Green Phone

CALLER 1: OK, Green Phone. So I understand that the CCS basketball playoffs are based on enrollment as far as which division each school is in. But the schools in the West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) should be absolutely embarrassed. It’s bad enough that Mitty, which has been ranked No. 1 or 2 in the entire CCS is playing in Division II and will play the likes of a 10-14 Leland team and its conceivable that they could also play teams such as Mountain View. So let’s go to Division IV now. Things get uglier. Palma, 20-5 Palma, another private school, might end up playing Gonzalez, with its 7-16 record on the year. Then, if that’s not bad enough, Valley Christian, again in the powerful WCAL, which arguably is one of the best leagues in Northern California, if not the state, if not the nation, they’ve decided to play in Division IV. If you go to girls, you have the same problem. Archbishop Mitty, which was one of the top two teams in the entire CCS, is opening up against Lincoln High School. That’s a big challenge, isn’t it? And again Valley Christian takes the cake. They’re in Division IV and it’s conceivable that they could end up playing a 9-15 Carmel team. This is absolutely ridiculous. These teams should be embarrassed and I’m not sure what the point is of these private school teams deciding to go to these lower divisions to beat up on schools that have no chance whatsoever. Thank you.

GREEN PHONE: Thanks Caller 1. But just when we thought you were finished, you called back…

CALLER 1 (again): OK, Green Phone, this is a follow-up call to my call the other day about these perennial high school private school basketball teams playing in a weak division, lower divisions than they should in the CCS playoffs. Looking at the box scores Thursday morning, this is a joke. This is an embarrassment. Mitty beats Lincoln 56-11. I don’t understand the point to that. And first of all, teams like Mitty and St. Ignatius, who by the way, beat Harbor 74-9, and were winning 51-2 at halftime. Those (losing) teams shouldn’t be playing at all in the CCS and the St. Ignatius and Mittys of the World should be playing Division I, absolutely, positively. The only reason they don’t is because they want to win state championships. And they want to play lower division when they play the schools from Southern California because they know if they go Division I in CCS, they’re gonna have to play the Mater Dei’s of the world, and the big powerhouses in Southern California that will kick their butts. And I’m not a bitter ex-public school person talking. I’ve been at private schools my whole life. I played high school sports and I would be ashamed if we had played anything but the best of Division I. I do not understand why a team that is 9-17 would even be playing in the CCS, let alone against a perennial powerhouse catholic league school. I don’t know what the redeeming values are for these teams. You’re down 56-2 at halftime. I know quitting is not cool, but if a team refused to come out in the second half, it would be hard to argue with them. I just don’t even see the point of playing the second half and I don’t think that would necessarily be a character builder either. I don’t buy that argument. I think it ruins the spirit of the game and the spirit of the athletes. Thank you.

GREEN PHONE: Caller 1, you’re not particularly heated about this subject, are you? But seriously, it really is sad that the WCAL schools are so dominant over everyone else in the CCS. But you must remember two things. First of all, the CCS does not allow a team to play “up” a division, even if it would make competition more equal. A few years ago, the CCS did allow teams to do this. But that rule has since been changed. For instance, Division IV school Valley Christian could not play at the Division III or II level, even if it wanted to. So technically, the private schools aren’t at fault for playing in weak divisions. Secondly, Division I is not the “best” division just because the schools with the largest enrollments play in it. In theory, it should be. But as you’ve pointed out, the strength of the private schools – even the small ones – throws that off. In reality, both the boys and girls Division I fields this year are arguably weaker than the Division II or III fields. As for opening round blow-outs, what were you expecting? Nail-biters? Yes, 50-point romps are a bit much. But first-round games between high seeds and low seeds typically are not close, even in the NCAA tournament. Now, when you have a title game won by 30 points? That’s when you have a real problem.

CALLER 2: Hi, I’m calling with regard to the coverage of the Live Oak/Sobrato basketball game. I thought it was weak. On the front page you had a story about a business-operated martial arts studio. That should be in your Living section, that should not be on your sports page. If it’s a competition it’s different, but this is merely an advertisement. That was improper. That was a big game between the two schools. That should have been on the front page. And the coverage in general for basketball all year for Live Oak has been very weak. And I think inappropriate as compared to last year’s. You don’t have athlete of the week anymore for all sports. I think that should be back into the paper. And you should have the recognition of the starting players at the beginning of the season and a biography about them like you’ve done in the past. So I hope you can re-focus on Morgan Hill sports. I don’t want to see or hear about Gilroy sports which seem to always creep in to the sports page too. The Gilroy paper is published five days a week. They get plenty of sports for the Gilroy teams. There should be no mention of the Gilroy or Hollister sports teams in the Morgan Hill Times. Thank you.

GREEN PHONE: A popular quote in many newsrooms comes from Samuel Clemens, better known to most as Mark Twain, “I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.” In many ways, Twain sums up the struggle of trying to please everyone with our publication. While Green Phone strongly contends that readers will find no other news source with more coverage of local sports, we always try to raise the bar. The martial arts studio has trained hundreds of local residents in its 14 years and almost 200 students have earned their black belts under its instruction. We feel that’s noteworthy and interesting to our readers who aren’t concerned about high school athletics. Just to be clear, there was front page sports story about the Live Oak/ Sobrato rematch and games finishing after our deadline were reported in Tuesday’s issue. The caller does raise a good point about the missing Athlete of the Week feature, and Green Phone assures you it will be returning soon. Also, neither of the two issues contained any sports stories outside of Morgan Hill.