Notebook: Ceres alum signs with New York Yankees; section cancels fall dead period
Ceres and Modesto Junior College alum Blane Abeyta signed with the New York Yankees on last week as an undrafted free agent.
The 2020 MLB Draft was shortened from its usual 40 rounds to five this year and undrafted free agents were allowed to sign for a maximum of $20,000. Terms of Abeyta’s deal were not disclosed.
“Super excited and thankful for all of my family, friends, and coaches who have stood by me along the journey to be able to make this dream become a reality. @Yankees,” Abeyta said in a tweet.
Abeyta, a right-handed pitcher, appeared in seven games for the University of Nevada-Reno this year and had two saves and 12 strikeouts in eight innings.
Sac-Joaquin Section eliminates dead period: In late May, the Sac-Joaquin Section announced the summer dead period for fall sports would be decreased from three weeks to one for this year only due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, the section eliminated the entire dead period for all fall sports. That means teams and athletes can work out tne entire summer.
The CIF will announce on July 20 whether the fall season will start on time or be delayed.
Marysville football team halts summer workouts after coronavirus exposure: According to Sacramento Bee reporter Joe Davidson, Marysville High has suspended its football workouts until July 1 after a football staffer had a dentist appointment at a Yuba County dental office on June 15 and was notified five days later that a patient had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The patient had tested positive a week before their dental appointment.
The staffer has been in quarantine since June 20 and tested negative for the virus last weekend and tested again for the virus on Tuesday.
“We try to be as safe as possible, doing everything the right way, including work-station pods and distancing and constant cleansing, and we weren’t sure when our staffer was in contact or was even in contact with the person who was positive, so to be safe, let’s just go ahead and suspend drills for two weeks,” Marysville coach Jeff Freeman told Davidson. “We also found out that all the people who work at the dental office had tested negative, so that’s a good sign.”
Big Valley Christian hires new boys basketball coach: Peter Vargas, who has over 30 years of high school basketball coaching experience, was named as the new boys basketball coach at Big Valley Christian last week.
Vargas spent the last six seasons as coach of the Downey High girls basketball team and met with Lions’ players and parents on Tuesday.
Bobby Cole Sr. and Gary Porter are both joining Vargas’ staff and Clarence Denning will coach the junior varsity team.
Stanislaus State athletics post high academic GPAs: The 2019-20 season was successful for Stanislaus State, both in competition and in the classroom.
Here are some of the academic highlights from the school’s press release:
- Eight teams posted their highest team grade-point-average since they began tracking the data in 2015: Baseball, men’s golf, men’s soccer, men’s cross country, men’s track & field, women’s basketball, volleyball and women’s cross country.
- Eleven teams posted a team GPA of 3.0 or better: Baseball, men’s golf, men’s cross country, men’s track & field, women’s basketball, softball, women’s soccer, women’s tennis, volleyball, women’s cross country and women’s track & field.
- Collectively, student-athletes posted a 3.215 GPA, the highest according to school records.
- The Warriors posted a 3.345 GPA for the spring 2020 term, when most the semester was completed by remote learning. It is the highest GPA recorded for a single semester.
Two Modesto athletes to compete in Texas Bowl: Central Catholic junior lineman Jacob Edmond and Davis junior athlete Jordan Mendoza will participate in the Offense Defense 2020 Texas Bowl this weekend at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 9:45 AM.
