THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: GAMES TO BE SHOWN
College football dominates Saturday television.
The NFL owns Sunday and Monday.
This season, for the first time in more than a decade, high school football returns to TV on (mostly) Thursday nights in San Diego.
YurView California — Channel 4 on Cox Cable in San Diego, the same station that now carries Padres games — announced a nine-game schedule for the 2023 season. Seven of the games will be played on Thursdays, with one on Friday and one on Saturday.
The first game will air Aug. 24, when Vista travels to Ramona. Games will be shown live on Cox 4 and Spectrum 4 with TVX Video producing. Games will also be streamed live with replays during the week. Jon Schaeffer, Jack Cronin and Jonathan Rifkind are the announcers.
The rest of the TV lineup: Lincoln at Mater Dei Catholic, Sept. 7; Escondido at Oceanside, Sept. 14; La Jolla Country Day at Bishop’s, Sept. 30; Hilltop at Eastlake, Oct. 5; El Capitan at Mount Miguel, Oct. 12; Mission Hills at El Camino, Oct. 19; Madison vs. St. Augustine, Oct. 20; TBD, Nov. 26.
“We’ve been working on this for a while,” said Todd Cassen, CIF San Diego Section assistant commissioner. “We’re delighted it’s finally a go.”
Channel 4 did Thursday night games about 12 years ago.
But teams were forced to switch contests from Friday to Thursday, and coaches were less than thrilled.
As many as eight games each week are scheduled for Thursday this season, a result of an official shortage.
Gary Seideman, marketing manager for Cox Media/YurView California, said of carrying high school games: “We want to be hyper local, we needed to revive things with a unique concept, and what is more local than high school sports?”
There have been discussions between the CIF and YurView to add girls volleyball and boys and girls basketball.
“That’s what we’d like to do,” Seideman said. “We’d like to do more girls sports and give exposure to sports beyond football.
“We’re looking at this from a community standpoint. We want to involve the bands, the cheerleaders. We want to make it special.”
Palomar Health is the title sponsor and YurView is paying the CIF a rights fee with monies passed along
to the schools to be compensated for appearing on TV to help offset any loss in gate income.
More TV
KUSI will televise Saturday’s Mission Hills at Granite Hills game live at 7 p.m. Paul Rudy, Brandon Stone and Burt Grossman have the call.
• ESPN’s Aug. 26 GEICO High School Football Kickoff game will
feature Mater Dei Catholic and Carlsbad. Mater Dei Catholic is No. 3 in the preseason and boasts running back Anthony McMillian, who is committed to San Diego State, and defensive back Isaiah Buxton, who is committed to Arizona. Carlsbad, No. 2 in the preseason, has quarterback Julian Sayin, who is committed to Alabama, and linebacker Luke Ferrelli, who is headed to Stanford.
Honoring a star
Oceanside High School will honor CR Roberts, one of the school’s great stars, by wearing a “CR 36” decal on its helmets this season.
Roberts, who died in July, was the State Player of the Year in 1953 and scored 65 TDs in two varsity seasons at Oceanside.
He went on to play at USC, for the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL and the San Francisco 49ers.
New fields
Oceanside and El Camino high schools have new football fields.
Oceanside is in the process of installing a new scoreboard.
Torrey Pines is set to get new turf on its football field while installing turf on all grass fields on campus other than baseball and softball.
Coaching changes
Terry Tucker, longtime basketball coach at San Ysidro, has been hired to coach boys basketball at Norco, a school that is 115-144 over the last 10 years.
• Former NBA star Derek Fisher has been hired to coach boys basketball at Encino Crespi.
Coaches needed
Madison High School is looking for varsity coaches for baseball, boys soccer and girls lacrosse. Interested parties should contact Athletic Director Ron Lardizabal at rlardizabal@sandi.net
Things to remember
The five-game sit-out period for transfers ends Sept. 21.
• Teams may not practice more than 18 hours a week and no more than four hours in any single day.
• The last possible regular-season contest is Oct. 28. Playoff seedings are Oct. 29 with the first playoff games Nov. 3.
• There are eight playoff divisions. The Open Division championship is Nov. 18. Championships for Divisions V and the new Division V-AA are Nov. 17. Divisions I and IV will play title games on Nov. 24 with Divisions II and III on Nov. 25. Championship sites haven’t been announced.
• Only the champions advance to the SoCal Regionals. There is no regional in Division V-AA.
By the numbers
Participation in football has grown 5.4 percent in 2023 from 84,626 to 89,178, according to the CIF. Exactly 435 are expected to play 11-man football in 2023, down from 568 last year.