The 'Willies': Bee writer picks best of Modesto area high school sports

By WILL DEBOARD
wdeboard@modbee.com

E-Mail

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

As Sam Smith's final putt rolled into the cup at the CIF State Boys Golf Championships at Santa Maria Country Club, so ended the 2007-08 high school athletic season.

And what a year it was. Stanislaus District athletes burst into the national spotlight with some outstanding performances, and some teams did just fine as well.

So here it is: The 11th Annual Willies, The Bee's season-ending high school sports column.

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

TOP ATHLETES: This was a tougher choice than most years on the boys side, because there were so many great athletes in this area, but it's tough to ignore what Riverbank senior German Fernandez has done.

Last weekend, he won two state titles at the CIF State Track and Field Championships, breaking two state meet records in the process. First, he won the 1,600 meters in 4:00.29, about one tick away from a sub-4-minute mile. And, two hours later, he won the 3,200 in 8:34.23, shattering the national record by seven seconds. That's not just one of the state meet's best performances, it's arguably the greatest single-day performance by a district high school athlete ever.

National track pundits are calling Fernandez's day the greatest distance double in national high school history. No arguments here.

And Fernandez also is a cross country star. He smashed the course record at Fresno's Woodward Park by 14 seconds in winning the CIF State Division IV cross country title in the fall.

He's on top of a loaded field. Central Catholic's Louis Bland was The Bee's football player of the year, and completed an undefeated wrestling campaign. Oakdale's Rudi Burtschi was an all-District football player, and — like Bland — completed a perfect wrestling season. And Modesto Christian's Reeves Nelson is one of the country's top junior basketball prospects.

On the girls side, we like Downey's Karlee Bispo, who set a national record in the 200 freestyle while completing her fourth consecutive undefeated season. Bispo, the No. 6 ranked college prospect in the country according to collegeswimming.com, is headed to the University of Texas.

In the two-sport category for the girls, we like Pitman's Tiare Jennings. She was an all-District basketball player, averaging 16 points a game, then batted .556 for the Pride softball team. She'll play softball for New Mexico State next year.

STORY OF THE YEAR: For the first time, a Stanislaus District school played for a state football championship. Central Catholic rolled through the Western Athletic Conference and won the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V title; then the Raiders were selected to represent the North in the CIF Division III State Championships Bowl Game. For the first time in years, Central Catholic was an underdog, and it lost 35-21 to St. Bonaventure of Ventura. But the Raiders hung tough against a superior foe.

One semi-local story outshadowed everything else, though: Franklin High of Stockton's getting caught up in a section investigation that showed people affiliated with the Yellowjackets' football program — including head coach Tom Verner — were illegally recruiting players from American Samoa to come to Stockton and play ball.

The conflict went beyond sanctions when Verner defiantly played three players who were already deemed ineligible, forcing the section to issue the "death penalty," canceling all of the school's athletic programs. Since then, the athletic programs were reinstated while Verner, Stockton Unified School District athletic director Joe Martin and district superintendent Jack McLaughlin have since left.