It's that time of year again

Baseball fever is almost ready to sweep Claremont once again in 2011.

The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags baseball team opened the 2011 season yesterday in a home game against Azusa Pacific University. The Cougars shut out the Stags, 5-0.

C-M-S will host its Alumni Game this Saturday (11 a.m.) before returning to regular action at Master's College next Tuesday (2:30 p.m.). Pomona-Pitzer will kick off the new season on Friday and Saturday in a 3-game series against Pacific University (Oregon). Friday's game is at 2 p.m. while Saturday's games will begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Claremont High School will get in on the action with its alumni game taking place on February 19th. For more information on the game and opening ceremonies, visit the CHS baseball website at www.claremonthighbaseball.com.

Keep on the lookout for scores and other baseball coverage in the COURIER over the next several months.

Knights get the better of CHS faculty for 2nd straight year

Though this year's game between the Hollywood Knights and Claremont High School faculty was much closer than the 2010 version, the result was still the same. The Knights defeated the CHS faculty, 74-67.

The real winners of the celebrity game was the CHS boys basketball team, who received all proceeds from the event. No official tally has been given as to how much the team raised.

Claremont High School Principal Brett O'Connor, who played as a member of the CHS Faculty team on Saturday, said that attendance was down from last year but was grateful that the Knights made the trek to Claremont for the 2nd consecutive year.

CHS returns to action at Charter Oak on Wednesday with the tip-off at 6:30 p.m.

CHS Cheer halfway towards fundraising goal

While tomorrow's COURIER will feature coverage of Sunday's Claremont Toyota/Claremont Educational Foundation Prius Raffle, another story coming out of the event is Claremont High School's cheer program raising $1200 towards its $3900 price tag to compete in next month's nationals. Both the junior varsity and varsity levels will be vying for the national crown.

The cheer program sold the most tickets (144) of any booster or school group during the 4-month raffle and as a result received $720. Being the top seller earned the group another $500 surprise at the event.

"We have to raise $3900 so we're excited to receive this," CHS Cheer advisor Roni Franco said. "I didn't know that we sold that many but I know that my girls are glad."

Congratulations to the cheer program for their accomplishment and best of hopes that they raise the amount needed for next month's event.

Wolfpack, Spartans duel to stalemate

It looks as if we'll have to wait a bit longer to find out who the best boys soccer team in the Sierra League is.

In what was one of the best high school soccer matches I've seen, Claremont and Damien played for 100 total minutes, which included two 40-minute halves and two 10-minute overtime periods. And while both teams had their opportunities to score, the game ended with the score still deadlocked at 0-0.

Kudos to both teams on what was an intense and highly competitive match that was exciting the whole way through. Even though neither team could pull out the win, Claremont coach Fred Bruce-Oliver was pleased with his team's effort.

"I'm very happy because for a while, I was thinking that we were playing not to lose," Coach Bruce-Oliver said. "Then I showed them video of a previous game and they told me that they saw some bad things. Tonight, we got back to playing and I felt like we were not playing safe."

Both the Wolfpack and Spartans are now 4-0-1 in Sierra League play. Look for further coverage in Saturday's issue of the COURIER.

Hollywood Knights coming back to Claremont

The celebrity-studded Hollywood Knights basketball team is returning to Claremont High School for another showdown with the best of the Claremont Unified School District this Saturday.

Last year, the Knights defeated Claremont, 99-88, in the first ever meeting between the 2 teams with the CHS boys basketball program raising $15,000 as a result of the game. The program hopes to top that amount in 3 days.

All of Saturday's action will begin at 6 p.m. inside the main CHS gym. Tickets are $10 at the door while children under 5 years of age are free.

Here's a listing of the CUSD participants:

Rick Dutton - head coach
Brett O'Connor
Steven Patterson
Jamie Oberbeck
Jon Snapp
William Robinson
Brian Evans
Colin Nesbit
Chris Willoughby
Craig Crampton
Kevin Grier
Kevin Gross
Scooby

Here's the celebrity listing:

Aaron Hill
Alan Ritchson
Allen Evangelista
Arlen Escarpeta
Casey Deidrick
DJ D-Wrek
Greg Finley
Manny Guevara
Stoney Jackson
Blake Lewis
102.7 KISS FM

For more information, visit the Hollywood Knights website HERE.

Webb athletic director receives MacKenzie Award

Congratulations to the Webb Schools Athletic Director Stephen Wishek, who recently was named the Norm MacKenzie Award winner by the California State Athletic Directors Association.

The award is given to an athletic director who is recognized as the CIF Southern Section's most outstanding athletic director in his or her first one to 4 years of service. More than 570 public and private schools make up the southern section.

Wishek came to Webb in 2003 and worked as an instructor before becoming athletic director in 2008. Before Webb, he taught at Sage Hill School.

Wishek also maintains a blog on the Webb Schools website that provides updates on the schools' sports teams. Visit the site by click HERE.

Congrats once again to Wishek.

(photo courtesy of the Webb Schools website)

The Battle of the Undefeateds

Perhaps there has been no greater rivalry in Claremont High School's history than Damien High School. The two teams will continue their long-standing rivalry on the boys soccer front tomorrow in a Sierra League clash that may be one of the most important in recent history.

The Wolfpack and the Spartans, both with undefeated 4-0 league records, will collide at Damien High School in a nighttime match scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. start. Claremont has yet to lose a match this season with an impressive 12-0-4 record. Damien is 7-2-5 to date.

Look for coverage for tomorrow's match in Saturday's edition of the COURIER, along with a few notes about the match on this blog on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.