Cal-Hi Sports Insider Blog

Quick-hitting, behind-the-scenes news and notes from the CalHiSports.com staff, including previews of upcoming content and events.

The Real Costs Of Not Wearing An Ankle Brace

By Louise Jimera

Have you been playing sports for a long time?

Well, me too. I’ve been at it for 13 long years, in fact. I’m fond of team sports the most like Frisbee and soccer but I don’t mind playing solo tennis, though. Although I never really took up any sport professionally, I did play for interschool competitions back when I was a student. Now that I’m a working adult, I still participate in company events and play for leisure every now and then. I guess the “me” that loves breaking a sweat and playing with good friends is always going to be around.

And I want to keep it that way.

However, playing sports isn’t always fun and games. There are times when you have to get really serious too. If you don’t, it can cause you a finger, a limb – or more commonly, an ankle! I’m not kidding. Engaging in physical activities always come with a significant amount of risk. When you’re getting in the zone, it’s easy to get lost in the moment after all. You start playing with no regard for your safety. It is during times like these that you need something else to do the “protecting” for you.

If it’s not obvious enough, I’m talking about gear. If you are going to play rigorously, you should at least make prior arrangements to ensure your safety while you play. I have friends who would say “they don’t need this” and “they don’t need that.” They would insist that they are careful and vigilant enough to keep themselves out of trouble even without protective gear. And guess what happened? They all ended up injured in some way.

Sports injuries happen all the time. They’re normal for anyone who actively plays in the field or in court. It doesn’t matter how hard you train your body. When you reach a certain limit, some parts of you will just voluntarily give up even if you personally didn’t want them too. Training only helps you build resistance; it doesn’t make you invincible.

Unsurprisingly, the most common sports-related injury is ankle sprains (check this out). They can happen to anyone, any day, and in any sport. Heck, you can trip over something and end up with an ankle sprain even if you’re just playing chess! All kidding aside, ankle sprains are so common that I bet every athlete or sportsman in the world has experienced it at least once in their life. I bet you too have had your fair share of ankle injuries, so I hope you don’t take them too likely. If you’re into sports that require heavy training or long hours of play, don’t wait for the unthinkable to happen.

Protect yourself from ankle-related injuries by buying an ankle brace and putting it on whenever you’re out on the play field. If you want to check out which ones are great to buy, maybe this Official Top 5 Review – ankle braces can help!

If you still don’t understand the urgency of wearing such gear, here are the real costs of not wearing ankle braces:

You Can Miss Out On Training

Instead of getting the chance to improve yourself even further, an ankle injury can prevent you from pursuing your training for a significant amount of time. If you’re a dedicated athlete, watching your teammates train hard while you sit on the bench waiting for your injury to heal can be pretty frustrating. But hey, that’s what you get for not taking protective gear seriously. If you don’t want this happening to you then please, wear the braces.

An Ankle Injury Can Cost You A Good Game

What hurts more than missing training is missing the BIG game. As a sportsman, you train hard every day for big games where you get to test just how far you’ve gotten with your training exactly. If you sit out of big games because of a foot injury, I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t just be your foot swelling but your heart too. Putting on ankle braces for a couple of seconds is nothing compared to missing big games.

Some Ankle Injuries Turn For The Worst

If you’re not careful enough, a simple injury may turn into something worse – and all because you refuse to follow safety protocols. It may seem minor for now, but constant foot injuries can lead to irreversible conditions that may compel you to stop doing sports altogether. I hope that day never comes so always be careful!

Anyway, you should always regard ankle injuries as a serious concern especially when you’re really into sports. Your physical health heavily affects how you perform on the field so it’s always best that you keep yourself in tip-top shape. Aside from being careful, you should also see to it that you wear the right gear whenever you go out to play. And I’m not just talking about your ankle.

If the sport you’re playing has a high risk of injuries, then you should really make prior preparations. Buy something to support not just your ankles but your elbows and knees as well. It is often these areas that get hurt the most when you play for long periods of time. You should also see to it that your body gets enough rest. Training can wait, you know. Everything will be for naught if you’re not careful about your physical health so always make sure that your body is not pushed to its limits – all the time. Save some of that energy for the real games!


All-State Softball: Patch List

For those just interested in seeing the names of players who are on the Gold Club post for this year’s All-State Underclass Team for softball 2019, here is a simple alphabetical list. If you want the full presentation and are not Gold Club, please check out getting a membership today.
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All-State Baseball: Patch List

Patches for every player named to every list of the 2019 Cal-Hi Sports All-State Baseball Teams will be available to order through our partners at BillyTees.com. This is an image of the 2018 patch. The 2019 patch will be similar. A certificate to accompany each all-state baseball patch also is part of the package.[/caption]
For those just interested in seeing the names of players who are on the Gold Club post for this year’s All-State Underclass Team for baseball 2019, here is a simple alphabetical list. If you want the full presentation and are not Gold Club, please check out getting a membership today.
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Salute to Tyler Skaggs

We were overseas when the tragic news broke about former Santa Monica High pitcher Tyler Skaggs dying at a hotel room in Texas while with the Los Angeles Angels baseball team on a road trip. Skaggs was 27 years old. Upon returning from our trip, we checked into more about Tyler’s family and his senior season with the Vikings in 2009 when he was named all-state first team.

Moment of silence is observed for Tyler in San Diego.


Cal-Hi Sports happened to be part of Student Sports and ESPN in 2009 and because of that we also were more connected to the Student Sports’ Area Code Games. Tyler was in that event in the summer of 2008 and was an impressive pitching prospect. In the 2009 high school season, he had given up playing football and basketball at Santa Monica and his recruiting/draft potential improved. He eventually would be picked at No. 40 overall in the supplemental draft by the Angels, who later traded him but got him back. He was in his fifth season as a starting pitcher for the Angels this year.

Despite only going 2-3 in 48 innings, Skaggs gained his all-state honor by striking out an impressive 76 batters in those innings and he also only had 11 walks. He struck out 12 batters in a game three times. He also had signed with Cal-State Fullerton, but didn’t go there after the draft.

That 2009 Cal-Hi Sports All-State First Team was exceptional. The two main player of the year candidates that season were Tyler Matzek of Capistrano Valley (Mission Viejo) and Matt Hobgood (Norco). We picked Matzek as Mr. Baseball after he led Capo Valley to the CIF Southern Section D1 title with a home run at Angels Stadium in a win over Norco and Hobgood. The Norco standout (who also had 55 RBI as a hitter) was the Gatorade National Player of the Year. It’s the other players on that team, however, that make it even more special. Among those selected were future MLB standouts Nolan Arenado (El Toro), Mitch Haniger (San Jose Archbishop Mitty), Jake Marisnick (Riverside Poly), Matt Davidson (Yucaipa) and Ryon Healy (Encino Crespi).

The following year, in 2010, the Santa Monica High softball team, coached by Tyler’s mom, Debbie, won the CIF Southern Section Division IV title. The Vikings defeated North of Torrance 11-3 in the championship game, sparked by a grand slam from Emma Woo in the fifth inning that erased a 2-1 deficit. It was Debbie’s first and only CIFSS title in a nearly 25-year head coaching career and her son paid for championship rings. That championship was bittersweet since it came just one week after Santa Monica athletic director Norm Lacy had died from a heart attack.

We didn’t know until reading about Tyler and Debbie in the aftermath of Tyler’s death that longtime Valencia High softball coach Donna Lee is the twin sister of Debbie so Tyler would be her nephew. Donna coached at Valencia in 2007 when the Vikings went 32-1 and won the mythical national title.

Obviously, this is a terrible time for all who knew and loved Tyler. A lot of people not just in the California baseball community but in softball as well will be thinking about the family over the rest of the summer.


Kawhi’s Mr. Basketball writeup (2009)

Kawhi Leonard has gone from being Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year at M.L. King of Riverside to become an MVP candidate for the San Antonio Spurs. Photo: Scott Kurtz.

Here’s a look at the article we did in 2009 when we chose Riverside M.L. King’s Kawhi Leonard as the Cal-Hi Sports Mr. Basketball State Player of the Year. It might seem today as if it was an easy choice at the time. It wasn’t. Leonard was not a McDonald’s All-American and he was lower than many others on national recruiting lists.

Editor’s Note: This also is one of the best articles that managing editor Ronnie Flores has ever done for our site.

If you can’t see this post, it’s easy to become a Gold Club member to see this article plus next week’s new state rankings and all of our other great, unique content. For sign up info, CLICK HERE.
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More Baseball Coaches of Year

In addition to overall State Coach of the Year John Weber of Cypress, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2019 season going to Pat Fuentes of Los Banos (medium schools) and Greg Mugg of Sunnyvale The King’s Academy (small schools).
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Two from US women’s soccer from same California school

California leads the way for the 2019 US women’s soccer national team that will try to win the World Cup this month in France with five former high school players on the roster. Georgia is second with three. Two of the five from California are from Sacred Heart Prep of Atherton.
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More State Softball Coaches of Year

In addition to overall State Coach of the Year Matt Sweeney of Pleasanton Foothill, we have additional state coaching honors for the 2019 season going to Robert Vernon of Ripon (small schools) & Ed Medina from Godinez of Santa Ana (medium schools).
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CIF State Academic Champions

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) today announced 35 State Academic Team Champions for the 2018-2019 school year. The CIF State Academic Team Champions program was initiated in 1996 as a way to reward teams with the highest collective grade-point-averages, based on an unweighted 4.0 scale, in their respective sport.

CIF State Academic Team Champions will receive a banner, suitable for display in their school gym, to recognize this accomplishment. All nominees were their respective CIF Section Academic Team Champions. Section offices forwarded their winners in all sports to the state office for consideration.

The Southern Section had 16 teams represented, followed by seven teams from the North Coast Section. The Central Coast and Central Sections had three teams each, followed by Sac-Joaquin, San Diego, and San Francisco Sections with two teams apiece.

Mission San Jose (NCS), Poly Pasadena (SS) and Whitney (SS), each had four teams accomplish a state-high team GPA. Pasadena Poly also was tops in three of the five sports that are primarily covered by CalHiSports.com — Football, Boys Basketball, Softball.

Three girls cross country teams accomplished a 4.00 GPA; Bakersfield, Moreau Catholic of Hayward and San Francisco International. The gymnastics team from Wilcox of Santa Clara also achieved a 4.00 GPA, along with the boys’ cross country team from San Francisco International.

Below is a list of the top team GPAs in each CIF approved sport (listed by GPA):

Boys Cross Country San Francisco International 4.00

Girls Cross Country (tie) Bakersfield 4.00 & Moreau Catholic of Hayward 4.00 & San Francisco International 4.00

Gymnastics Wilcox of Santa Clara 4.00

Boys Golf Webb of Claremont 3.95

Girls Tennis Whitney of Cerritos 3.94

Boys Swim & Dive Centennial of Bakersfield 3.93

Boys Water Polo Whitney of Cerritos Southern 3.93

Girls Water Polo Poly of Pasadena 3.93

Girls Swim & Dive Liberty of Bakersfield 3.92

Boys Volleyball Whitney of Cerritos 3.92

Boys Tennis Hart of Newhall 3.91 & Whitney of Cerritos 3.91

Girls Basketball Crean Lutheran of Irvine 3.91

Girls Golf Villa Park 3.91

Girls Volleyball Yeshiva (YULA) of Los Angeles 3.91

Softball Poly of Pasadena 3.90

Girls Soccer ABLE Charter of Stockton 3.89

Girls Track & Field Sacramento Country Day 3.88

Boys Track & Field Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.87 & St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano Southern 3.87

Boys Basketball Poly of Pasadena 3.86

Girls Wrestling Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.85

Boys Soccer Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.83 & Woodside Priory of Portola Valley 3.83

Badminton Archbishop Mitty of San Jose 3.82

Baseball Viewpoint of Calabasas 3.82

Girls Lacrosse Branson of Ross 3.82

Girls Field Hockey La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad 3.79

Boys Wrestling Mission San Jose of Fremont 3.74

Trad. Competitive Cheer Heritage Christian of Northridge 3.68

Football Poly of Pasadena 3.68

Boys Lacrosse Santa Fe Christian of Solana Beach 3.66

Competitive Sport Cheer Carondelet of Concord 3.53


More Baseball State Teams of Year

In addition to overall No. 1 and Division I No. 1 De La Salle of Concord, others that can say they are mythical state champions for 2018 are Santa Margarita of Rancho SM (Division II), Los Banos (D3), Winters (D4) and Rio Hondo Prep of Arcadia (D5). Read more…


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