Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• He just might get more of these … Mater Dei freshman quarterback JT Daniels got his first college scholarship offer this week when Cal made an offer. Daniels has completed 64 percent of his passes for an average of 281 yards a game, 15 yards a completion and 21 touchdowns with only one interception.
• Daniels’ quarterback rating is 140.9. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has a rating of 118.4.
• Looking at Trinity League lower level football … Last week, Mater Dei’s freshmen team 42, St. John Bosco freshmen 14.
• Another interesting freshmen football score from last week: Buena Park 49, La Habra 0.
• This season’s Orange Lutheran’s football team is the best in Coach Chuck Petersen’s four years coaching the Lancers. Because of so many injuries to younger players in the program, Lutheran cannot safely field a junior varsity team. There was no Santa Margarita-Orange Lutheran JV game this week.
• Shelby Burris and Brianna Boykin kicked extra points for Edison last Friday during the Chargers’ 70-3 win over Marina. They are the first girls in Edison football history to score points. Burris and Boykin kicked their PATs in the fourth quarter on Edison’s final two touchdowns.
• Services for Mark Takkinen, longtime county football, softball, baseball and wrestling coach, are Saturday at 11 a.m. at Fullerton High. The coaching career of “Coach Takk” includes head coaching positions at Sonora football and Fullerton softball. He died of cancer last week at age 58.
• Quarterback KJ Costello and receiver Dylan Crawford of Santa Margarita will be formally selected to the U.S. Army All-American Game on Tuesday at a school ceremony. Five teams of game representatives tour the country to make player selection announcements at the players’ schools. The NBC-televised game is Jan. 9 in San Antonio.
• One of the older schools in the county, Laguna Beach hosts its 60th homecoming football game today against Estancia. According to Laguna Beach historian extraordinaire Frank Aronoff, the school started football in 1935 but did not have a homecoming game until ’56.
• Officials are needed in every sport, with shortages especially a problem in track and field. To learn about becoming an official, contact Speed Castillo at bigspeed@att.net or 714-778-4421.
• Dana Hills is tied with Great Oak of Temecula for the No. 1 position in the CIF State Division 1 boys cross country rankings compiled by PrepCalTrack.com. Dana Hills won the Orange County Championships last week to become the first school to win the boys side of that meet seven times. Brea Olinda, led by two-time O.C. meet boys champion Austin Tamagno, is No. 1 in Division 3.
• Four schools have boys and girls teams in the state cross country rankings: Brea Olinda (No. 1 in boys Division 3, No. 9 in girls Division 3); Canyon (No. 3 in boys Division 2, No. 9 in girls Division 2); Dana Hills (No. 1 in boys Division 1, No. 7 in girls Division 1) and JSerra (No. 9 in boys Division 4, No. 5 in girls Division 4).
• Northwood’s girls tennis team beat University last week for the first time in 11 years, ending University’s Pacific Coast League winning streak at 54 matches.
• Laguna Beach’s girls tennis team extended its league winning streak to 100 matches with a 14-4 win over Estancia on Tuesday. The Breakers have clinched their 10th straight Orange Coast League championship.
• This is a fine way to open the boys basketball season: Servite at Canyon, Nov. 30. That matches up two very good teams and two very fun student sections. Student sections sometimes don’t get full-throttle until January, but maybe those two will be in force for that one.
• Sebastian Much, a 6-foot-7 junior basketball player, transferred this week to JSerra from Archbishop Mitty of San Jose where he was a key member of Mitty’s team that played in the CIF State finals last season. Much, who spent his freshman year at St. Margaret’s, and family reportedly are back in Orange County because of job opportunity reasons.
• County high school boys sand volleyball championships started this week, at the courts at Colton and Grant streets in Laguna Beach. The championship match is Wednesday.
• Yours truly attended a wedding Saturday at which the bride is a former Rosary basketball player. I sat next to Ryan Moore, an all-league basketball player at Brea Olinda years ago, and on the other side of me sat a man who sent one child to Mater Dei and the other to Servite, and there were a half-dozen people there with Esperanza connections. Everybody had a great time, proof that we can get along.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
