Orange County’s high school sports fans are passionate, which is no surprise to anyone who has checked out a game or competition in the county. But the passionate support in the first round for some athletes was particularly impressive, especially in matchups that literally were decided in the final moments of voting.

Now it’s time for the second-round voting to determine the fans’ choice as the OCVarsity boys athlete of the year.

You’ll notice quickly that there’s a strong football representation among the eight quarterfinalists … only one of the eight is not a football player. But he’s state champion wrestler and he edged Orange County’s football offensive player of the year in first-round voting.

This should be interesting.

Second-round voting ends Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Click here to vote for the O.C. girls athlete of the year.

Morgan McIntosh, Calvary Chapel wrestling, vs. Cecil Whiteside, Newport Harbor football and track and field. Click here to vote.

Ronnie Hillman, La Habra football and track and field, vs. Preston King, Tesoro football. Click here to vote.

Kyle Middlebrooks, Fountain Valley football and track and field, vs. Clark Evans, Los Alamitos football and basketball. Click here to vote.

Randall Nygren, La Habra football, basketball and baseball, vs. Robert Refsnyder, Laguna Hills football and baseball. Click here to vote.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.