It has yet to be confirmed by either football coach Blair Roman or athletic director Bob Bateman, but there is a strong chance that Carson, Fallon, Damonte Ranch and Reed will be involved in a showdown against four Sacramento-area schools to start the 2014 football season.
If all goes according to plan, the games will be played the last weekend in August. It’s not known whether the four games will be played at one site over the course of two days or on one day, or if there may be split sites. When it was brought to my attention, Clayton Valley Charter was going to be Carson’s opponent. Clayton Valley Charter, which was part of the Mount Diablo Unified School District before breaking away, used to play in the same league as national powerhouse De La Salle.
I’ll bring you more on the game when facts become available.
•••
Roman said that the Clayton Valley game, should it happen, would take the place of a Hall of Fame game. He also said that Carson will have two bye dates this year. The Senators will play North Valleys on the first bye date, but the second is before Douglas, and the CHS coach doubts he wants to play a non-league game that late in the season.
•••
It was a quiet signing day in the area, with only Josilyn Daggs signing on the dotted line to play soccer at the University of Idaho. I’m still waiting to see where Aaron Cowee and Nevin Elliott end up. Elliott had some interest from Sac State and Pueblo College in Colorado. Austin Fletcher, according to sources at Dayton, attended a meeting for walk-on candidates at the University of Nevada. He took a recruiting trip to Western Oregon, but it doesn’t appear that he will end up there.
•••
You might as well crown the Reno High girls basketball team the state champs right now, especially with Reed’s Gabby Williams out for the season and Reno’s 49-26 demolition of Bishop Manogue this past week. You won’t find a better 1-2-3 punch than Mallory, Morgan McGwire and Shalen Shaw. All three are long and talented. With Williams out, expect to see Reno and Manogue in the regional finals unless Douglas can pull off an upset. The top two teams go to state this year.
•••
Talk about clutch wins. Both Carson boys and girls pulled out impressive wins Friday at home against Damonte Ranch. Both teams will have their work cut out for them this week as both seek to move up in the standings to either secure a home playoff game or have a better first-round playoff matchup.
The Carson boys are tied for third with Douglas at 8-6 with away games left at Wooster and Douglas. Douglas finishes with Damonte on Tuesday and Carson on Friday in Minden. Damonte is still a game ahead of both, but the Mustangs have to play regular-season champ Galena and Douglas. If Carson wins twice, it will have the No. 2 seed, and it likely would play McQueen in the opening round of the playoffs at home. If Carson finishes third or fourth it will be on the road against Spanish Springs or Reed. Both teams beat Carson in regular-season play.
Carson barely got by Wooster at home, so hopefully the Carson boys don’t look past the Colts, who tend to make good teams look bad with their helter-skelter style of play. Carson can’t fall into that trap like it did last year. Carson needs to work on bating full-court pressure and taking care of the ball.
The best the Carson girls can do is finish third behind Manogue and Douglas. A third-place finish gives Carson an away game at Reed, while a fourth-place finish means a trip to Reno. Nobody in their right mind would want to play the Huskies right now. Reed is beatable, but Carson would have to play much better than it has been.
