Author Archives: Harold Abend
State Baseball/Softball Players of Week
The two goals of this weekly feature are to track potential entries in the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book and to uncover and identify some hidden talent and diamonds in the rough for statewide recognition that might only get local kudos. While we didn’t have any performances that made the record book, we had two […]
Ms. Basketball 2025: Power of Puff
Following a path in which she was State Freshman of Year, State Sophomore of Year and State Junior of Year, Aliyahna “Puff” Morris of Etiwanda completes the cycle by earning California Ms. Basketball honors as a senior. It was not an easy selection, but being the star point guard of a team that made history […]
Crazy Carew as Rosary rises to crown
It was two weeks ago when the last State TOP 25 rankings for softball had been compiled, but unranked Rosary of Fullerton showed it has the makings of another top-level squad in the CIF Southern Section with a title game win in the Michelle Carew Classic on Saturday night vs state No. 4 Orange Lutheran. […]
State Baseball/Softball Players of Week
With half the team that collaborates on producing the State Baseball-Softball Players of the Week feature unavailable due to Cal-Hi Sports co-founder Mark Tennis being on the road, we were left to our own devices to research and pick the winners, so we put out a call on social media for nominations, and thankfully hit […]
State Coach of Year: Kelly Sopak
The head coach of CIF Division I state champion Carondelet of Concord has been named the 2025 Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year for girls basketball. However, Kelly Sopak’s ascension to joining a group of coaches honored by Cal-Hi Sports dating back to 1972 for the top honor for girls high school coaches in […]
Girls BB: More State Coaches of Year
Congratulations to all of the 2024-25 Cal-Hi Sports State Coaches of the year for girls basketball. These are the ones for each of the five state divisions. As we’ve also done since the advent of the Open Division with as few as 11 teams, we combine Open and Division I so there is just one […]
State Baseball/Softball Players of Week
It’s bayou time this week for our Northern California Baseball and Softball State Player of the Week award winners, which may seem a bit strange but both of our honorees are committed to LSU for college in Baton Rouge, La. One of the pair is going to grace the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book, and […]
FINAL Girls BB State TOP 40 Rankings
We can’t argue with the fact that our rankings are not totally in line with some state and national rankings. However, the one thing we have in our favor is in traversing up and down the state in the past five months, and covering dozens of teams and games, we have personally seen the first...
State Softball/Baseball Players of Week
For our second week of honoring baseball and softball players this season, we don’t have any records to track for the Cal-Hi Sports Online Record Book, which is one of the purposes of this feature. However, there was no shortage of some hidden gems, a couple of diamonds in the rough, and even a former […]
CIF Saturday Girls BB State Finals
Etiwanda completes its third straight run to the CIF Open Division state title with a win on Saturday over Archbishop Mitty. It’s not the first three-peat or four-peat in state history, but it’s the first since the CIF went to an Open Division in 2013. Caruthers also repeats as a CIF state champ (this time […]
