Latest news with #DevinGonor
Los Angeles Times
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Prep Rally: High school football is changing, but for the better or for the worse?
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. Whether you've been paying attention or not, high school football is changing. Let's discuss. Rolling your eyes has been the theme if you follow college football and high school football. Changes keep happening because rules are in flux regarding name, image and likeness. Transfer numbers keep growing. Agents are picking up clients who are teenagers. Parents are examining options. Coaches are adjusting on the fly. It's the best of times and the worst of times. Many believe things will settle when court cases are finalized. Others believe amateur football has been changed forever. Here's a look at some of the issues, good and bad, that are affecting the high school football world. Devin Gonor of El Camino Real proved Saturday at Dodger Stadium that trusting the process still works. He played on the freshman team, then the junior varsity team for two years. He waited his turn, made his varsity debut last season as a junior and this season is 11-1 and pitched a three-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over Venice to give El Camino Real its 10th City Section Open Division title. Here's a look at how the Royals did it. Carson won its first ever City Section title in baseball by taking the Division I crown with a 3-1 comeback win over rival Banning at Dodger Stadium. Here's the report. The final week of the Southern Section season begins Tuesday with semifinals in Division 1 featuring Corona at St. John Bosco and Crespi at Santa Margarita. Here's a report on the quarterfinals that saw four close games. It also was the week Seth Hernandez of Corona hit two three-run home runs and struck out 10 in an impressive playoff performance. He'll pitch Tuesday. Here's a report. And Venice's Canon King went five for five in a semifinal win over Sylmar. Here's the report. Here's the complete Tuesday schedule. It will be El Modena playing Norco for the Southern Section Division 1 softball championship this weekend in Irvine. El Modena came through earlier in the week with a comeback semifinal win over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. Here's the report. On Saturday, Norco defeated Ayala and El Modena knocked off Temescal Canyon to reach the final in a season where hitters have had the advantage over pitchers. Here's the report. The City Section has its semifinals Wednesday with Granada Hills hosting Venice and San Pedro hosting Carson. The championship game will be played Saturday at Cal State Northridge. Birmingham football standout Antrell Harris was one of the stars at the City Section track and field championships, winning the 100 and 200. He's headed this weekend to compete in the state championships at Buchanan High in Clovis. The weather report is for temperatures in the triple digits. Here's a report from the City championships. The Southern Section held its Masters Meet, and RJ Sermons of Rancho Cucamonga was the top qualifier in the 200 and has one more week of high school competition left before he heads off to play football at USC. Here's the report. Joseph Wong of Granada Hills won the City Section golf championship. Here's the report. Grant Leary of Crespi won the Southern Section individual golf championship with a 66 for a one-stroke victory. Here's a roundup of Southern Section team champions. Here's a look at Leary. Mira Costa has qualified from Southern California to compete in the first state championship in boys volleyball Saturday at Fresno City College. The Mustangs will face Archbishop Mitty from San Jose. Here's the compete schedule of state championship matchups and results from regional finals. Catcher Trent Grindlinger of Huntington Beach has changed his commitment from Mississippi State to Tennessee. . . . Former Bishop Amat football coach Steve Hagerty will become athletic director at West Covina. . . . Ethan Damato is leaving Laguna Beach to become girls water polo coach at JSerra. . . . Connor Ohl, a junior at Newport Harbor, has committed to Stanford for water polo. . . . Oliver Muller is the new boys soccer coach at Oaks Christian. . . . YULA and Shalhevet, two schools that pulled out of the Southern Section baseball playoffs to participate in a Jewish tournament in Ohio, have been placed on probation and banned from next year's playoffs for violating Southern Section rules about outside participation during the season. Here's an opinion piece on how the decision by the two schools will hurt coaches and athletes. . . . Former Chatsworth football coach Marvin Street has accepted a teaching position at El Camino Real and will become the junior varsity head coach. . . . Loyola running back Sean Morris has committed to Northwestern. . . . Kevin Reynolds, the basketball coach at Villa Park for 30 years, died Friday morning, the school announced. He was 59. He had been diagnosed with cancer. His teams won 634 games in his coaching career. . . . John Quick, who was a longtime basketball coach in the South Bay, has died. . . . Loyola's James Dell'Amico has committed to Pepperdine baseball. . . . Former Tesoro football coach Matt Poston is the new athletic director at San Clemente. . . . The CIF state championships in tennis will be held Saturday in Fresno. Irvine University has qualified. ... Darius Spates is the new athletic director at Verbum Dei. He's a 2012 graduate. Harvard-Westlake has produced some outstanding pitchers who went on to the major leagues, but Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs is the Wolverines' first breakthrough every day player. As a center fielder with electric speed, he has come into his own this season to become an All-Star candidate. He used to be a teammate of Drew Bowser, who went to Stanford instead of signing out of high school and is now working his way up in the minors. Crow-Armstrong entered last week hitting .290 with 12 home runs. He hit a two-run home run Friday against former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame pitcher Hunter Greene of the Reds. His senior year got cut short in 2020 because of the pandemic. Here's an interview with Crow-Armtrong from that year and how he kept his focus on the future. Here's a story from 2019 on how he had become a hitting machine. From the Washington Post, a story on what a rowing coxswain does. From the Los Angeles Times, a story on UC Irvine baseball coach Ben Orloff, a Simi Valley High graduate. From the Los Angeles Times, a story on the new Compton High campus opening this fall with fantastic athletic facilities. Have a question, comment or something you'd like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer. 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Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Devin Gonor helps deliver El Camino Real another City baseball title
After spending one year on the freshman team and another year on junior varsity, Devin Gonor was an unknown left-handed pitcher when he made his varsity debut for El Camino Real last season. He beat Crespi, the defending Southern Section Division 2 champion, serving notice of a bright future. There he was standing on the mound at Dodger Stadium on Saturday afternoon asked to deliver a 10th City Section championship for El Camino Real. He came through with a performance that will put him on a equal pedestal with all the great ECR players of the past, such as major leaguers Randy Wolf, Connor Jackson and Kurt Birkins. Advertisement "It's amazing. I can't even describe it," Gonor said after the final out had been recorded. Gonor threw a three-hit shutout in the Royals' 2-0 victory over Venice in the Open Division championship game. It was a breakthrough senior season in which he went 11-1 and ended with shutouts over Birmingham and the Gondoliers. He's committed to Concordia University in Nebraska. "I grew up coming to Dodger Stadium watching Clayton Kershaw and Cody Bellinger," he said. "To be on the same field, it's something you can only dream of." Venice (28-3) came in as the No. 1 seed but could get little going against Gonor, who struck out five and walked two. Advertisement "Oh my Gosh, Devin was incredible," catcher Adan Viner said. "I expected nothing less. He was heavily using his change-up." El Camino Real (23-8) scored in the third inning for a 1-0 lead on a Luke Howe sacrifice fly with the bases loaded. An error on a ground ball allowed Luigi Tanner to reach base. There were two walks before Howe, El Camino Real's best hitter, lifted a fly ball to left field for the RBI. The Royals added another run in the seventh on a walk, sacrifice and RBI triple from Tanner. For coach Josh Lienhard, his team won 18 consecutive games against City Section opponents, relying on his outstanding pitching staff that also included Howe and Christian Gastelum, who performed well Saturday at first base catching throws in the dirt from the infielders. Advertisement El Camino Real ties Chatsworth for most City baseball titles at 10. It was the Royals' first title since 2016. There were 4,200 tickets sold between the Division I game won by Carson 3-1 over Banning and the afternoon final. All four teams are expected to compete in the Southern California regionals in two weeks. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Venice receives No. 1 seed for City Section Open Division baseball playoffs
Venice, having one of its best baseball seasons in school history with a 26-2 record, has been seeded No. 1 for the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs that end on May 24 with the championship game at Dodger Stadium. Despite playing in a stronger West Valley League, El Camino Real drew the No. 2 seed by virtue of a common opponent. Venice beat Sun Valley Poly and El Camino Real lost to Poly. The eight-team bracket, down from 12 teams, begins play on Wednesday and includes five West Valley League teams. The matchups: No. 8 Chatsworth at No. 1 Venice; No. 5 Cleveland at No. 4 Sylmar; No. 6 Poly at No. 3 Birmingham; No. 7 Granada Hills at No. 2 El Camino Real. So there's a good chance the top two teams from the West Valley League, El Camino Real and Birmingham, could meet again in semifinals at Cal State Northridge on May 20. El Camino Real just swept the Patriots this week behind shutouts from Luke Howe and Devin Gonor. Banning is seeded No. 1 for a strengthened Division I 16-team bracket. Action begins Thursday. Defending Open Division champion Bell is seeded No. 6 in Division I. There are five play-in games on Tuesday.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Prep sports roundup: El Camino Real, Birmingham keep pace in West Valley League
The No. 1 seed for the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs isn't expected to be decided until after El Camino Real faces Birmingham in a season-ending two-game series May 6 and 8. Both teams continue to win in West Valley League play. Devin Gonor struck out 12 in 6 2/3 innings and Troy Shaw had three hits in El Camino Real's 5-0 win over Taft on Friday. The Royals (10-1) have won 10 consecutive league games since a loss to Birmingham on March 12. Advertisement Birmingham improved to 11-0 with a 7-6 win over Chatsworth. Jordan Lindsay had two hits and two RBIs. Carlos Esparza got the save with two scoreless innings. Vicente Martinez had two hits and two RBIs for Chatsworth, which holds down third place in the West Valley. Cleveland 3, Granada Hills 2: Kaeden Riepl threw a complete game while John Orozco-Ortega and Riley Shapiro each had three hits. Hart 6, West Ranch 5: Facing a must-win situation to stay in the Foothill League title race, the Hawks came through. Lincoln Daly had two hits and three RBIs. Calabasas 8, Agoura 7: Matthew Witkow had two hits for the Coyotes. He has yet to strike out in 12 Marmonte League games. Advertisement JSerra 6, Santa Margarita 1: Jax Janeski yielded two hits in 5 2/3 innings and Jordan Marian had three hits and four RBIs to lead the Lions. Corona del Mar 5, Edison 1: Stevie Jones struck out five with no walks in the Sunset League win. JJ Haley had two RBIs. Simi Valley 9, Foothill Tech 4: Quentin McGahan had three hits for the Pioneers. South Hills 4, San Dimas 2: Elias Reyes threw six innings to pick up the win. Sierra Canyon 4, Saugus 0: Sophomore Mac Kennedy struck out 10. Rancho Cucamonga 6, Etiwanda 0: Jacob Peyton struck out eight in six innings and also had three hits for Rancho Cucamonga. Advertisement Cypress 13, El Dorado 2: Wyatt Rosales had a home run and Greg Prophet contributed three hits. Quartz Hill 14, Antelope Valley 0: Preston White had a five-inning no-hitter. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
26-04-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Prep sports roundup: El Camino Real, Birmingham keep pace in West Valley League
The No. 1 seed for the City Section Open Division baseball playoffs isn't expected to be decided until after El Camino Real faces Birmingham in a season-ending two-game series May 6 and 8. Both teams continue to win in West Valley League play. Devin Gonor struck out 12 in 6 2/3 innings and Troy Shaw had three hits in El Camino Real's 5-0 win over Taft on Friday. The Royals (10-1) have won 10 consecutive league games since a loss to Birmingam on March 12. Birmingham improved to 11-0 with a 7-6 win over Chatsworth. Jordan Lindsay had two hits and two RBIs. Carlos Esparza got the save with two scoreless innings. Vicente Martinez had two hits and two RBIs for Chatsworth, which holds down third place in the West Valley. Cleveland 3, Granada Hills 2: Kaeden Riepl threw a complete game while John Orozco-Ortega and Riley Shapiro each had three hits. Hart 6, West Ranch 5: Facing a must-win situation to stay in the Foothill League title race, the Hawks came through. Lincoln Daly had two hits and three RBIs. Calabasas 8, Agoura 7: Matthew Witkow had two hits for the Coyotes. He has yet to strike out in 12 Marmonte League games. JSerra 6, Santa Margarita 1: Jax Janeski allowed two hits in 5 2/3 innings and Jordan Marian had three hits and four RBIs to lead the Lions. Corona del Mar 5, Edison 1: Stevie Jones struck out five with no walks in the Sunset League win. JJ Haley had two RBIs. Simi Valley 9, Foothill Tech 4: Quentin McGahan had three hits for the Pioneers. South Hills 4, San Dimas 2: Elias Reyes threw six innings to pick up the win. Sierra Canyon 4, Saugus 0: Sophomore Mac Kennedy struck out 10. Rancho Cucamona 6, Etiwanda 0: Jacob Peyton struck out eight in six innings and also had three hits for Rancho Cucamonga. Cypress 13, El Dorado 2: Wyatt Rosales had a home run and Greg Prophet contributed three hits. Quartz Hill 14, Antelope Valley 0: Preston White had a five-inning no-hitter.
