R-C Sports Notebook: Road Warriors to this day

There is an odd trend developing in the Tiger football program and I'm at a loss as to how to explain it.

Frankly, it bucks the common flow of high school football, and I don't know if it is simple luck of the draw or a deeper pattern of play.

Between 2003 and 2004, the Tigers were nearly unbeatable at home. They went a combined 12-1 at Keith Duke Roman Field.

Somewhere during the following offseason, something changed. Due in part to 2005 being a rebuilding year, the Tigers went only 1-4 in Minden.

The following season, with the artificial turf being installed at the Big George Sports Complex, Douglas spent nearly the entire year on the road before returning to thrash Wooster in the regular season finale and then fall to McQueen in the first round of the playoffs.

Last year, Douglas went just 3-3 at home and then opened this year with a loss to Southern 4A powerhouse Las Vegas.

You do the math on that and Douglas has just a 5-9 record at home since the beginning of 2005 season.

That doesn't bode well for any program, not being able to capitalize on the majority of your home games.

But with Douglas, there is an interesting catch.

While the Tigers have been up and down at home over the past six seasons, they have been remarkably consistent on the road during the same stretch,

Douglas is 23-7 on the road since the beginning of the 2003 season, but that's not the most impressive part.

That year out on the road in 2006 did something for the character of the program that could pay remarkable dividends through the next two seasons.

Remember it wasn't just the varsity team that was racking up the miles that season. There were stellar athletes at the junior varsity and freshman levels learning how to do battle on the road. This will be the season that those lessons should start to come to fruition.

Take this into account:

The Tigers' last loss while wearing their white road uniforms was on Aug. 25, 2006 against Reed. They have a 9-0 record in their white jerseys ever since.

Their last loss away from Minden came Sept. 9, 2006 vs. McQueen at Manogue.

They are an impressive 12-0 on the road since.

Both of those streaks will be tested strongly during the Sept. 19 matchup at Reed.

Like I said, it may just be simple luck of the draw. Doubtless, Douglas' home record should improve this season.

Over the past four seasons, they have played host to some of the most powerful teams in the area, sometimes twice in a season. Names like McQueen, Reno, Hug and Reed come to mind.

This year, however, the toughest part of the schedule comes on the road. How the Tigers' streak holds up will speak volumes as to how much creedence these trends carry.

Reno has been a budding rival with Douglas in nearly every sport since the beginning of the 2003 season.

There have always been great matchups between the two schools since Douglas moved up to the large-school classification, but things got personal in 2003 when the Huskies' football team broke up Douglas' perfect season in the infamous snowbowl Northern 4A Regional Championship Game.

For those who somehow haven't heard about it, Douglas was 11-0 and well on its way to a state championship, having already dismantled Reno earlier in the season.

It snowed about a foot an hour before kickoff and Reno proceeded to end those dreams.

The Huskies went on to claim the state title and Douglas was left talking about what might have been.

The emergence of Douglas' baseball program entered into the equation later that school year when the Tigers got in the way of the nationally-ranked Huskies unbeaten streak during a doubleheader in Minden.

The next season, Douglas became the first team to ever unseat the Huskies from the Sierra League baseball crown, sweeping the Huskies.

The story rolled on, with the Tiger basketball team blitzing the championship-minded Huskies in the 2007 Northern 4A semifinals and then the Reno volleyball team stealing the 2007 regional title away in a five-game match against the Tigers.

This year, with each major fall team sport traveling to Reno last week, all four Tiger squads returned with wins.

The girls' and boys' soccer teams kicked things off with 3-1 and 2-0 victories respectively. The volleyball team took the five-game win on Thursday and the football team completed the sweep Friday night with the 23-6 win.

Entering the third week of the high school sports season, only football, girls' tennis and cross country have competed in Carson Valley.

That all changes Tuesday night as the unbeaten Douglas girls' soccer team opens its league slate against Galena under the lights at Keith Duke Roman Field.

The boys' tennis team hosts Incline earlier that afternoon andthe boys' soccer team hosts Galena Wednesday.

Volleyball, also unbeaten, hosts Truckee Thursday evening.

After this week, only the girls' golf team will have not yet played at home. Their lone home tournament will be Sept. 30 at Genoa Lakes.

Anyone who was sitting through the first half of Douglas-Reno football game Friday night had to be getting some uncomfortable flashbacks of last season's 21-7 win.

There was the trademark Reno clock-killing ball-possession offense, doing little for two downs and then converting on the third. There was the solid Husky pass defense, one that came up with two first-half interceptions in 2007 and one in the first half Friday night.

Douglas was struggling to settle in to any sort of offensive rhythm, having not crossed the 50 yard-line, just like in 2007.

It had all the makings of going the same direction as the year before with Reno holding the 6-0 with three minutes left in the first half.

There was, however, some major differences. Most notably was Douglas' ability to handle Reno's tenacious pass rush.

In 2007, the Huskies came up with six sacks for a total loss of 42 yards, stifling Douglas' ability to throw the ball.

Friday night, no sacks. Again, this was partially due to the Tiger offensive line out-performing the larger Reno defensive line and partially due to quarterback Tim Rudnick's movement in the pocket.

The combination has frustrated two excellent pass rushing teams in as many games and will no doubt cause potentially-lethal problems for the remainder of the teams on Douglas' schedule this season.

How many yards would Douglas quarterback Tim Rudnick have to throw to break the school's single-season passing record?

- Douglas receiver Zach McFadden is slowly creeping up the career receiving charts. He needs 198 more yards and 11 more catches to crack the school's all-time top five list.

- With McFadden and James McLaughlin drawing the bulk of the coverage, Douglas' third receiver Connor Dillon, who could be the top target at several other schools in the area, has been enjoying some early success with six catches for 87 yards and a touchdown through two games.

- Tiger cornerback Nico Barker laid a couple of jarring hits on Reno receivers during Friday night's game. He may arguably be the hardest-hitting defensive back in the league this year.

- That's not to downplay what fellow defensive back Davey Fisher has done so far. Fisher has two interceptions in as many games after missing nearly all of last year with a knee injury.

- Fallon football defeats Sparks 38-7. By all accounts heading in, Sparks was supposed to win this game. The Railroaders have been among the cream of the Northern 3A for two seasons, but this game proved one of two things. One being the gap between the 4A and 3A is probably a great deal larger than what a lot of us had thought.

The other is that Fallon should be a lot tougher this year than in year's past. I still don't see the Greenwave as one of the top 10 team's in the region, but no doubt Douglas' trip to Fallon could prove to be dangerous. Their defense looks to be stronger than in years past and Alvin Juris is a true playmaker.

- Douglas' running game. I've written at great length about the Tigers' passing game this season, but the run game took a large step forward against Reno. Against Reno, the Tigers were perfectly balanced, gaining 203 yards each in both facets of the game.

Juniors Johnny Pollack and Jordan Cruz emerged as strong runners against Reno and provide Douglas with one of the strongest tandems I have seen here.

In 2006, you have power runner Reese Kizer and speed runner Tyler Tinstman team up to give opposing teams headaches.

With this year's duo, each brings his own solid combination of speed and power. Cruz gets the slight edge in speed and Pollack gets the slight edge in power, but they are otherwise fairly interchangeable.

In order for this year's passing game to be as effective as possible, the running game will have to continue to be solid.

Douglas has proven in previous years that it can survive as a team based primarily on the run.

The most successful passing seasons they've had, however, come with a strong running game.

Take this for example: When Chris Griffith (1997) and Luke Rippee (2003) broke the standing single-season passing records at Douglas, they also had a running back (Kevin Lehr in '97 and Dusty Cooper in '03) that broke the single-season rushing record.

Douglas' offense has traditionally been at its peak during its most balanced years.

That balance has also gone hand-in-hand with success. In '97, the Tigers won their first playoff game at the large-school level and I already wrote above about what happened in 2003.

- Wade Meddles, Sierra Lutheran Cross Country. The Falcons showed up at the Douglas Class Races Friday and Meddles promptly turned quite a number of heads. The junior won his class with a time of 12:47 on the 4K course, just 12 seconds off of Galena standout senior Bryan Tibaduiza, who had the best overall time on the day. Not bad at all for a 1A runner.

- North Valleys football 26, Galena 3. I had heard Galena would be down. It was logical considering the amount of seniors the Grizzlies lost. The surprise isn't so much there as it is with North Valleys. The Panthers have had the potential to be a breakout team for several years and heading into a stacked High Desert League slate, they appear to have the defense to be able to hang around. My pick right now is that the Panthers will take Reno down this season and claim the No. 4 spot in the playoffs.

It should be noted with Galena, they may be down but they won't be for long. They have the coaching and the raw athletic ability there to get better in a hurry.

- Douglas volleyball defeats Reno in five games. This would be the not-so-much. While one media poll had the Tigers ranked as low as fifth, there was no possible way the defending league champs and regional runners-up could have fallen that far. Especially not considering the amount of talent returning to the starting lineup.

It's not a surprise that Douglas won, and it wouldn't have been a surprise if Reno had one. The only thing that would've surprised me in this one was that if it didn't go five games.

If I had a vote for overall player of the year in the Northern 4A Regional football honors ballots (and I don't), this is what it would look like, based mostly on their respective performances over the last week:

1. Kyle Van Noy, McQueen; 3. Tim Rudnick, Douglas; 3. Anthony Stolo, McQueen; 4. Patrick Riggs, Manogue; 5. Ray Daniels, Damonte Ranch

"While the NFL has recognized the legal name change of Chad Johnson to Chad Ocho Cinco, the league informed the Bengals that certain issues remain to be resolved before Ocho Cinco will be permitted to wear his new surname on his jersey." - Associated Press.

"Certain issues" may be the understatement of the season.

The top athletes, regardless of sport, at Douglas High determined by production during competition, overall value to their team, ability to perform with consistency in routine situations, performance compared to others at the same position throughout the state/region, ability to come up big in clutch situations, versatility, attitude, sportsmanship, overall athletic ability, heart, potential at the next level, and a host of other intangibles (emotional leadership, role-playing value, work ethic, etc.) This is all, of course, just my opinion.

Fall Sports

1. Amelia Ritger, tennis

2. Bethany Wurster, golf

3. Megan Mitchell, volleyball

4. Ross Gardner, soccer

5. Jessica Waggoner, volleyball

6. Taylor Biaggi, cross country

7. Tia Lyons, soccer

8. Ally Freitas, soccer

9. Tim Rudnick, football

10. James McLaughlin, football

If there were more spots on the list: Alex Laing, soccer; Johnny Pollack, football; Jordan Cruz, football; James TenBroeck, tennis; Jeff Crozier, soccer; Jeff Kelly football; Parker Robertson, football; Cesarina Ceglia, girls' tennis.

Ah, sports movies. We have no less than 15 in our personal collection. Something about the underdog team finding a way to overcome insurmountable odds to win the championship, get the girl and really show up the bad guys in the process. It seems the basic formula gets a little more stretched out each time a studio producer trots it out. Doesn't keep it from being entertaining anyway, even if for reasons not originally intended.

Kicking and Screaming (2005)

Will Ferrell coaches his son's soccer team. It's your basic "team with no talent manages to find its way into the league title game after hiring on a couple of ringers and coaxing Mike Ditka into a turn as an assistant coach" film.

Greatest gaffe: Look for the line where Will Ferrel says "I'm in way over my head." His mouth doesn't move.

Reason to watch: The five minutes or so where Will Ferrell completely melts down in a coffee shop and then sends Ditka out after a juice box. If not for this, the movie would be completely unwatchable.

Maybe you've seen it, but if you go to the sports page on our Web site, there is a link on the right-hand side of the page to the "Upickem Pro Football Challenge." (If you want a shortcut, go here: http://recordcourier.profootball.upickem.net

I'll be posting my picks here weekly and you are welcome to compete against me and other R-C readers. The top scorer locally every week will win a large pizza and a soda from Pizza Barn. You'll also have a shot at national prizes.

My first week didn't go so well. The biggest surprise to me was the Carolina win over San Diego. Here are my picks for week 2:

Panthers over Bears

Saints over Redskins

Giants over Rams

Colts over Vikings

Raiders over Chiefs

Bills over Jaguars

Bengals over Titans

Lions over Packers

Falcons over Buccaneers

Seahawks over 49ers

Cardinals over Dolphins

Ravens over Texans

Chargers over Broncos

Jets over Patriots

Cowboys over Eagles

Tiebreaker: Steelers 28, Browns 17

Season survivor sure thing: Giants.

Season record: 7-7. Record last week: 7-7. Season survivor: Still alive.

With 555 already under his belt, Rudnick needs 1,413 to top Luke Rippee's 1,968-yard mark from 2003. At this point, he is on pace to throw for 2,775 yards through the end of the regular season.

He is 342 yards away from cracking the school's top five list in career passing yardage, despite having only started six games at the varsity level.