R-C Sports Notebook: What's coming up

My hope for last week was to clear my desk of the fall-season clutter and plan out the next month in terms of what stories (outside of the usual winter fodder) that I'd like to get to.

It should be no surprise that I'll have the same hopes for this week. I was able to get my desk pretty much clean and get the various fall sports seasons wrapped up (I'm only waiting on this week's football state championship game to put the finishing touches on the fall).

I didn't get much planning done, but I'm working on a few new features that I'd like to eventually set up as regular items within the sports section. I'll need your feedback as to whether they'll actually be worth your while or not. So keep your eyes open!

Other than that, the winter season is shaping up to be an exciting one already. The basketball and wrestlling programs should be right in the mix of the league title picture and the ski team has a number of promising returning racers that could turn in successful seasons. I'm sure they could use a little help getting some more snow out there, though.

I'll wait a week before my predictions for the season, just to get a better look at how things might shake out.

I've been a fan of Hug coach Brian Voyles ever since he led his team to an improbable regional title run in 2002.

I was even more impressed with a subtle move he made toward the end of the third quarter Saturday night against Douglas.

Two of his players combined on an unsuccessful "showboat" alley-oop play with just a one-point lead. It resulted in a techinal foul and, after Douglas' CJ Marcotte converted both free-throws, a lead-change.

Voyles benched both players, who are both the best on the Hug roster and among the best in the region this season, for the remainder of the game.

He told the Reno Gazette-Journal that the duo was thinking of themselves first above the team and hopefully they'd learn their lesson.

They'd attempted several other similar plays in the game, mostly to unsuccessful results.

Sure, it was just the season-opener and mattered little in the grand scheme of the season. But Voyles' move, and his willingness to talk about it with the regional press, was brilliant on many levels.

It sent a loud message to his program about his expectations, it put the younger players on the roster in a great situation to learn, it backed up the referee's call and it showed the rest of the region what kind of program he runs.

I've noticed a developing trend among area athletes that I have come to respect greatly.

In all the recruiting hype, the overall theme this year seems to be high-talent athletes opting for smaller schools.

When you actually take a second to think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Smaller schools don't necessarily provide you with the same exposure you'd get at one of the major conferences, but on the other hand, your chances of actually getting any playing time at that level are generally pretty astronomical.

Small schools, though, you get more playing time (in theory), you're plugged into a smaller student base so it reasons that you get more attention from your coaches and your teachers.

I've seen quite a few former Douglas High athletes go on to have very successful careers at small schools in the past few years. I think we may see a few more out of this senior class.

- Former 3-point phenom and 2006-07 regional runner-up point guard Mike Gransbery is serving as an assistant coach with the Tiger basketball team this year.

- The Douglas boys' basketball team cycled 11 players into the game during the first quarter aganst Hug Saturday night.

- Hug was just 5-18 from the free throw line.

For the winter, I'm going to begin tracking back through our archives to compile girls' basketball scoring records. Four-year starter Jessica Waggoner has averaged double-figures over the past two seasons and has been a contributor in each of her first three years. It stands to reason she should be fighting for a spot somewhere on the top 10, if not the top.

If anyone has any old score books or information, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll keep a running update in this spot through the winter.

When was the last time the Douglas boys' basketball team won its season-opener?

Toward the end of the first quarter against Hug, junior Michael Whalin tipped the ball downcourt on defense where Chris Downs raced toward the hoop with it. Downs dished back to CJ Marcotte, who made a nice lay-up for a 13-8 lead.

- There just weren't enough games in any sport last week to come up with five items this week. I will say this though: McQueen has proven beyond a doubt that they are at a different level when it comes to football this season.

I honestly thought Manogue's imposing line would give the Lancers more trouble than they did. The end result? McQueen 38, Manogue 0.

That's a Manogue offense, remember, that ran for 470 yards against a good Douglas defense.

It seems every "test" McQueen faced this year, they came away with a dominating win. The bigger the test, the bigger the win.

I thought the Lancers showed some marks of mortality in the regular-season finale against Spanish Springs (a 34-14 win for the Lancers that was much close at the half), but it appears now that it was a simple slow-start.

With Palo Verde coming up north for the title game, I can't say I see McQueen slowing down now.

If I had a vote for overall player of the year in the Northern 4A Regional postseason honors ballots (and I don't), this is what it would look like, based mostly on their respective performances over the last week:

Football

1. Tyler York, McQueen; 2. Kyle Van Noy, McQueen, 3. Josh DuPree, Manogue; 4. Tim Rudnick, Douglas; 5. Anthony Stolo, McQueen

Boys' Basketball

1. Austin Morgan, Reno; 2. Courtney Gardner, Hug; 3. James McLaughlin, Douglas; 4. Keith Feustch, Manogue; 5. Zach Sanford, Reno

Girls' Basketball

1. Jordan Rogers, Spanish Springs 2. Abby Boorman, Reno; 3. Ashley Armstrong, Manogue; 4. Erica MacKenzie, Reed; 5. Jessica Waggoner, Douglas

The top athletes, regardless of sport, at Douglas High determined by production during competition, overall value to their team, ability to perform with consistency in routine situations, performance compared to others at the same position throughout the state/region, ability to come up big in clutch situations, versatility, attitude, sportsmanship, overall athletic ability, heart, potential at the next level, and a host of other intangibles (emotional leadership, role-playing value, work ethic, etc.) This is all, of course, just my opinion.

Winter Sports Preseason

1. Jessica Waggoner, basketball

2. James McLaughlin, basketball

3. Hillary Sapp, skiing

4. Crystal Rutledge, skiing

5. Nico Barker, wrestling

6. CJ Marcotte, basketball

7. Parker Robertson, basketball

8. Dillon Spates, wrestling

9. Dany Heidt, basketball

10. Tim Rudnick, basketball

If there were more names on the list: Wes Peterson, wrestling; Taryn Williams, basketball; Timmy Souza, wrestling; Ally Freitas, basketball

2008-09 School Year

1. Jessica Waggoner, volleyball/basketball

2. Tim Rudnick, football/basketball

3. Nico Barker, football/wrestling

4. Taryn Williams, volleyball/basketball

5. Parker Robertson, football/basketball

6. Dany Heidt, soccer/basketball

7. James McLaughlin, football/basketball

8. Luis Pina-Duarte, football/basketball

9. Ally Freitas, soccer/basketball

10. Niki Hamzik, tennis/basketball

Since I've been here (2003)

1. Luke Rippee, football/basketball/baseball (2003)

2. Jessica Waggoner, volleyball/basketball/track (2005-present)

3. Brittany Puzey, basketball/softball (2003-04)

4. Tim Rudnick, football/basketball/baseball (2006-present)

5. Bridget Maestretti, volleyball/basketball/softball/track (2004-08)

6. Tyson Estes, football/basketball/baseball (2003-05)

7. Ryan Pruitt, football/wrestling/baseball (2005-07)

8. Mike Gransbery, soccer/basketball (2004-07)

9. James McLaughlin, football/basketball (2006-present)

10. Kayla Dunn, volleyball/softball (2004-05)

Georgia Tech is building a monster of a program (I'm talking of the BCS Championship quality). Granted, as I've said before, I'm a sucker for well-run option attacks. Paul Johnston won my respect at Navy and has put together a young, talented squad in less than a year. Consider Saturday's 45-42 win at Georgia their statement win. I'd give it another year, but they are going to be very, very good in the near future.

- This has nothing to do with fatherhood, but never, ever put potato skins (sweet or otherwise) in your garbage disposal. And never, ever, under any circumstance, keep shoving the whole load down there thinking that it'll be easier to just chop them all up at the same time with one flip of the switch.

I spent most of Friday morning cleaning out the pipes under our kitchen sink with a plastic fork.

Still, proximity is performing better than my best guesses. I'll go with it again and think of something novel for next week. Oh, and my friend didn't end up winning that league.

You can still sign up for the weekly contest at www.recordcourier.profootball.upickem.net.

Congratulations to this week's winner, Jeff Greer, who picked 11 of 16 games correctly.

Here are my picks for the week:

Raiders over Chargers

Vikings over Lions

Packers over Texans

Bears over Jaguars

Colts over Bengals

Browns over Titans

Giants over Eagles

Falcons over Saints

Bills over Dolphins

Broncos over Chiefs

49ers over Jets

Seahawks over Patriots

Cardinals over Rams

Cowboys over Steelers

Panthers over Buccaneers

Redskins over Ravens

Season record: 92-100. Record last week: 6-10. Season survivor: Out.

- It's not so much that the island disappeared. It's just a write-around to hide the fact the the producers have been dragging the show on for so long that they actually forgot how to get back to the set on the Hawaii shoreline.

Irrational Fear: Jiffy Pop

Guilty Pleasure: Those little corn-on-the-cob things from the salad bar. I've heard, by the way, those are grown only by people with extraordinarily small ears (just a corny joke for you there).

2006. Douglas beat Soquel, Calif., 94-53 at the South Tahoe Invitational.