FROM THE OCVARSITY BLOG |
Mater Dei vs. Servite gets a little crazy
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Fryer column: Tickets to the Oct. 17 game go quickly, and other notes from around the county.
You Mater Dei and Servite people are crazy.
Tickets for the Oct. 17 Mater Dei-Servite football game were placed on sale Thursday at Mater Dei, exclusively for those with children attending Mater Dei, and all were sold by 9 a.m. People were in line at 4 a.m.
Thus, there will be no tickets on sale at Mater Dei next week, unless the unlikely event occurs that someone decides not to go and returns their purchased tickets today. Servite sold out its allotment of tickets earlier this week.
Tickets will not be available on game day at Cal State Fullerton, site of the game. Seating capacity there is 10,000.
Joel Hartmann, associate athletic director at Servite, home team for the game, confirmed that the game will not be moved to another venue.
There is no live or taped TV coverage of the game, but vootage.com will provide live-streaming coverage on the Internet. (Fox Sports Network, which has exclusive rights to live telecasts of CIF-Southern Section football games, is committed to Tesoro-Mission Viejo on Oct. 17.) There is some TV action going on, though. NFL Films is preparing a special on the rivalry that will air later on CBS.
Reports have individuals purchasing more than 20 tickets at a time for Mater Dei-Servite. Players and former players will have that many family and friends who will want to attend the game, so it is not like people are buying tickets to re-sell at profit. But I checked eBay and StubHub just to make sure, and no Mater Dei-Servite tickets were offered at either as of Thursday.
Some people who have been going to Mater Dei-Servite games for years, even decades, probably got shut out of buying tickets. Perhaps a limit of tickets sold per person, as done for rock concerts, should be considered for the future.
Yes, you Mater Dei and Servite people are crazy – crazy about your schools' football teams. That kind of support and devotion is a good kind of crazy.
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
• Fullerton has two former head coaches on its football assistant coaching staff: ex-Buena Park coach Frank Saiz and ex-Sonora coach Mark Takkinen. Indians head coach Julian Smilowitz said he better-appreciated the presence of a former head coach when the late-great Dick Hill (Downey, Santa Ana, Santa Ana Valley, Orange and Santa Ana College) was on the Fullerton staff. "It's all about giving the kids the best coaching we can," Smilowitz said.
• Friday night football games should start at 7:30 p.m., not 7 p.m. Many families have both parents working and other child-activity commitments, and traffic often is at its worst early Friday evenings, so it can be very difficult to get to a game for a 7 p.m. kickoff. It could be quite a challenge for La Habra supporters to get to San Clemente on time Friday for the 7 p.m. kickoff there.
• San Clemente is one of the better places to watch a game. The community support is excellent so the crowds are large and enthusiastic. Also, and just as important, they usually have some skilled chefs at the grill.
• El Dorado quarterback Kane Wilson did not play in Thursday's game against Glendora at Valencia High. Wilson suffered a deep bruise to his right shoulder (he is right-handed) last week in the Hawks' loss to Tesoro. El Dorado coach Jeff Bailey said Wilson, who was the Century League offensive player of the year last season as a junior, should be ready to play against Canyon in the league opener for both next week.
• The early signing period for letters of intent begins Nov. 12. During that one-week period, athletes in basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, tennis and a few other sports can sign the letters. The regular signing period for those sports is in April. The signing period for football, soccer, track and field, cross country and men's water polo begins Feb. 4.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
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