R-C Sports Notebook: Realignment on deck again

The NIAA approved the formation of several comittees to look at realignment again.

If you want to see a really thought-provoking proposal, check out Vegas blogger Dan Cabrera's proposal, which basically creates a 5A division for the most-competitive northern and southern schools and doesn't actually push any school down a class. We'll look at that more as the year progresses but if you want to know some of the particulars, Darrell Moody wrote about it in his column on Sunday and you can read that at www.nevadaappeal.com.

Somewhere in the discussion, though, there needs to be something about the alignment of the individual sports.

Just watching Incline golf superstar Katelyn Wright, Sierra Lutheran runner Wade Meddles and Incline wrestler Jordan Cronin in the past two years have convinced me that the idea of having one classification statewide for the individual sports has to at least be considered.

The argument behind having any kind of class alignment in team sports is that a school like Coleville would never be able to compete with a school like Douglas simply because of the deeper talent pool to draw from.

You want schools of similar enrollments and population bases competing against each other because you'll have greater parity between the teams.

But what about individual sports? Tennis and swimming, in my opinion, already have it right.

In each of those sports, there is one class statewide and thus only one one state tournament. It presents a cost savings to the NIAA and to the schools and gives kids from the smaller schools a shot to see where they stand against the rest of the state.

Track is almost there, having all four classes compete at the same venue for state. All it would take is leveling off all of the regional championships (maybe by adding seperate league championships like swimming does).

I'm told wrestling used to have a "super" state tournament, where every classification was lumped into the state championships. Why not go back to that?

Same with golf and cross country. Why in the world are there three seperate classes for those two sports?

If you're are an outstanding runner at a small school, like Meddles, or a wrestler in a powerhouse 3A or 2A program (think Spring Creek), why shouldn't you have a shot to win the overall state championship against athletes from larger schools?

I'm planning to be at these games this week, so check online for updates (Cover It Live is the tool we use to post automatic updates during games and also allows for comments and questions from fans during the game, so be sure to check out our Web site if you can't make it to the games I will be posting from.):

Tuesday: Douglas vs. Carson girls' soccer, 7 p.m. (Cover It Live)

Wednesday: Douglas vs. Carson boys' soccer, 7 p.m. (Cover It Live)

Thursday: Douglas vs. Reno girls' tennis, 3:30 p.m.; Douglas vs. South Tahoe volleyball, 6 p.m. (Cover It Live)

Friday: Douglas football at Damonte Ranch, 7:30 p.m. (Cover It Live)

- Reason No. 1 Friday night's win against Galena was bigger than you might think at first: The last time Douglas won a game on the road was last Oct. 18 at Wooster. Granted, scheduling-wise, that's only a stretch of three away games (Manogue, Las Vegas and McQueen) without a win, but sometimes posting that first one against a quality opponent can do a tremendous amount of good for the confidence of a young team.

- It may seem like an eternity ago, but prior to the above-mentioned Manogue loss, Douglas had won 15 consecutive games on the road.

- Saturday's 3-0 win over South Tahoe for the Douglas girls' soccer team was the Tigers' first win at the Lake since 2001.

- Just to give you an idea of the sheer dominance of the girls' tennis team at Douglas High this year, the top three singles players and top three doubles teams have only lost 13 total sets this year. That's out of 112 chances.

- The scoreboard at Galena High School, for whatever reason, was unable to register the number "16" when the Grizzlies scored their second, and final touchdown of the night Friday (They also had a safety). So, for the rest of the game, the scoreboard operators just went with showing the point separation between the teams, rather than the actual score.

- The Douglas football team has not allowed a point in the third quarter since Reno's Nick Bietz returned an interception 83 yards for a touchdown on Sept. 4 (four games ago). The Tiger defense has not given up any third-quarter points to a Northern Nevada team this season. They've only given up seven second-half points on Northern Nevada soil total, and those came with seven seconds left against McQueen.

- Lost in all of the commotion during Douglas' minute-long fourth-quarter comeback Friday night was the high quality of both of Austin Neddenriep's touchdown catches. The second was the better of the two as he extended to make the fingertip catch and stay in bounds before crossing into the end zone.

- The play of the game, though, came in the second quarter with Douglas trailing 9-0. Douglas was facing a third-and-19 at the 50-yard line and Zack Williams found Danny King up the middle for a 20-yard completion. What made the play special was that King held on to the ball despite taking a pretty amazing lick from his blind side. A drop there would have set up a fourth down in a situation where Douglas needed to get something going on the scoreboard. As it was, Douglas finished the drive off eight plays later on a one-yard run from Johnny Pollack.

- Douglas boys' soccer forward/midfielder Edgar Arceo added another two goals last week to bring his career total to 45. The school record is 60, set by Mike Gransbery. The season record is 31, set by Jeremy Louthan in 1999. Arceo has six goals so far this season.

Arceo also has three assists on the year and 23 in his career. The Northern 4A and school record is 35, set by Eddie Vega.

- The girls' soccer 4A state record for shutouts in a season is 13, held by Douglas' own Ashley Sulprizio (1999). Tiger sophomore Brianna Randall has posted six shutouts in 12 games so far this season.

- The girls' soccer state and school record for goals in a season is 26 (Morgan LeFever, 2006). Alex Laing has 10 in 12 games so far. Teammates Katie Dry and CJ Baumgartner each have seven.

When was the last time the boys' and girls' soccer teams each beat South Tahoe at the Lake?

- So this is how I understand it. You wear the new Nike Pro Combat gear and it apparently turns you into a ... what, a lizard? What is it exactly that has happened to Adrian Peterson in that commercial? An extreme case of shingles?

Sign-up is free and you will be competing for local and national prizes.

Visit recordcourier.profootball.upickem.net to sign up and make your picks.

This isn't going nearly as bad for me this year as it was last.

Here are my picks for week three:

Bears over Lions

Bengals over Browns

Texans over Raiders

Colts over Seahawks

Titans over Jaguars

Giants over Chiefs

Ravens over Patriots

Buccaneers over Redskins

Bills over Dolphins

Saints over Jets

Cowboys over Broncos

49ers over Rams

Vikings over Packers

Tiebreaker: Steelers 28, Chargers 21

Regular Season Survivor: Colts

Last week: 11-5. Season: 34-14. Season Survivor: Still alive.

- Former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson has a new show on A&E called "Keyshawn Johnson Tackling Design."

The tagline for the show states that Johnson will show clients to work within their budgets to make choices that make sense.

Because most people really want a guy who temper-tantrumed his way out of an eight-year $56 million deal in Tampa Bay talking to them about sensible decision making and working within a budget.

Make sure to drop by my "From the Bleachers" blog this week at www.recordcourier.com/bleachers.

The basic schedule goes like this:

Mondays: How the Top 10 fared

Tuesdays: Four Surprises and One Not-So-Much

Wednesdays: Sierra Nevada Sports Media Rankings + my ballot

Thursdays: My Player of the Year Ballot this week

Friday: Weekend picks

This was kind of a trick, since I gave you the girls' game above. Both teams beat the Vkings on that day in 2001, with the boys' coming away with a 3-1 win.