North 12, South 10.

That was an exciting finish. North quarterback Chris Morales was having a miserable game, and then on that last drive he looked like Joe Montana with some cool, clutch completions. Christian Daniel made two great catches, one on the touchdown at the back of the end zone, and then made the game-clinching INT.

The PA system and PA guy are getting ribbed on the message boards here — and for good reason.

Turn the darned volume down!!! I would tell the guy who runs the stadium this, but no matter how gentlemanly I am toward him he is cranky 24/7 and has been for years. When I walked into the stadium just after 6 p.m., a rap tune was being played with the “N” word a prominent and constant part of the lyrical content. I have written this before, and here it is again — DON’T LET KIDS SELECT THE MUSIC!!! It later went to classic rock, of the dullest variety. Hey, I love the Stones and have seen them 17 times. They have more good songs than just “Satisfaction,” ya know.

I do some presentations and public speaking myself, and one thing I always do is make sure is that I will pronounce kids’ names correctly. I take the time to check with the kids, or somebody who knows them. Get it right. At the All-Star Game, El Toro’s Jai Morris’s first name was “John” and then it was pronounced “Jie” (rhymes with “die”) when it is correctly pronounced like “Jay.” A Santa Margarita player was announced to be from Santa Barbara. I know those Catholic schools don’t have attendance boundaries, but come on … the highlight, though, might have been when the PA guy made a teasing comment about a CIF-Southern Section assistant commissioner when he thought his microphone was off.

There should have been someone to tell kids to not stand along the front railing in front of the stands. There were some senior citizens sitting on the front row — it can be difficult for some of these good folks to climb stairs — and their view was blocked. Our senior citizens, these grandparents of the players, deserve whatever courtesy we can give them.

Finally, my prediction of the North winning by three points was pretty close. I thought the North linebackers would be a deciding factor, and Sean Kurtz, Brady Lukas and Kameron Jones delivered. North coach Brent McKee and South coach Jason Negro ribbed me but good for that prediction, back in May at the All-Star recognition dinner. I know what I’m doing. The Frankly Fryer record is very good. I am happy to compete against anyone at any time, when it comes to forecasting high school football game results, and happier still when I compete against someone who, like me, is willing to put his real name behind his predictions (which never happens).

– Steve Fryer

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 9:31 am and is filed under Football, Steve Fryer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.