It's that time of year for me to own up to what I said before the fall season started, so I'm just going to get right into it. Listed first will be my prediction, followed by what actually happened.
Football
MY PICKS
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Reed; 2. Hug; 3. McQueen; 4. Reno. Sierra: 1. Douglas; 2. Galena; 3. Manogue; 4. Carson
Regional Champion: Reed.
Surprise team: Carson.
My thoughts (at the time): Carson was my surprise team last year and fell very short. After drubbing Spanish Springs Friday, it may be that the Senators are ready to arrive. I can't say enough about how stacked the Reed roster is, but crazy things happen, particularly late in the year, and I have never seen a pass-heavy team thrive in the playoffs. Still, you can't discount their size and speed. Don't be surprised to see Hug make a surprise run through the playoffs. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Douglas step up and break through this year.
REALITY
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Reed; 2. Spanish Springs; 3. McQueen; 4. North Valleys. Sierra: 1. Carson; 2. Douglas; 3. Galena; 4. Manogue.
Regional Champion: Reed
Surprise team: Carson.
My thoughts: Okay, I actually wasn't too far off for once. I had Reed and McQueen dead on, but badly missed on Hug and Reno (Who knew Spanish Springs and North Valleys would step up like they did?). I was off on the order in the Sierra League, but not on the playoff qualifiers. Carson was the surprise of the year, but Reed did what everyone expected them to do entering the year, and that was win the regional title.
Volleyball
MY PICKS
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Reno; 2. McQueen. 3. Spanish Springs 4. Elko. Sierra: 1. Douglas; 2. Damonte Ranch; 3. Manogue; 4. Galena
Regional Champion: Douglas.
Surprise team: Spanish Springs.
My thoughts (at the time): Douglas has plenty of depth and a lot of talent - the only thing left to do is pull through during the playoffs. The last two years, Douglas has arguably been the best team, only to fall just short at the end. There are a number of key players who have been a part of those two teams and they'll be ready to cash in on the lessons learned from the past. Don't be mistaken, the Sierra League race is wide open, probably with the eventual league champ losing a match or two. The regional champion (and subsequent state champion), if not Douglas, will come out of the Sierra League. Spanish Springs is an up-and-comer and could knock off a couple quality opponents during the year. Reno is always dangerous. The depth, though, is in the Sierra.
REALITY
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Reno; 2. McQueen; 3. Reed; 4. Spanish Springs. Sierra: 1. Damonte Ranch; 2. Manogue; 3. Douglas; 4. Fallon.
Regional Champion: Reno.
Surprise team: Fallon.
My thoughts: Haha, surprise! Joke's on me. Reno just laid in wait all year and knocked off the top two ranked teams successively in the regional playoffs. Then the south stepped up and won state. Fallon showed signs of returning to its past prime, which could make the Sierra League very interesting in years to come. Manogue loses a ton with the Anxo sisters and Damonte Ranch loses a couple key players as well, so expect to see Douglas bounce back next year. Watch out for Carson, though. They'll be right in it.
Boys' Soccer
MY PICKS
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Reed; 2. Elko. 3. McQueen 4. Hug. Sierra: 1. Manogue; 2. Galena; 3. Carson; 4. Douglas
Regional Champion: Manogue.
Surprise team: Manogue.
My thoughts (at the time): I was impressed with Manogue last year, and they looked very good this past weekend in the Howell Memorial Tournament. The Sierra League will produce the regional champion (as they have for the past however many years ... It's a lot, no matter what way you cut it), and will probably represent all four semifinal teams. Those playoff spots will come at a true premium and likely won't be decided until the final game of the regular season. Wooster or South Tahoe could easily slide into one of those spots, if not win the league outright. Fallon is a dangerous team as well. There simply are no easy games in the Sierra.
REALITY
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Reed; 2. Hug; 3. Reno; 4. Elko. Sierra: 1. Manogue; 2. Galena; 3. Carson; 4. Douglas.
Regional Champion: Manogue.
Surprise team: Hug.
My thoughts: I just creeped myself out a little on the Sierra League picks there. Let's just chalk it up to blind luck. Fact is, Manogue had the most talent-laden roster in the area and they put it together when it counted. Give credit to Hug, though, for shocking Carson in the first round and nearly winning the High Desert League prior to that.
Girls' Soccer
MY PICKS
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Reed; 2. Spanish Springs; 3. Elko; 4. McQueen. Sierra: 1. Douglas; 2. South Tahoe; 3. Galena; 4. Carson.
Regional Champion: Douglas.
Surprise team: Damonte Ranch.
My thoughts (at the time): Douglas is as deep as it is young. The Tigers have turned soccer into a high-octane offensive game, but if the first weekend says anything at all, it's that the defense has come along to compliment the offense in a big way. That being said, Reed has a number of returners back and South Tahoe is going to be very tough to beat at the Lake. Damonte was well-coached last year and could come up with a big win here or there. Manogue is also a strong team.
REALITY
Playoff teams: High Desert: 1. Elko; 2. Reed; 3. Spanish Springs; 4. Reno. Sierra: 1. Carson; 2. Douglas; 3. South Tahoe; 4. Galena.
Regional Champion: Douglas.
Surprise team: Galena.
My thoughts: I got all but one of the playoff teams, but had the order way out of whack. Damonte Ranch didn't crack up to be what I thought it would, but Douglas followed through on its early-season promise. I did not see Elko's success coming, but I really didn't see Galena's run through the playoffs coming either. The Grizzlies knocked off Carson, South Tahoe (and Elko) to wind up in the state title game. Just couldn't get past the Tigers once they were there.
Just another shameless plug, we have recently started making our old sports pages available for print on the commemorative items on our photo sale page at www.recordcourier.com/photos.
If there is a page you'd like to have made into to larger print, a poster, a mouse pad or any number of things available at the photo site (R-C photographer Shannon Litz says you can get footballs, basketballs, soccer balls and volleyballs printed with photos or commemorative pages as well).
Just let us know what day the photo or page you're looking for printed (and hopefully what page number) and we'll post it for you to purchase.
We've started small (just last year's regional baseball championship, the regional tennis tournament this year and the recent girls' soccer regional and state championship front pages), but we'll add any and all of the pages requested. With Christmas coming up, these could make great gifts for parents, kids or coaches.
One condition, our archives available for reprint apparently only go back to Jan. 1, 2006. So if the page you are looking for is within that time frame, we can help you out. Any further back, though, and I'm afraid there is not much we can do.
Again, just go to recordcourier.com/photos to see what we've got. I believe it is posted under the "Sports" category and the "R-C Sports Pages" link.
With winter sports officially starting up next week, I'm a little thin for material again. I'll pick it back up again soon
Come on, you all saw Sunday's game. Do I really need another reason? Seriously, though, that was the type of game I actually grew to love the Bengals for back in the pre-Marvin Lewis days. So maybe it was actually a reason to keep right on cheering.
- For a guy who completed less than 54 percent of his passes in five different seasons during his NFL career, MNF analyst Steve Young sure is hard on place kickers.
If you've read this column for any length of time, you probably already know I attended TCU my freshman year.
Just so everyone's got it straight: That's Florida State over Florida and Texas A&M over Texas this weekend. It could happen. So could New Mexico over TCU. But let's not talk about that.
Also, is it too much to ask for Cincinnati to lose to Illinois this weekend? Probably, but hopefully Pittsburgh can take care of things next week.
Sign-up is free and you will be competing for local and national prizes.
Visit recordcourier.com/profootball to sign up and make your picks.
Congratulations to Cheryl Lockhart, who picked 14 out of 16 games correctly last week, just one off of winning the national prize.
Here are my picks for week 12:
Packers over Lions
Cowboys over Raiders
Giants over Broncos
Falcons over Bucs
Dolphins over Bills
Titans over Cardinals
Seahawks over Rams
Redskins over Eagles
Jets over Panthers
Bengals over Browns
Colts over Texans
Vikings over Bears
Chargers over Chiefs
49ers over Jaguars
Saints over Patriots
Tiebreaker: Ravens 21, Steelers 14
Last week: 9-7. Season: 104-56. Season Survivor: Out.
Time for this week's installment of Edd Roush's All-Stars (Formerly "This Wacky World of Sports") - Celebrating Edd Roush, the only player ever ejected from a Major League Baseball game for sleeping in the outfield.
- Scott Niedermeyer of the Anaheim Ducks tossed his stick into the crowd last week. Within 5 seconds, a hockey game had broken out in the stands. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wjxcOrPueY&feature=player_embedded
- Pet peeve of the week: It's less than three weeks into the college basketball season. I don't want to hear the word "undefeated" paired with any school's name until at least mid-December.
Half the country is undefeated right now. Even I was undefeated when I got out of bed this morning (the kids later got the best of me).
It's college basketball. No one is going to be undefeated by March.
That being said, I'll be doing a season preview of the undefeated Douglas boys' basketball team in Friday's paper.
