R-C Sports Notebook: Miller rises to the top once again

After Fresno State shut down its wrestling program just months before Douglas High standout Shane Miller was to begin his collegiate career there, it appeared that he'd fall through the one of those many and varied cracks that exist at the next level of athletics.

I've seen it happen around here more than once.

A kid that had a good run in high school gets a shot at a college only to have their roster spot disappear for one reason or another. Sometimes the rigors of the next level are simply too muh to overcome and they drop out on their own.

That's usually the last I hear of them.

That wasn't the case for Miller.

He retooled his plans, showed up on the Lassen College campus on the first day of school and a year later claimed the California Community College state championship in the 197-pound weight class.

Now he receiving recruiting interest from several of the top wrestling programs on the West Coast.

Hopefully, it will turn out better for him this time around.

Regardless, it was nice to see a local kid get the best of what was originally a bad break.

Through three weeks of the winter sports season, it appears that Douglas High is in for one of its best basketball seasons for both the boys and girls in quite some time.

As it stands, the Lady Tigers (8-2) have proven that they are a lot more than just a squad with veteran experience. They have tremendous depth and matched Galena toe-to-toe defensively last week.

While the game resulted in a loss, the thing about defense is it tends to not go away. Come playoff time, when offenses can go cold as quickly as they can get hot, it's a strong defense that can carry a team through.

At this point, realistically, the Douglas girls probably stand only behind Reed, Reno and Galena (possibly Manogue). It'll be interesting to see how they are able to improve as the season rolls along. Don't rule out a possible upset of the Huskies in Reno for the Feb. 8 regular-season finale.

This group is a combined 10-4 over the second-half of each of the last two seasons. They get better as the year goes along, which bodes well for this season as they are off to their best start since 2004 when they opened the year 12-2.

On the boys' side, Douglas continued to improve with every new game, finishing third in the George Maldonado Tournament. We'll know a lot more after this week with games against Wooster, McQueen and No. 1 Galena.

You have to love Galena boys' basketball coach Tom Maurer, who has traditionally never shied away from an imposing schedule.

For years, his group was a literal traveling show as he would take his team anywhere that would make them better, regardless of what the scoreboard said at the end of the game.

This year, however, he went out and scheduled a couple of the absolute toughest games available locally, traveling to Reno two weeks ago and hosting Douglas Friday.

It's not like him to schedule local non-conference games this early in the year, but perhaps it says something about the improving parity around the region that he decided to stick around for these two.

Based on the cumulative votes in the Sierra Nevada Sports Media poll, here are the top-ranked overall athletic programs based on football, boys' soccer, girls' soccer and volleyball, boys' basketball, girls' basketball and wrestling.

1. Douglas, 279 points

2. Reno, 249 points

3. Reed, 230 points

4. Galena, 201 points

5. Carson, 164 points