Pittsburg fills in football schedule
Three-plus months before the start of football season, Bay Area heavyweight Pittsburg has made a schedule change.
The Pirates announced Wednesday that they will play host to Sac-Joaquin Section power St. Mary’sStockton on Aug. 24 after Jordan of Sandy, Utah, dropped Pittsburg from its schedule.
Pittsburg will open the season at home Aug. 17 against Clayton Valley Charter. After St. Mary’s visits, the Pirates will travel to face Southern California juggernaut Centennial-Corona on Aug.31.
They will then play host to Serra on Sept. 7 before closing out their nonleague schedule Sept. 14 at Vacaville.
Those five opponents went 49-15 overall and 25-0 in league games last season.
Oh, and last season, Pittsburg’s league was widely viewed as the Bay Area’s strongest. Five of the six Bay Valley Athletic League teams finished above .500, Pittsburg reached a state final and Liberty won a section championship.
“Hopefully we can come out alive and play a tough league schedule,” Pittsburg coach Victor Galli said. “I guess we’re not ever going to get accused of ducking anybody.”
Jordan pulled out of the game because it did not get school approval to travel, according to Galli.
Pittsburg found out through a third party, Galli added, and was left scrambling this week to find a game, which brought back bad memories from last season after Pitt had two of its 10 regular-season games canceled because of heat and wildfires.
“After last year, I don’t ever want something like to happen,” Galli said. “I’ve never had a game canceled on me, and then I have two in one season. We were very, very lucky. It ended up being a blessing.”
The agreement with St. Mary’s is for two years. Pittsburg will travel to Stockton in 2019.
Basketball
Georgetown-bound point guard James Akinjo, who led Salesian to a section championship and Open Division state berth this past season, received first-team all-state honors by Cal-Hi Sports.
The Bay Area News Group’s player of the year averaged 20.7 points, 5.2 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.
He was the only Bay Area player on the first team.
Bishop O’Dowd’s Elijah Hardy and Bellarmine College Prep’s Jake Wojcik received second-team honors and St. Francis’ Logan Johnson made the third team.
Hardy is moving on to Washington; Johnson signed with Cincinnati. Wojcik, who was granted a release from the letter of intent he signed with Siena after a coaching change, committed to Richmond last week.
Champions honored
Monte Vista’s girls soccer team was honored last week for finishing the season No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps. The online high school service held a ceremony at the Danville school as part of its MaxPreps Tour of Champions. Monte Vista won the first Northern California Division I regional championship in March, beating Archbishop Mitty 1-0 in the final. The Mustangs went 25-1-1, ended the season on a 20-match win streak and had 19 shutouts.
Etc.
Oak Grove senior Lauren Innerst, who is batting .491 with 13 extra-base hits this season for the school’s softball team, took part in a ceremony last week for her commitment to Brown University. … Longtime Castro Valley girls basketball coach Jim Lemmon has taken over the girls program at Monte Vista. Castro Valley went 23-6 overall and finished second in its league last season.