Traffic doesn’t keep me from blogging
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I hopped on the I-5 in Santa Clarita around 8:30 this morning and I arrived at The Grand in Long Beach for the Southern Section football championship press conference luncheon around 10:30 a.m. The traffic was pretty miserable from about Roscoe to Sunset on the 405, but at least getting caught up in the long, rat-race brake-a-thon down to the South Bay wasn’t a total loss.
It was great to catch up with all the coaches and key players who will be taking part in this weekend’s divisional title games across the region. I had the chance to talk with Palmdale Coach Jeff Williams and players Malcolm Culver and Connor Bradford as well as Oaks Christian standouts Chris Potter, Chris Owusu and Trace Biskin.
And one of the players I finally had the chance to meet and greet was Santa Clara junior RB sensation Cierre Wood. He was obviously excited about leading his team into its first divisional title game in 42 years [he mentioned the 42 years part three times in my interview with him] and he’s eager to prove the Saints can beat Frontier League-rival Bishop Diego by more than just one point, as they did during the regular season.
‘In this game, we’re going to cut down on turnovers and cut down on mistakes and take it to them,’ Wood said. ‘It’s not going to be like last time. We’re going to show everybody how good we really are.’
Those may be some pretty strong words, but forgive Wood if he seems a little confident these days. After all, when you’ve rushed for 2,401 yards and 33 TDs in a season and have guys like Charlie Weis and Sports Illustrated reporters staking out your school, it’s only natural to feel pretty good about your team’s chances on Saturday.
It’ll be interesting to see how Wood and the Saints will finish up the season against a determined fourth-seeded Bishop Diego team that knocked off top-seeded Paraclete in the Mid-Valley Division semifinals. Both teams have a slew of highly-skilled athletes, and don’t be too surprised if the Christian Winnewisser-led Cardinals pull off an upset.
By the way, the food this afternoon was pretty good, especially the chocolate cake. My compliments to Chef Sara Lee.
[In the photo, my left hand is making its Times’ debut while traveling up through the Sepulveda Pass this morning.]
-- Austin Knoblauch
