howey and Dustin Allen on the mound and CV was […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Jerry Lewallen was officially named Glendora’s new athletic director at a school board meeting on Monday night. Lewallen, 47, is a 1990 Glendora High School graduate and he was a key member of the Tartans’ lone football championship in 1989. He served as head football coach from 2012-2017, going 43-25 […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Azusa softball player and recent graduate Jillian Walker is just 17 years of age. But this hard working, talented and giving young lady has suffered more heartbreak than most do in an entire lifetime. Four years ago, while a freshman at Monrovia High School, the Walker’s got a phone call […]
When Rio Hondo Prep took the field at UC Riverside on Saturday evening in the CIF-SS Division 6 title game, Pasadena area baseball programs had already gone 0-3 in championship games earlier in the day. Poly and La Canada were both shut out and Marshall was dominated in a 10-run defeat. RHP seemed to keep […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor To some, Friday the 13th is regarded as an ominous or unlucky day, but for Pasadena High School point guard Darius Brown II, 4-13-18 will go down as one of the happiest days of his young life. DBII, who is without question the Pasadena area’s best point guard and offensive […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Darius Brown II Pasadena High School was given so much (unfair) hype to live up to by the media before their season even began. A lot had to do with the return of their superstar trio of Bryce Hamilton, Darius Brown II and Darius Mason. But the additions of Tavian […]
Boys Basketball: By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor It was going to be a tall task for Davian Brown to live up to his big brother’s legacy at Pasadena High School. Darius Brown II, along with Bryce Hamilton, and their teammates, led the Bulldogs’ program to consecutive CIF-SS title game appearances in 2016-17 and 2017-18. DBII […]
Basketball: By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Devon Lewis transferred from Maranatha to Pasadena High School after his sophomore year. PHS just felt like home. And it was more than just Devon who felt that way. It was also a special place for his parents. Eric and Lynn Lewis met in 1985 at PHS, when Eric […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor The consensus among those who coached, played alongside or competed against Darius Mason is that the Pasadena High School star is ready to play Division 1 basketball at the collegiate level right now. Mason was a three-year starter for Coach Tony Brooks’ program, and for a team that year in […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Finally! After a year or so wait, and thousands of hours of work, former Muir star Hunter Woods has signed on the dotted line to compete at Elon University in North Carolina. Looking back, the 2017-18 boys basketball season was a very special year for Pasadena area hoops. The mighty […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Even for the most talented of athletes, there is typically a slight learning curve or minor adjustments that one makes while transitioning from high school to college baseball. That hasn’t been the case for PCC freshman Gabriel Arellano. The Lancers’ center fielder leads the entire state of California with 42 […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor: If there was one guy from the San Gabriel Valley wrestling community that had the mettle to resume a college wrestling program that hadn’t been competing since the early 1980’s, you couldn’t do better than hiring Caleb Flores. The 2006 Northview High School grad and four-time state placer accepted the […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Just after the 2017 football season had ended, more than 15 players from skilled positions left La Salle for what they believed were greener pastures. And each had their own reason for the departure. On that list, quarterback CJ Montes (Long Beach Poly) and receiver Justin Lockhart (Serra) were probably […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Preston Howey made a very wise decision as he contemplated his junior year at Arcadia High School. Howey acknowledged Monday night that after a sophomore season on the JV level last year, where he spent most of his time at shortstop, there was a fleeting moment where he actually considered […]
