One of the smallest crowds in the six years I’ve covered the Blair Roman-coached Senators showed up for Friday’s first-round playoff win over McQueen.
Too bad. They missed another dominating performance by the Senators, who once again have their eyes set on the regional championship game in two weeks at Bishop Manogue High School. First, however, there is Reno High standing in the way of Carson, and the Huskies are miser-like when it comes to allowing points. Reno has played Carson tough over the years, and I fully expect another tough game this Friday.
I’m not sure whether it was the price of admission, $10 for adults and $5 for students, that kept people away or whether it was the temperature which was well below 50 degrees. Maybe it was a combination of both.
Certainly people on Twitter can follow along because we do scoring updates, but it would be nice to see a full house on Friday for Carson’s last home game of the 2014 season.
No offense to our city officials, but there isn’t much to do around here if you aren’t of legal age to gamble or drink. You have a couple of theaters and that’s it. No miniature golf course, no roller or indoor ice skating rink, no nothing. It’s a crying shame. My point? If you’re a CHS student, support your classmates. Brown bag for lunch or have two less cups of Starbucks, and that will about cover the cost of admission.
And, whoever is making the admission decisions for the NIAA, needs to have their heads examined.
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One of the big success stories at Carson from an athletic point of view is the wrestling program.
Since 2008, the program has racked up six Sierra League titles without losing a dual match under the guidance of former coach Tim McCarthy and current coach Paul Carter.
The 24-match win streak is in jeopardy, and not because of any other team per se but because of the way the schedule sets up. As it stands now, Damonte Ranch and Carson are scheduled to meet the first week on Dec. 3.
The Mustangs are the only team capable of beating Carson in a dual match. The last two meetings have been pretty close, especially two years ago, when Nolan Shine recorded a pin to give the Senators the win.
There’s a possibility of football still going on if Carson can make it to the regional or state championship games. Rules dictate that you must have five days of practice between sports. If Carson plays in the regional finals on Saturday Nov. 29, Brady Rivera, Brady O’Keefe, Nolan Shine, Corey Jasper, Sheldon Miller, Connor Sievers and Kevin Rusler wouldn’t be able to compete in that match.
I chatted briefly with Carter at Friday’s football game, and he said both sides are talking, but he didn’t sound like he was confident the match would be moved.
If Damonte fails to agree to move the match, shame on the Mustangs. I would think both the coaches and wrestlers at Damonte would want to end that streak with Carson at FULL strength not missing half its team.
This situation brings up a far bigger problem, and I blame the NIAA, administrators and coaches.
Everybody needs to get into a room and iron things out before the schedules are released every year. We go through this overlap every year in the winter and it doesn’t have to be this way.
First off, Division I boys basketball games and wrestling matches shouldn’t be scheduled until the week after state football is completed. The Division 1A isn’t affected because it plays its state championship game earlier than Division 1. Carson coach Carlos Mendeguia has already tentatively agreed to reschedule games against Reno and Reed. Reno helped Carson out a couple of years ago.
Obviously there’s a small window to get games in, but is there anything wrong with having a couple of three-game weeks on the schedule, either in a Tuesday-Thursday-Friday or Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday format? Coaches and administrators, it’s pretty darn simple. Play two three-game weeks and you can start the darn season a week later.
Maybe wrestling coaches need to go to one less out-of-town tournament and have a dual on a Saturday if they have an issue with the schedule.
When is common sense going to come into play around here? Or will it ever?
