Last March closed out a fantastic season of high school basketball which came three, four years in the making.
The Foothill and Enterprise boys teams won Northern Section titles and Shasta took second to the Cougars in a game-for-the-ages at Chico State.
The Shasta Union High School District couldn't script a more flattering narrative.
But three months later, almost every key player on all three of those teams graduated.
So we enter the district's tournament, the 39-year-old Harlan Carter Invitational, eager to start a new volume in north state basketball lore.
We start the cycle anew. Full story »

Time for hardcourt season.Now that the fall sports are mostly done (wrestling is still ongoing), attention turns to basketball.
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Dear Babe: I have my father’s collection of baseball cards from the mid-1930’s. They are primarily National Chicle cards. Unfortunately almost all of the cards are pasted in scrapbooks. Any suggestions for how best to salvage them? I assume that pasting in a book has a significant impact on value. Kip Fraasa, Marietta, Ga. Full story »

Dear Babe: I met and talked with Gene Conley. I have a book, baseball and basketball signed by him. Joe Keesling, Clermont, Fla. Full story »

The one man inexplicably absent Wednesday at Shasta’s 33-14 loss to Paradise was Jim Tomasin, now the Wolves’ No. 2 all-time rusher.
Arguably one of the section’s best running backs of all time didn’t see junior Evan Taylor take a second-quarter handoff that relegated Tomasin to second place.
He saw many of the 3,085 yards the moptop Taylor had totaled the past two seasons. But Tomasin wasn’t there to see No. 10 bust one up the gut for 14 yards to eclipse a westside mark that had stood for nearly two decades.
No, Tomasin wasn’t so distraught that he couldn’t bear to see the kid overtake the “old guy.”
In fact, in recent years, the physical trainer at Maxim has said he hoped it would be broken, if for nothing else than so he could stop answering questions about when it would be broken.
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This tale doesn’t have a happy ending.
It might, someday. But time will tell.
Stephen Somers, in the biggest football game of his life, came up flat.
Then Somers let his emotions get the best of him.
He got chippy, picked up a pair of personal foul penalties and got booted from Shasta’s 33-14 section title loss to Paradise on Wednesday.
It’s not how the Wolves’ senior safety, and team leader, expected to go out. Full story » Comments (67)

Dear Babe: I have two older Mecca Cigarettes cards. Someone told me they were the 1912 Olympics. Rich Gladue, Conyers, Ga. Full story »

So now that the Shasta College football program has delivered an eight-win improvement, won its first bowl game in 14 years, won its first conference title in 21 years, what's next?
Prior to this season, the Knights were in a downward cycle in which every season appeared to get progressively worse. But, the 2008 season completely turned things around.
The trick now is to avoid being a one-year wonder and having things slide back.
The 2009 season will determine whether the Shasta program truly is in for a successful run. Full story » Comments (4)

Eight teams vie for four Northern Section championships tonight. Full story » Comments (10)

To all the girls in the Eastern Athletic League who have a volleyball imprint tattooed on their bodies, please see Enterprise’s Amber Hall. Full story » Comments (2)

That was the most exciting junior college football game I've seen in my eight years of covering Shasta College football games.
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Dear Babe: I have a Jack Nicklaus MacGregor N275 “White Fang” Putter that has never been used. It has a white ceramic putting head and is signed by Nicklaus in the ceramic. In addition, I asked Nicklaus to sign the putter, while he was a contestant at the Sarazen World Open Championship at Chateau Elon in Atlanta in 1996 or 1997. The putters were gifts given to customers attending the Atlanta Classic Golf Tournament in 1971. Ken Leach, Atlanta Full story »

In the midst of the Shasta College football team's run to its first bowl berth in six years, college basketball season has quietly begun.
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Dear Babe: My siblings and I recently inherited a baseball that was my dad’s. He told us it was signed by Babe Ruth. William Summers was an American League umpire in the 1930s and was a family friend. He gave it to my dad in the ’30s. Of course, we thought it was pretty valuable and wanted it appraised. Much to our surprise, we found out from one of the Antiques Roadshow appraisers that it was a clubhouse signature. Does just the fact that it’s old give it any value or does the signature make it worthless (but a great story...)? At least now we aren’t fighting over it. Jean Oberlander, Nashua, N.H. Full story »

While five of the six Northern Section football divisions will hold semifinal games this week, Division V features a championship game between familiar foes. Full story »