TWO SCHOOLS HIRE COACHES; GIRLS FLAG A GO FOR FALL

Looking to turn around a program that is 16-38 since its last winning season in 2016, Olympian High School went young to find a new head football coach, naming 32-year-old Brad Carter to lead the Eagles.

Carter is coming off a three-year stint at Cerritos High School, leading the Dons to a 15-15 record, including back-to-back 5-6 seasons with one- and twopoint losses in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Cerritos was 26-127 over the 16 years before Carter arrived.

“I’m from San Diego, played at Granite Hills and Southwestern College, so I’m excited to be coming home,” said Carter, who was a receiver at Central Methodist University in Missouri.

“I loved playing at Southwestern College, and coach Ed Carberry was instrumental in my career. He is my No. 1 mentor.”

Offensively, Carter said he likes to run the ball, but with spread concepts.

Defensively, he said the Eagles will “get to the quarterback.”

“There are a lot of positives at Olympian,” Carter said. “There is a good coaching staff remaining. The kids seem to be excited.

“We’re heading into our dead period, then we’ll start a summer program in midJune and see what we have.

“But I’m ready to get after it.”

Carter is a PE teacher, and Olympian officials hope a full-time on-campus position opens soon.

Co-coaches for Brawley

Nearly five months after football coach Jon Self retired, Brawley High School finally named his replacement.

Make that replacements. Rick Rubio will be the defensive coordinator and Ray Vandiver will be the offensive coordinator.

Both were on Self ’s staff.

Girls flag football a go

Girls flag football is 100 percent on for the fall. Heinz said that 52 schools have signed up to play.

“According to our bylaws, 20 percent of the membership must agree to play and there must be at least two conferences to have a playoff and a championship,” Heinz said. “We have that, so there will be playoffs and a champion.”

There is still some question about who will coach the sport, who will officiate it, and when the teams will play.

Several athletic directors indicated football staffs will take on the extra duty and coach the girls with practice and field times to be worked out.

There is a shortage of football officials, so it appears flag games could be played on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The suggestion of conference “carnivals” on Saturday sounds good, but with Pop Warner using so many officials, the Saturday plan may not work.

Division 5 splits

The CIF Board of Managers unanimously approved a proposal to split Division 5, along enrollment, adding a Division 5A for all sports in an effort to accommodate the section’s smaller schools.

The proposal had been approved by the conference presidents and the Coordinating Council.

“We’re excited about this,” said CIF San Diego Section Commissioner Joe Heinz. “A proposal was made last spring, but didn’t pass. So we worked with the small schools, built on that first proposal, and came up with a plan that works for a lot of schools.

“This will add a championship, and that’s OK with us.”

Nineteen Div. 5 schools played football last year.

Under the new proposal, there will be nine teams in Div. 5 — Hoover, San Ysidro, Valhalla, Southwest-El Centro, Southwest-San Diego, El Cajon Valley, Monte Vista, Castle Park and Kearny. Hoover has the largest enrollment at 2,281, with Kearny the smallest at 1,348.

Division 5A would include Clairemont, O’Farrell Charter, Holtville, ArmyNavy, Mountain Empire, Calipatria, Vincent Memorial, Maranatha Christian, Tri-City Christian and the Rock Academy, which moves up from the 8-man ranks.

Clairemont is the largest school in Division 5A at 743 students. Rock Academy is the smallest at 119.

The playoffs would consist of two six-team brackets.

Bracket sizes would vary by sport, with as many as 12 teams in girls volleyball.

Budgets

With no income from playoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CIF-San Diego Section was in danger of going in the red.

Heinz reported the section is now in “a good financial place” with Operations and Events Coordinator Ron Marquez playing a major role.

“Our revenues have increased to the point where we can have our playoffs at college sites, which is what our members have asked,” Heinz said.

This spring’s baseball and softball championship games will be played at USD, San Diego State and UC San Diego.

Heinz also said he’s working on moving the Open Division football championships to Snapdragon Stadium.

Key dates

Football practice starts July 31 with the first game Aug. 17.

Girls volleyball and boys water polo may start practice July 31 with all other sports starting on Aug. 5.

Basketball changes

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Basketball Rules Committee has made some major changes to the sport for both boys and girls.

Starting next season, the 1-and-1 free throw is going away. Teams will now shoot two free throws for common fouls when in the “bonus.”

The “bonus,” however, has been changed.

In the past, teams were awarded 1-and-1 free throws when an opponent got to eight and nine fouls in a half. Two free throws were awarded for 10 fouls in a half.

The new rule will award two free throws when their opponents commit five fouls in a quarter.

Team fouls will reset each quarter.

“The rules committee studied data that showed higher injury rates on rebounding situations and saw this as an opportunity to reduce opportunities for rough play during rebounds,” said NFHS Director of Sport Lindsey Atkinson.

“Additionally, resetting the fouls each quarter will improve game flow and allow teams to adjust their play by not carrying foul totals to quarters two and four.”

According to the NFHS, basketball is the third-most popular high school sport for boys with 521,616 participants in 18,428 schools. Basketball is the fourthmost popular sport for girls with 370,466 participants in 17,901 schools.