Saturday, December 8, 2018

If I Was King of Sports- 2018 Former VOL vs. Current VOL challenge

December 8, 2018 I intended to write this blog at the beginning of the school year, but let's be honest, I forgot. Generally I do an annual former VOL vs. current VOL blog for basketball, but since there was realignment this year, I wanted to do it for all sports. I will do one for basketball right now, but I will edit it for each sport when I have enough time to spare for it. On a side note, until this year I believed the VOL was the only league which a challenge like this one would be interesting, but this year there have been enough changes in the CCC and WAC that a challenge could be easily done for those leagues as well. Former full member VOL schools and current leagues in parenthesis (that I know of) Bear Creek (SJAA), Buhach Colony (CCC), Central Valley (CCC), Ceres (WAC), Downey (CCAL), Lathrop (WAC), Livingston (TVL), Los Banos (WAC), Modesto (CCAL), Pitman (CCAL), Riverbank (TVL), Sonora (MLL), Tracy (TCAL), West (TCAL). (Note: After I made the original post, I found out that St. Mary's was in the VOL for two years in the 1970's. I will use them for the other sports.) Boy's Basketball In my model, it would be in order of maxpreps rankings (though I don't agree with them) for the former VOL teams. I have my predicted order of finish for current VOL. Sonora @ Central Catholic Tracy @ Weston Ranch Los Banos @ Manteca Lathrop @ Sierra Downey @ Kimball Riverbank @ Oakdale Livingston @ East Union Games that will actually happen or that have happened 11/24 West @ Manteca (MAN won 90-67) 11/26 Oakdale @ Livingston (OAK won 87-54) 11/27 East Union @ Ceres (EU won 55-49) 11/29 East Union @ Downey (DOW won 69-66) 11/30 Modesto vs. Kimball (KIM won 75-61) Sierra @ West (SIE won 80-57) 12/1 Buhach Colony @ East Union (BC won 63-62) 12/4 Central Catholic @ Downey (CC won 57-39) 12/17 Downey @ East Union 12/20 Kimball @ West Manteca @ Tracy 12/21 Kimball @ Tracy Weston Ranch @ Downey 12/26 Tracy vs. Weston Ranch (@ Modesto Christian) 1/11 Oakdale @ Riverbank Girl's Basketball In this model, I will use the top rankings (former VOL) vs. how they finished in the VOL last year. St. Mary's vs. Kimball Bear Creek vs. Manteca Lathrop vs. East Union Los Banos vs. Oakdale Sonora vs. Central Catholic Pitman vs. Weston Ranch West vs. Sierra Football St. Mary's vs. Central Catholic Pitman vs. Manteca Buhach Colony vs. Oakdale Downey vs. East Union Los Banos vs. Sierra Sonora vs. Kimball Modesto vs. Weston Ranch From here on out, I will find match ups that actually happened. If there are not enough of them, then I will make up the remaining match ups to fill the hypothetical challenge. Girls Volleyball Modesto vs. Central Catholic Pitman vs. Oakdale Bear Creek vs. Manteca West vs. Kimball Downey vs. East Union Livingston vs. Sierra (Sierra did not have a game against former VOL) Riverbaank vs. Weston Ranch (Weston did not have a game against former VOL) Girls Tennis There is usually no non-league in tennis, so for my model, I will just use the teams in alphabetical order. (Note: Current small schools do co-ed tennis in the spring) Bear Creek vs. Central Catholic Buhach Colony vs. East Union Central Valley vs. Kimball Ceres vs. Manteca Downey vs. Oakdale Lathrop vs. Sierra Los Banos vs. Weston Ranch Water Polo There are only 3 former VOL members in water polo (all MLL members and two were solely associate members) and there is an associate member of the VOL (Ripon). For water polo only, I would turn it into a MLL vs. VOL challenge. Amador vs. Central Catholic Calaveras vs. Kimball Sonora vs. Oakdale Bret Harte vs. Ripon

Friday, December 7, 2018

What if Stanislaus County had a football tournament

Modesto Christian 25.9 Oakdale 18.7 Gregori 11.9 Denair 11.4 Modesto 9.2 Big Valley -9.1-x Davis -7.3 This week a couple of coworkers and I were discussing the topic of "What if there was a Stanislaus County high school football tournament?" The reality is this year that the conversation begins and ends with Central Catholic, but it was more particularly, "How would Denair do?" Denair won the Sac-Joaquin Section, Division VII championship and defeated Santee High School of Los Angeles for the California state Division 7-AA championship. Could Denair do well against the "big boys"? Barring a miracle, Central Catholic would win the championship; but who would get second? That would depend on how the bracket is situated. My idea is to have a sixteen team tournament. To allow everyone to participate, I would have the top 10 teams to qualify directly and the other 12 to play qualification games for six spots. One change I would make is I would allow all league winners to qualify (but not section winners). In the tournament, I would allow teams of the same league to play qualification games, but not in the first round of the tournament. Like the Sac-Joaquin Section, I would use calpreps.com ratings to rank the teams. Teams who would directly qualify (in alphabetical order) (*=league winner) Big Valley*, Central Catholic*, Denair, Downey, Gregori, Modesto, Modesto Christian, Oakdale, Pitman, Turlock*, Qualification (Matchups would have a different way to have matchups each year if my idea actually happened. For this year, it would be by geography. The higher rated team would be the home team.) Qualification Matchups Orestimba @ Patterson Turlock Christian @ Hughson Riverbank @ Waterford Johansen @ Davis Beyer @ Enochs Ceres @ Central Valley I think all home teams would win. Tournament (16) Central Valley (CCC) @ (1) Central Catholic (VOL) (9) Modesto (CCAL) @ (8) Denair (SL) (12) Enochs (CCAL) @ (5) Modesto Christian (TVL) (13) Waterford (SL) @ (4) Downey (CCAL) (11) Hughson (TVL) @ (6) Oakdale (VOL) (14) Davis (WAC) @ (3) Pitman (CCAL) (10) Patterson (CCC) @ (7) Gregori (CCAL) (15) Big Valley (CCAA) @ (2) Turlock (CCAL) My predicted 2nd round (9) Modesto @ (1) Central Catholic (5) Modesto Christian @ (4) Downey (6) Oakdale @ (3) Pitman (10) Patterson @ (2) Turlock Semifinals (5) Modesto Christian @ (1) Central Catholic (3) Pitman @ (2) Turlock Finals (2) Turlock @ (1) Central Catholic Winner Central Catholic