01.31.07
the gigantic wall
i sell cds at gigantic.
after 11 miles
vondre does a few speedy stride outs.
dtl – 01/31/07
the sprinters had a hard one today. they did 2×600, 2×400 and 2×200.
40 Years of Arcadia Invitational
40 Years of Arcadia Invitational
Nation’s Best Come to Southern California
April 6th-7th, 2007
A Look Through 40 Years of Action!
2007 Meet Registration Opens Sunday, February 4th. Details being posted that day.
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1968 – First Competition
With the idea of a evening track meet for area schools, Arcadia High Track Coach Doug Smith held the first Arcadia Invitational for 23 schools and six track clubs. The meet featured a slate of events for the young ladies of the club variety, as this was contested in the pre-CIF female days. The list of officials included a number of great names in local history: Andy Bakjian, Fred Barton, Paul Risinger, Don Nordvold, and others, with coaches including Ed Austin of Mira Costa and Frank Chong of Glendora. Club coaches included Mihay Igloi (Santa Monica TC), Fred Jones (LA Mercurettes), Bob Seaman (Crown Cities TC), and Ron Allice (Long Beach Comets).
Andy Young (LB Jordan) took the Boys 440 at 48.7 (this was back in the days of yard distances), with Dave Whiteing (Mark Keppel, Alhambra) posting a 1:55.1 880, and Dave Gneere (Fontana) registering a 4:23.5 mile. Tony Baker (Mira Costa) started the Arcadia distance tradition with a 9:14.4 two-mile win over Chuck Smead (Santa Paula). Fontana swept the Boys’ relays, with 43.1 for the 440, 3:34.8 for the sprint medley, and 3:22.8 for the mile relay clockings. Luther Reagan (LB Jordan) was 6-06 in the Boys HJ, with Ernie Cathcart (Fontana) a winning 59-03 SP effort. Tracy Smith, a 1963 Arcadia grad and State Mile Champ while a prep, who would go on to place eleventh in the high-altitude Mexico City Olympics of 1968 at 10,000 meters, won a special Open 3000-meter run at 8:00.6.
Pernetta Glenn (LA Mercurettes) swept the Girls’ sprints at 11.2 (100y) and 25.4 (220), with her club a 49.3 440-yard relay winner.
Price: School-boundary panel failed to hear parents
Price: School-boundary panel failed to hear parents
BY ROBERT PRICE, Californian columnist | Tuesday, Jan 30 2007 11:50 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Jan 30 2007 11:57 PM
Public outrage gets results. Elected officials pay attention, as well they should, when people start lining up at the microphone to speak. When almost all of them are saying the same thing, the decision becomes almost inevitable.
People certainly spoke with one adamant voice at the packed school-boundary hearings hosted by the Kern High School District. The most contentious issue at those meetings, held in November and December, was placement of the border between Bakersfield High School and West High School.
Bakersfield High parents attended the hearings in droves. West High parents stayed home in droves. The BHS side — and I have to include myself here, in part because I’ve got two kids headed that way — wanted no part of a plan to take four middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhoods out of the ethnically and economically diverse BHS enrollment area. The West High side, represented by a comparative few (including, to their credit, a couple of West High teachers), liked the idea.
But these school-boundary deliberations were in the hands of a volunteer committee of 50 parents, administrators and assorted others — none of them, it’s important to note, answerable to voters.
Well, get this: The committee’s final recommendation is in, and the concerns of the hundreds of parents who showed up at those hearings to make their feelings known have been deemed irrelevant.
Those four neighborhoods are one step closer to moving into the West High enrollment area, against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of engaged parents.
Did the committee give more weight to the feelings of all those West High parents who chose to stay home and watch “Sports Center”? We don’t know, because, with precious few exceptions, we don’t know how those parents truly felt.
Unlike vast numbers of BHS parents, who cared enough to understand the issues, take time out of their schedules, overcome their fear of public speaking, and get involved in the process precisely the way their obligation as parents demanded.
All for nothing.
At least that’s where it stands now. The boundary committee — created, ostensibly, to filltwo new high schools, the district’s 17th and 18th — has forwarded its recommendation to KHSD Superintendent Don Carter. He may accept the committee’s proposed boundary as is or make changes of his own. He will then forward his recommendation to the board of trustees, which will make the final decision in March.
The school district will first hold one more public hearing, probably in February.
But why bother? The boundary committee already held two public hearings. The public-opinion needle pointed decisively toward keeping Bakersfield High’s laudable socioeconomic diversity intact.
If the committee was just going to ignore all those people, what were the hearings for? Theater?
West High needs a boost, no question. The school, which once dominated the district academically the way Stockdale, Liberty, Centennial and BHS do now, is a shadow of its former self — largely because of gradual middle-class flight (and the loss of active, vocal parents) from West’s stagnating older neighborhoods.
But the boundary committee only considered one strategy that could meaningfully fortify the school — one that takes from BHS. Neighborhoods with desirable demographics in the Stockdale High and Liberty High enrollment areas are relatively close to West High, too. But a more equitable plan that restores West by appropriating from those and other relatively new schools never made it past the talking stage.
Instead, the committee opted for the pendulum approach, moving the same neighborhoods from West High to BHS and back again, hurting each school in turn.
Now it’s apparently Bakersfield High’s turn — to the detriment of the city’s central business corridor, which benefits from the presence of a strong, vibrant high school.
Everyone appreciates the need to fortify West High, but a demographic guillotine, in light of those one-sided public hearings, is patently unfair.
Government teachers: This might make a lively topic for classroom discussion. Turn your students loose and see how they feel.
At least then we can say some good came of what has been, to this point, a bewildering process.
Robert Price’s column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach him at 395-7399 or rprice@bakersfield.com.
Hartnett brings wealth of experience to Highland
Hartnett brings wealth of experience to Highland
Former Bakersfield and Golden Valley coach adds Van Horne, Press to Scots’ football staff
BY BRAD RIDDELL , Californian staff writer
e-mail: briddell@bakersfield.com | Tuesday, Jan 30 2007 11:05 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Jan 30 2007 11:10 PM
The biggest surprise at Highland High on Tuesday wasn’t that Tim Hartnett would spend his 34th season in coaching walking the Scots’ sideline. Rumors of his move from Golden Valley High closer to his home in Northeast Bakersfield had run rampant since November.
Photos:
Photo by Dan Ocampo / The Californian
Highland High introduces former BHS and Golden Valley coach Tim Hartnett as its new varsity football coach during a press conference Tuesday.
Hartnett announcing that he would bring in former East and Liberty head coach Rick Van Horne as well as former Frazier Mountain head coach Paul Press as assistants made the biggest splash.
“I have a solid group coming on board,” Hartnett said at a press conference in Highland’s library. “You need a good staff to help you be successful.”
Press is an English teacher at Chipman Junior High, just outside Highland’s football stadium. He’s familiar with the school, the area and he never lost the desire to coach after spending time at Delano, Frazier Mountain and Stockdale. Press also coached under Van Horne for the Bakersfield Blitz before moving into the team’s front office.
“When I left the Blitz, the fire was burning to get back into coaching,” Press said.
Hartnett said Press will coach either wide receivers of defensive backs. With 20 years coaching in Kern County, Press was drawn to the job by the close network of Bakersfield coaches.
“The coaching community in Bakersfield is very tight knit,” Press said.
Press has never coached with or against Hartnett, but he has plenty of experience with Van Horne, who spent time on the Bakersfield High staff with Hartnett in the 1980s, including a stretch of 39 consecutive wins from 1988-1990.
Now it’s time to work the same magic at Highland High, a school that hasn’t boasted a winning record since 1996 — the Scots finished 8-3.
“I know first-hand they have some great football players,” Hartnett said. “I feel like Highland has the core to have a great football program.”
While the Scots limped to an 0-10 finish in 2006, Hartnett emphasized that he isn’t coming in to rebuild the program. He feels like Highland can start winning next season.
“I have a vision of having some football players on this campus that are true leaders,” Hartnett said. “I have a vision for a tough, hard-nosed defense and an offense that can score at any time from anywhere on the field.”
Hartnett spent 1997-2001 as the head coach at Bakersfield High, winning the Central Section championship in his final season. After working with the BHS junior varsity, he went to Golden Valley to start the Bulldogs’ program in 2003. He built them into one of the best teams in the Southeast Yosemite League.
The significance of bringing in someone with Hartnett’s record is not lost on those at Highland.
“Just the name alone brings such tradition and such pride, and that’s what we need,” Highland athletic director Kym Campbell said.
“We had big-name coaches coming to you and saying you’re nuts if you don’t hire this guy,” said Highland principal Bob Schneider.
“I’m just glad we have a new start,” said Highland junior Justin Owens, who plays center and defensive tackle. “It’s time to get in the weight room and work toward earning the league’s respect.”
Even Highland parents were so excited about the thought of having Hartnett coach the Scots that they took matters into their own hands.
“I had the unique situation,” Hartnett said, “of parents coming to my door and asking if I would entertain the idea.”
In the end it was an easy decision for Highland to offer Hartnett the job, and an easy decision for him to accept. He’ll be closer to his family, he’ll face shorter commutes to work and he’ll have the opportunity to revive a program full of kids from his own neighborhood.
“It comes down to this: I need to represent my ‘hood,” Hartnett said. “I’ve lived for 25 years in this neighborhood. I’m in the last chapter of my career, and I thought, What better way to end it?”
