Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The NFL draft was held last week, and dreams came true.
The Servite connection
Former Servite football coach Troy Thomas was invited to Green Bay on Thursday to see if his two former players, Mason Graham and Tetairoa McMillan, would be first-round NFL draft picks. It happened fast and early.
Graham, the defensive lineman from Michigan, went to the Cleveland Browns as the No. 5 selection. McMillan, the receiver from Arizona, went No. 8 to the Carolina Panthers, whose quarterback happens to be Heisman Trophy winner and former Mater Dei quarterback Bryce Young.
Here's a report on the historic moment of two former high school teammates being selected among the top 10 picks in the NFL draft.
Then came former Oaks Christian and UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger being taken by the Browns with the opening pick of the second round. Here's a report on his storybook rise from college walk-on to NFL draft choice.
Few were happier than Loara grad Ahmed Hassanein, a native of Egypt who played defensive end for Boise State and was a sixth-round pick of the Detroit Lions.
As if following Southern California grads wasn't exciting enough last weekend, perhaps the No. 1 quarterback in Southern California from the Class of 2026, Brady Smigiel of Newbury Park, announced he has committed to Michigan. Here's the report.
Baseball
Corona players celebrate winning Boras Classic in San Diego. (Nick Koza)
Corona is back hitting home runs and destroying the competition. The Panthers scored 23 runs against Corona Centennial in the first game of a three-game sweep and ended the week with a 13-3 win over St. Mary's in the championship game of the Boras Classic in San Diego.
Back at the No. 1 position in Southern California, Corona closes out league play with a three-game series against Eastvale Roosevelt. Then the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs will soon begin and everyone will be trying to beat the Panthers.
The big surprise of the week was Huntington Beach losing twice to Newport Harbor in Sunset League play. The Oilers still hold a two-game lead. Here's a report.
St. John Bosco completed an incredible turnaround, clinching its first Trinity League championship since 2017. Here's a report.
Hunter Manning of West Ranch struck out 12 in 3-1 win over Hart. (Craig Weston)
Hunter Manning struck out 12 in West Ranch's 3-1 win over Hart. Here's a report.
Birmingham and El Camino Real continue on a collision course to decision the West Valley League title. El Camino Real's only loss in league play was to Birmingham. Sylmar and Poly meet this week to decide the Valley Mission League title.
Venice is 21-1 and 14-0 in the Western League. The Gondoliers picked up a 12-2 win over Loyola on Saturday.
Harvard-Westlake and Crespi play a three-game series to decide the Mission League title. Jackson Eisenhauer of Crespi enters this week having allowed no earned runs in 47 innings.
Summit is on an 18-game winning streak.
Here's this week's top 25 rankings by The Times.
Here's the Southern Section power rankings.
Softball
Norco, Rosary and Orange Lutheran continue to be the top three softball teams in the Southland. Here are the rankings by CalHiSports.com.
Norco is 23-2 and 7-0 in league. Norco plays second-place King on Tuesday.
Kai Minor is having an MVP season for Orange Lutheran. Here's a report.
Lots of Southern California natives have been named to the USA national softball team competing in China. Here's the report.
Lacrosse
The Southern Section released its playoff pairings. Loyola is seeded No. 1 in boys and Mira Costa gets the top seed in girls.
Here's the link to pairings.
The City Section finals are Wednesday at El Camino Real, matching El Camino Real and Palisades in both the boys and girls finals. University's boys team forfeited its semifinal match because it did not have enough players after others opted to prepare and attend school prom.
Volleyball
The Southern Section playoff pairings were released for boys, and Mira Costa is seeded No. 1. Action begins Wednesday in pool play.
Here are the pairings.
The Southern Section girls beach volleyball playoffs continue. Quarterfinal action takes place Tuesday. Here's the updated pairings.
The City Section will hold its competition Friday at Santa Monica State Beach. Venice is seeded No. 1 in the 16-team tournament. Here's the pairings.
Lessons learned
Shortstop Colin Yeaman of UC Irvine had no scholarship offers in 2022 after graduating from Saugus High. He went to COC and has become a standout this season at Irvine. (Robert Huskey courtesy UC Irvine)
It was the spring of 2022 when Colin Yeaman finished as the leading hitter with a .385 batting average on a 13-16 Saugus High baseball team. He had zero home runs, which matched how many scholarship offers he had.
"I figured not getting any offers, junior college was going to be the best place for me to grow and develop to get to the Division I level," he said.
During two injury-plagued seasons at College of the Canyons, he grew to 6 feet 2 and 200 pounds. He started showing moments of power and ability playing shortstop.
This season at UC Irvine he has become a pro prospect with 12 home runs. Here's the story of how he did it.
Rising up with help
Loyola volleyball coach Michael Boehle is moving forward despite being diagnosed as having prostrate cancer. (Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
On the day before volleyball practice began in January, Hall of Fame coach Michael Boehle spoke to his players at Loyola High to let them know about expectations for the coming season.
"One of the things we talk about is cancer within a team and how there are times when cancer can really affect a lot of things and it's not curable and it spreads," he said. "We use that analogy talking about bad teammates."
Players had no idea what was about to come out of their coach's mouth.
"Unfortunately, today, I'm here to tell you your coach has cancer."
So began his battle with prostrate cancer in the middle of volleyball season. Here's his story.
Narbonne punished
The City Section announced that the Narbonne High football team has been banned from the playoffs for the 2025, 2026 and 2027 seasons because of rule violations, and all the school's sports programs have been placed on probation through the 2027-28 school year. Narbonne also has to vacate its 2024 football title.
Here's the report.
Notes . . .
Jonathan Antolin is the new basketball coach at Tustin. He was an assistant at Foothill. . . .
Ben Finnegan from Santa Margarita has committed to Point Loma Nazarene for baseball. . . .
Kaliya Ndiaye of Santa Margarita has committed to Syracuse for women's volleyball. . . .
Former Ontario Christian coach Matt Tumambing is the new girls basketball coach at Corona Centennial. . . .
Jordan Jamestown is the new basketball coach at Newbury Park. He had been an assistant at Harvard-Westlake. . . .
Pitcher Joseph Moreno of South Hills has committed to St. Mary's. . . .
Alijah Arenas of Chatsworth, the City Section co-basketball player of the year headed to USC, was involved in a serious car accident last week and has been recovering. Here's the report. . . .
Top girls golfer Jude Lee from Orange Lutheran has qualified to the U.S. Women's Open. . . .
Irvine University sophomore Rishvanth Krishna won the singles title at the Ojai tennis tournament. Here's the report. . . .
Another prominent player has been added to the high school football transfer tracker.
From the archives: Isaiah Magdaleno
Isaiah Magdaleno during his Crespi days. (Crespi)
Former Crespi pitcher Isaiah Magdaleno is thriving as a relief pitcher at Hawaii.
He's 4-1 with a 2.89 ERA and has five saves in 43 2/3 innings.
He helped Crespi win the Southern Section Division 2 championship in 2023 as the Celts' ace pitcher.
Here's a story from 2023 on Crespi's incredible comeback in the Division 2 final.
Recommendations
From the San Diego Union-Tribune, a story about six high school games being played at Petco Park and the impact of the experience on players.
From the Washington Post, a story on the coming rule changes and likely changes for college athletics.
Until next time...
Have a question, comment or something you'd like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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