Sutter, East Nic earn No. 1 seeds
Wheatland lands at No. 2 in D- IV after strong finish
The final batch of playoff brackets were unveiled on Saturday as the Northern Section released its postseason softball seedings for each of its five divisions.
In all, six Mid-valley teams qualified for the playoffs, and topping the list was Sutter and Wheatland High, which received the top two seeds in Division IV.
Defending section champion Sutter earned the No. 1 seed after ending the regular season on a 19-game winning streak and cruising to its fourth straight Butte View League title. The Huskies (24-1) will begin their march towards their fifth section crown in the last six years when they host No. 8-seeded Corning on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
The Cardinals (8-14-1) finished third in the Westside League and lost to Sutter 6-0 when the teams met on April 12. Should the Huskies win, they will host either No. 4 Central Valley (32-5-2) or No. 5 Willows (135) in the section semifinals on Thursday.
After starting the season slowly, Wheatland caught fire toward the end of the year by winning 10 of its last 11 games to secure the No. 2 seed in Division IV. The Pirates (17-10-1) will open the playoffs at home on Tuesday against No. 7-seeded Lassen (14-17-1), which finished fourth in the Northern Athletic League. The two teams met at the Lassen Tournament in Susanville on April 27 with Wheatland winning 7-6.
Photo by Zach Bolinger/icon Sportswire The San Francisco 49ers used the ninth overall pick in last month’s NFL Draft to take Notre Dame offensive tackle Mike Mcglinchey, whose 6-foot-8 frame and massive 10-inch hands will be battling in the trenches and protecting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
SANTA CLARA – Two items Mike Mcglinchey’s parents made sure they had before heading off to one of their son’s youth basketball games: A water bottle and his birth certificate.
“Because people always questioned whether he belonged on the team or not,” his mother, Janet, said.
You see, the Mcglincheys’ oldest child stood out among peers the way a tiger would in a room full of house cats. He was big out of the cradle, was called “Big Mike” while he was still a grade schooler and didn’t stop growing until he went off to college.
His parents wouldn’t let him play football at age eight, for example, because their town’s weightbased league would have put him on the same field as eighth and ninth graders. “So that year he ended up playing soccer, which he hated dreadfully,” Janet said.
During warm-ups at youthleague games outside of Philadelphia, parents of the opposing players would look at Mcglinchey and shout: “Yo, did No. 44 drive the bus here?” Mcglinchey was 9 years old at the time, not just the youngest kid on the team but the youngest in the league.
All of which begins to explain why the 49ers used the ninth overall pick on the offensive tackle from Notre Dame. Sure, his size played a role. They love that someone who stands 6-foot-8 and has massive 10-inch hands will be battling in the trenches and protecting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. But there’s also a maturity and steadiness about Mcglinchey that drew the 49ers.
One draft publication said he acts “like a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.” Before the draft, analyst Mike Mayock rated Mcglinchey as his top tackle because his work ethic and passion for the game were “unparalleled.” “So I know what I’m getting with that kid,” Mayock said. “And that’s why I bang the table for him.”
Said 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan a few hours after the 49ers selected Mcglinchey: “To me what
San Francisco Chronicle First-round pick Mike Mcclinchey, right, smiles during the San Francisco 49ers’ rookie minicamp practice in Santa Clara on May 4.
separates Mike from everyone else is the person you’re getting.”
No holding back How did Mcglinchey get that way? Parents and adults expect more from big kids because they instinctively think they’re older than they are. They play with older children because they’re so much larger than their peers and they aspire to be like their playmates.
When Mike was in kindergarten, he was on a team with third and fourth graders, prompting
his coach to note that while some of his players were learning advanced multiplication and division in school, one of his players didn’t know how to read or write.
“Even as a toddler he was always playing with 4- or 5-year-olds because he was so much bigger,” Janet said. “So I think he always gravitated to that mature level faster than most kids his age. His size sort of forced him to act more mature when he was still a young kid.”