ON THE MOVE: Tesoro's Adam Albitar and his teammates gave up some of their home-field advantage with the move of Friday's game to Saddleback College. ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
Fryer looks at the first round of the playoffs
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The columnist looks at how a team's fortunes can hinge on a coin flip.
Saddleback Valley Christian got a big football playoff victory before playing its first playoff game.
The Warriors won a coin flip against Mammoth. If Saddleback Valley Christian and Mammoth play in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Northeast Division playoffs, Saddleback Valley Christian is the home team.
When two teams meet after the first round of the CIF-SS playoffs, the team with the fewest number of home playoff games up that point automatically is the home team. If they have played the same number of home playoff games, a coin flip determines the home team.
Coin flips for potential second-round football matchups were made Sunday, the day that football playoff seedings and first-round pairings were announced. It used to be that these flips were held after the first round, but the CIF-SS folks wisely decided a few years ago to go ahead and have these flips in advance. Hey, you've got all the coaches in attendance on that pairings-day Sunday, so why not just do the flips then?
So that was a crucial coin flip when it came time for Saddleback Valley Christian and Mammoth to do the heads-or-tails bit, because those schools are 346 miles on the odometer — and a few degrees on the thermometer — apart.
“Winning that coin flip was huge,” Saddleback Valley Christian coach Gary Chambers said. “Nobody wants to make that trip.”
Over the past two seasons, Mammoth is 8-3 at home, and 2-8 in away games.
(To find out which Orange County football teams won second-round coin flips and which will automatically be home or away teams should they play next week, click on this link.)
If your football team wins its first-round game, yes, there are playoff games on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Yes, there will be practice Thanksgiving morning.
Taking a look around Orange County high school sports:
•The current letter-of-intent signing period for basketball, baseball, women's water polo, softball, swimming, tennis and volleyball lasts through next Thursday. Another signing period begins Feb.6 for football, soccer, track and field and men's water polo. The basketball late signing period begins April16, and begins a week earlier for baseball, women's water polo, softball, swimming, tennis and volleyball. Once a letter of intent is signed, other schools must halt recruiting that student-athlete.
•The Mater Dei-Tesoro football game changed locations twice in as many days. First, it was changed from Tesoro’s on-campus stadium to San Clemente’s Thalassa Stadium, because Thalassa has seating for 5,000, 1,000 more than Tesoro’s stadium, and Mater Dei is expected to bring a big crowd, as usual. Then it was moved late Thursday afternoon, just 27 hours before kickoff, to Saddleback College, which also houses about 5,000 spectators – but there will not be tickets available at Saddleback College on game night, and that’s not a good situation.
•We estimated at least 20,000 spectators were at the Servite-Mater Dei game last Friday night at Angel Stadium. That's a big crowd for a game that was on live TV. Catholic schools draw large crowds because they don't have attendance boundaries, allowing them to recruit fans from all over the place.
•Although it was scoffed at by another reporter on the Prime Ticket postgame show after the Servite-Mater Dei telecast this past Friday night, naming Crespi of Encino as the No.2 seed in the Pac-5 Division football playoffs was easy because it was logical: Crespi beat Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, which beat Servite, which beat Orange Lutheran, which beat Mater Dei.
•Except for one heat-of-the-moment late hit by a Servite player, good sportsmanship was on display by Mater Dei and Servite players, coaches and fans all night long.
•As part of Mater Dei's “Monarchs For Marines” program, there were a lot of Camp Pendleton Marines in attendance. Take it from personal experience — don't misbehave when a Marine is watching.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
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