Author Archives: Harold Abend
Ms. Basketball 2026: Kaleena Smith
Choosing a junior for the state’s longest-running and perhaps most prestigious individual honor can create some problems, but it was no problem at all that Ontario Christian’s very special point guard who averaged 31.5 ppg for the CIF Open Division state champions has to be Ms. Basketball for 2026. Kaleena will now look to become […]
State Coach of Year: Marlon Wells
For the third time in six years, the state’s most prestigious and long-running girls basketball coaching honor goes to someone from the Inland Empire. But Rancho Christian’s Marlon Wells hasn’t won that many of his more than 600 career wins at the school located in Temecula. He’s gained success at two schools in the CIF […]
Norco captures sixth Carew title
In a championship game matchup on Saturday at Peralta Park in Anaheim, state No. 3 Cougars took down No. 2 Fullerton, 7-0, as their pitching all week was dominant. The Indians, who got past Orange Lutheran in the semifinals earlier on Saturday, had to rest their No. 1 pitcher and Norco’s bats got going, especially […]
Carew boasts loaded field
The 41st anniversary of the top tournament and grandmother of girls softball tournaments in California, and the 27th time it has been played as the Michelle Carew Classic, is going on this week at Peralta Park in Anaheim, and this year’s field is loaded. Highly-ranked Fullerton (12-1) is ready to roll at this year’s Michelle […]
Sopak leaves Carondelet for UNR
Last season’s State Coach of the Year in girls basketball is going to take the plunge into college coaching as Carondelet of Concord’s Kelly Sopak (also the former head coach at Miramonte of Orinda when Sabrina Ionescu was there) is going to take over the program at the University of Nevada. It is a bit […]
CIF Saturday Girls BB State Finals
With junior sensation Kaleena Smith leading the way, Ontario Christian completes its remarkable build from small school to CIF Open Division state champion with victory in long-anticipated matchup over Archbishop Mitty of San Jose. Sierra Pacific also wins All-Central Section D2 title and Faith Christian wins D4 title in last game of record-breaking career of […]
NEW Girls BB State TOP 30 Rankings
Talk about some movement. Not one team in the first 15 spots maintained last week’s ranking this week after there were some upsets and seeds that went down. Ontario Christian is back on top and Archbishop Mitty is No. 2 as the two will need to win on Tuesday to force a rematch for the...
NEW Girls BB State TOP 30 Rankings
We begin this week with some explanations from the CIF and our own thoughts on Sunday’s release of pairings for both the NorCal and SoCal regional playoffs. We also have a big change at the top as Sierra Canyon has to move up to No. 1 after beating previous No. 1 Ontario Christian in the...
CIFSS Girls: Was it an upset or not?
Underdog Sierra Canyon gets an epic outing from All-American Jerzy Robinson to topple state No. 1 and national No. 2 Ontario Christian in the CIF Southern Section Open Division final on Saturday night in Ontario. New Cal-Hi Sports State TOP 30 rankings will be out on Monday night or Tuesday morning and are likely to […]
