Sun. & Mon., Dec. 7-8, 2025
Lest we forget . . .
That infamous attack that finally
drew the USA into WWII happened
84 years ago today
In 1989, when I accepted the offer by legendary Head Coach John Reardon to come over to Rio Mesa H.S. in the role of Defensive, our Offensive Coordinator was Ed Phillips.
Besides being an excellent coach, Ed was an even better human being. A few years later, he decided to leave coaching for a career as a high school administrator. His typical hard work and determination led him to the position of Principal at Rio Mesa H.S.
The entire staff and student body loved having Ed in the school's leadership position.
Then, in 2004, during the Spartans football team's opening round playoff game at home against Righetti, the joy of the 11th win on the season quickly evaporated.
Unbeknownst to any of us on the field, Ed Phillips had gone behind the home stands and suffered a heart attack. As we started to come off the field, we saw red lights flashing on a paramedics vehicle as the crowd was being re-routed to another exit, that's when the word got to us about what had happened.
Ed passed away that night.
Now, 21 years later, we were invited to the home of Ed's son Brett and his lovely wife Debbie who was a student of mine at Westlake High School in the mid-1980s.
The reason for the invitation was to . . .
. . . celebrate their son Tristan's
signing an Early Letter of Intent to
further his career as a member of the
Big-10 Conference's Oregon Ducks
Tristan has been ranked as the #1 high school Linebacker in California this season.
His attitude and leadership have been major reasons for Ventura H.S.'s great run this year that includes a 13-2 record, a Channel League Championship, a C.I.F.-Southern Section Division VI Championship, a SoCal Division 3-AA Championship not to mention a spot in this Friday's C.I.F.-State Division 3-AA Championship game.
The Cougars will play the St. Ignatius College Prep Wildcats (8-6) for the State Championship.
Now, while I wanted to fit in at the celebration, as a Washington alumni there was no way that I could wear any article of clothing bearing Oregon Ducks logos.
Thus, I donned my yellow and green Brasil Onças jersey from my time as the National Team's Linebacker Coach at their team camp in March of 2022.
Blending in with two
key Ventura playerss
On the left is the Cougars outstanding Sophomore RB Tristan Savage (GREAT football name). This season he has rushed for 607 yards, an average of 5.5 yds/carry and 18 TDs. Showing his versatility, he has also caught 33 passes for another 544 yards and an additional 6 TDs. A total of 1,161 yards from scrimmage and a whopping 24 TDs make for a memorable Sophomore year to be sure.
On the right is Ventura's Senior QB Derek Garcia who has accepted a scholarship to play for UNLV next Fall. He has passed for 3,369 yards and 36 TDs against just 9 interceptions. He has also rushed for 750 yards and another 12 TDs. His Total Offense checks in then at 4,119 yards, accounting for 48 TDs!
They are a big part of why the Cougars are in the State title tilt.
Diego Renteria and Mike Moon
Diego is now one of Ventura County's finest football referees. Brett Phillips is also a highly respected high school referee.
Back in the day, Diego was one of our players at Rio Mesa H.S.
Mike was a coach with both Bret and myself at Rio Mesa and was Diego's DB Coach long ago.
Today, Mike Moon is the excellent Head Football Coach at Pacifica H.S.
The Tritons are currently 15-0 having now won three C.I.F.-Southern Section Championships and a State Championship during the past seven seasons.
The 2019 Triton (15-1) team won the State 2-A Championship by befuddling Oakland's McClymonds H.S. Warriors (11-1), 34-6.
His 2024 team (11-5) made it to the State Championship game before suffering a close loss to Sacramento's Grant H.S. Pacers (12-3) in the Division 2-AA Final.
Mike's 2025 Tritons will play on Saturday for the C.I.F.-State Division 1-AA Championship against Fresno's Central East H.S. Bengals (12-1).
With my much better half as
speeches were about to be made
LB Tristan and Proud Papa Brett
With Tristan Phillips and Mike Moon
Here is to both Ventura and Pacifica bringing home State Championship hardware to Ventura County this weekend!
We also wish for Tristan to have a great career at Oregon, except when they play the Huskies, of course.
Sunday was also the day that the College Football Playoff was at last officially announced.
This announcement had it's
fair share of controversy
For starters, why was a three loss
Alabama team still in the bracket?
The bigger brouhaha centered on 10-2 Miami hurdling 10-2 Notre Dame for the final at-large berth in the playoffs even though both teams were idle Conference Champ[ionship weekend.
How did Notre Dame take its last minute CFP exclusion?
Not well
ND's short, terse statement
Interesting take from the net
Notre Dame was not alone in its rejection of a bowl game this season.
In theory, a team needs six wins to be bowl eligible. There are so many bowls this year that teams with less than the required six wins were tendered bowl bids.
These ten universities just said,
"NO!"
Too many bowl games, methinks
Agreed?
What about the Big-10 Conference's tied for Seventh Place Washington Huskies (8-4)bowl fate?
The Bucked Up L.A. Bowl hosted
by Gronk is where we're headed
It will be played at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium this coming Saturday at 5:00 p.m. local time against the Boise State Broncos (9-4) who are the Mountain West Conference Champions.
By the way, Bucked Up is not misspelled, it is a fitness supplement company.
The Huskies website was not as
excited about the bowl announcement . . .
. . . as the Broncos website!
Nine Big-10 teams including
the Huskies accepted bowl bids
Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Washington (8-4) Northwestern (6-6), Minnesota (7-5), Penn State (6-6), Illinois (8-4), Southern California (9-3), Iowa (8-4), Michigan (9-3) and Nebraska (7-5).
Of course, there are an additional three Big-10 Conference teams in the CFP, #1 seed Indiana (13-0), #2 seed Ohio State (12-1) and #5 seed Oregon (11-1).
Thus, 12 of the 18 Big-10 Conference teams are in the post-season.
The six Big-10 teams left home from the CFP/Bowl Dance this season are Rutgers (5-7), Maryland (4-8), Michigan State (4-8), Wisconsin (4-8), UCLA (3-9) and Purdue (2-10).
We bought tickets to the game
on Monday
This one made me smile too
The Rams were on the road
on Sunday for an NFC West game
Make that an NFC West
THRASHING!
The L.A. Rams (10-3) victory in the desert over the woefully beat up Arizona Cardinals (3-10), coupled with the Chicago Bears (9-4) 28-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers (9-3-1), allowed the Rams to reclaim the NFC's #1 playoff seed again.
The Bears' loss dropped their NFC playoff seed from #1 all the way down to #7, YIKES!
A Good Two Days, Indeed!
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