2013 Steve Fryer Archive Stories

Taking a look, backward and forward, around Orange County high school sports ... •We had quite a competition, and plenty of staff debate, for county boys athlete of the year. It came down to Max Redfield of Mission Viejo, who was the county's top all-around male athlete as he was great in football, very good in basketball and plenty

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •Angels slugger (potentially, anyway) Albert Pujols told reporters, "You guys are treating this like it's the last game of the season or we're out of the playoffs" after the team's catatonic 2-1 loss to the awful Astros on Monday. No, you're not out of the playoffs, Angels, but we can see

CIF championships have been won. But the season continues. It's all-star week in Orange County baseball. The Orange County All-Star Game is Tuesday at La Palma Park's Dee Fee Field in Anaheim. First pitch for the North-South game for graduating seniors is 6:45 p.m. Admission is $5. The game has been organized and managed

Every team wants to go into the playoffs with at least a little momentum. Marina had a lot of it going into the CIF-SS Division 1 baseball playoffs. The Vikings finished the regular season with five wins in a row, including a final-week sweep of two Sunset League games against Fountain Valley. In one of those last league games, M

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •It's time to eliminate this "he won (x) championships" as the measure of individual excellence in team sports. Teams win team championships, not individual athletes. •An example of how this junk goes: Phil Jackson said the player he would first select in building an NBA team

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports: •Does your school need a CIF championship-winning track coach? Next school year, Orange Lutheran track and field coach J.T. Ayers won't be at the school he just led to the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 title. Ayers would not disclose if his departure after his third year at Lu

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •It's like they're having '70s Night every night at Angel Stadium. Hundreds of tickets can be purchased through stubhub.com for the 1970s prices of $4-$6. The team's record is so 1970s, too. •But, hey, the Angels are improving. They will get a

A quote attributed to Theodore Roosevelt goes, "No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care." Bill Boswell cared a great deal about young people he knew and never knew as a coach and athletic director at Westminster High, and as an important leader in the California State Athletic Directors Association. Bosw

CIF-Southern Section baseball coaches have talked for years of creating a best-of-3 playoff system. A viable version of that will be adopted some day. Until then, baseball playoffs will continue to be single elimination. Single elimination is almost cruel. One ball-strike call that does not go your way, one double play not turned

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports ... •A record expected to last a long time did not last long at all. Lauren Chamberlain set the county softball single-season record for home runs with 17 as an El Toro senior in 2010. Mission Viejo sophomore Alyssa Palomino hit her 17th homer of the season Monday.

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller was magnificent for 75 minutes of Anaheim's 3-2 overtime loss in Detroit on Monday. But Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau might be wondering this – where is his goaltender at mentally? •Hiller was in one of those split-second, do-or-die moments w

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports: •The way the 10-school Coast View Conference works, the five teams perceived to be the better teams are placed in the South Coast League, with membership differing from sport to sport, and the other five are placed in the Sea View League. Craig Hanson, baseball coach of A

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •Hey, Justice Cunningham. You just got picked last in the NFL draft, so what are you going to do now? "I'm going to Disneyland ... or is it Disney World?" •That was precisely Cunningham's reply when asked what he knew about Irrelevant Week. When the Indiana Colts made Cunning

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports: •Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa football coach Paul Cronin, a 2011 state coach of the year, confirmed that the Internet message board chatter is true, that he was offered the Servite football coaching position that went to Servite alum, administrator and assistant football coach

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •An NFL scout's assessment of quarterback Matt Barkley, as published in a Barkley profile at Yahoo Sports: "He's a real good leader. He's accurate and makes good decisions ... He's not athletic enough to improvise and make plays, and he doesn't have a (Lions') Matt Stafford-type cannon ..

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports: •Selecting All-County teams and county players of the year is the hardest part of this job, unless we're talking about boys tennis. Gage Brymer of University won his age-group championship at the Easter Bowl ITF Championships at Rancho Mirage last week. He has won everything a t

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •The best athlete in Lakers history is Kobe Bryant. The next-best Lakers athlete would be Elgin Baylor, who, like Bryant, could score in a zillion ways. The injury that ultimately led to Baylor's retirement, early in the 1971-72 season at age 37, was a torn Achilles' tendon. &bull

Somebody misspoke or somebody misunderstood. Either way, the result was a misrepresentation of the impact of transfers in Mater Dei's boys basketball program. Asked about the recent transfer of All-Trinity League sophomore guard Rex Pflueger to Mater Dei from JSerra, Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight was understood to say that the tr

Who knows how they keep it organized, but here it comes. More than 100 schools and 3,100 athletes will compete Friday and Saturday in the Trabuco Hills Distance Carnival and Invitational. In Southern California, only the Arcadia and Mt. SAC track meets are larger in size and prestige. The event, managed by Trabuco Hills' Dennis Kelly and

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •One month's worth of spring training is in the books, and we still have no idea how good the Angels' bullpen will be. •Three unsigned relief pitchers: ex-Angel Francisco Rodriguez; ex-Tiger Jose Valverde; and ex-Giant Brian Wilson. •The Angels were 8-17 in sprin

Orange County leagues in future years probably will look very much like they do now. Underway is the process to create new league alignments for a period of four school years starting with the 2014-15 school year. Principals from the 73 county high schools in the Orange County Area met Wednesday to review proposals for league configurati

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •Who is the best hockey player in Southern California? The Kings' Anze Kopitar is the best passer of the group, the Ducks' Corey Perry is the best shooter. His all-around play makes the Ducks' Ryan Getzlaf the best all-around player here. •One has to wonder if the big contrac

Taking a look around Orange County high school sports: •It has been wild week on the coaching front, with two of the county's higher-profile jobs having opened – football at Servite, girls basketball at Brea Olinda. •Ed Drzanek is the first man many people familiar with Servite football thought would be a leading

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •Ryan Leaf's horrid, expensive and brief tenure with the San Diego Chargers handicapped the team for a few years. Well, departed General Manager A.J. Smith's crazy dispensing of big contracts to underachievers such as receiver Robert Meacham and tackle Jared Gaither has done similar for t

Touring the sports world, here and there ... •Ryan Leaf's horrid, expensive and brief tenure with the San Diego Chargers handicapped the team for a few years. Well, departed General Manager A.J. Smith's crazy dispensing of big contracts to underachievers such as receiver Robert Meacham and tackle Jared Gaither has done similar for t