COWBOYS SHOULD GET CHANCE TO STATE THEIR CASE.Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. LOCAL CARSON - The Gatorade was still dripping off his cheek and making a mess of his gold and green windbreaker. Family members ran at him from all directions. His team was still crawling out of its championship dogpile. Harry Welch looked up at the Canyon fans in the stands behind him, took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. That was it. That was all the time Welch had to enjoy his team's incredible 24-22 comeback victory over Moorpark on Saturday night in the Southern Section Northern Division championship game at Home Depot The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box Center. As soon as he turned around, the questions began, all variations on the same theme: Does Canyon deserve to be the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, representative in next week's Division I state bowl game? I know, I know. You want to see Concord De La Salle De La Salle is the name of several educational institutions affiliated with the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known as the Lasallian Brothers, a Roman Catholic religious teaching order founded by French priest Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle:
Division III (or DIII) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association of the United States. . That ain't changing, so forget about it. And no, they aren't going to pick Long Beach Poly even though the Jackrabbits lost to Orange Lutheran in the Pac-5 semifinals last week. Only section champions are eligible for bowl-game consideration. So here's the case for Canyon: The Cowboys are the best team. Period. They took on the best in the region, feared no one and came out with a title at the end. Yeah, OK, they have two losses. Both of them in September, as in three months ago. Both by a touchdown or less. And both, against teams --Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks and St. Bonaventure of Ventura-- that are among the elite in Southern California year in and year out. All they've done since those two losses in September was win 10 games in a row by an average score of 52-16. The Cowboys seemed to get stronger in the playoffs, too. They beat their four playoff opponents by an average score of 41-12. Some might hold Saturday's close victory against Canyon. But isn't that just another reason to pick the Cowboys? Anyone remember Long Beach Poly's failed, frantic comeback attempt against Orange Lutheran last week? It ended one point short on a botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. extra-point attempt. Put simply: Canyon came through when it needed to. ``What do you want from a high school football team?'' Welch said. ``Do you want to see courage? Do you want to see execution? Do you want to see composure and class? ``... How many yards did we hold Darrell Scott For Darrell Scott, the "Rachel's Challenge" founder of this name, see . Darrell Scott is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has written several mainstream country hits, and also has established himself as one of Nashville's premier session to? 100? Nobody's done that to him.'' None of the other three teams in contention can say all or even part of that. J.W. North of Riverside is 14-0, but it's only impressive victory of the season came against a team -- Chaparral of Temecula -- that lost 43-0 to Norco on Saturday in the Inland Division championship game. ``Picking J.W. North is akin to choosing Boise State to play Ohio State in the BCS (1) (The British Computer Society, Swindon, Wiltshire, England, www.bcs.org) The chartered body for information technology professionals in the U.K., founded in 1957. ,'' said Mark Tennis, the editor of Cal-Hi Sports which has Canyon No. 1 in its Division I Southern California rankings. Clovis East ended the season 12-1 and avenged a·venge tr.v. a·venged, a·veng·ing, a·veng·es 1. To inflict a punishment or penalty in return for; revenge: avenge a murder. 2. its only loss of a season last week with a 33-14 victory over Clovis West. Then again, no team from the Central Section recorded an impressive win over a team from the Southern Section this year. And Clovis West, the team that beat Clovis East earlier in the season, lost to Centennial of Corona. Guess who Centennial lost to in the first round of the playoffs this year? That's right, Chaparral. Dominguez of Compton would be an easy choice, had they not lost to Loyola of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. --a team that didn't even qualify for the playoffs -- in the regular season According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Cal-Hi Sports and calpreps.com rankings, Welch really shouldn't have to bother making a case. Canyon's an easy No. 1 pick in both rankings. That's a nice feather in the Cowboys' cap, but it's not part of the selection process. Sometime this morning, 10 section commissioners will gather in a room and start deliberations. They'll be joined, initially, by two expert witnesses: Tennis and longtime San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. Union Tribune prep columnist Steve Brand. The section commissioners will have a chance to ask Tennis and Brand as many questions as they want. Then the expert witnesses will leave the room and each of the section commissioners will make a case for the contenders from their sections. After the discussion is finished, voting will begin. ``We want the two best teams in each division,'' said Ken Gunn, event director of the state bowl game. ``Period.'' If he really means that, if they all really mean that, Canyon should be playing DeLa Salle next Saturday at the Home Depot Center. So who would Welch choose? ``Who is the best team? Who played the best competition? Who is playing the best?,'' he said. ``If there's a better team around (than us), take them.'' He didn't quite finish the thought ... He didn't have to. The Cowboys have done enough this year to show they belong. ramona.shelburne@dailynews.com (818) 713-3617 |
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