A Monday mixer
By School House Zach
Nothing terribly earth-shattering, but lots of odds and ends, most having to do with national signing day approaching Wednesday. Read on; you'll find something interesting:
• Ridgeview linebacker Kyrie Wilson, whom Oregon dropped off its commitment list a couple of weeks ago, has given a verbal commitment to Fresno State. He'll join a legion of other Bakersfield players up there — Derek Carr, Phillip Thomas, A.J. Johnson, Patrick Su'a, among others — but is the first local from this year's class to pledge to be a Bulldog.
• Meanwhile, a second Kern County player is headed to San Jose State. Bakersfield High defensive back Mercy Maston, who had tentatively committed to Arizona State a week ago, switched his pledge to SJSU. Maston said he wouldn't answer questions about the switch until he had signed Wednesday, but he's obviously losing some football prestige with the move. Chances are — and this goes for Wilson, too — that these guys have some work left to do academically, and the Pac-10 Conference schools didn't want to take a chance that they would become non-qualifiers when that scholarship could go somewhere else. Schools like Fresno State and San Jose State, on the other hand, are waiting for those talented players to slip through the cracks of the Pac-10. The risk of possibly losing that scholarship to offer to someone else is worth it to schools who can't always recruit the most talented players. It certainly has paid off before (see Mathews, Ryan).
• Former Stockdale punter Curtis Huge has seen his college career take him to Southeast Missouri State and then to Bakersfield College. Now, he's ready to sign with Central Michigan for his final two years of eligibility. He gave the Chippewas a verbal commitment earlier today.
• In other sports, the most significant signing Wednesday will be that of Alex Collatz, Stockdale's state discus champion who is recovering from a torn ACL. She lost few, if any, of her college offers, dad Alan Collatz said, and now she'll make her choice at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Every school from here to New England would take this wunderkind, but I'm betting it's a west-coast school. I'll officially make my guess UCLA, but I promise you I'm not "in the know" on this one. Just guessing.
• Other Division I athletes who have signed recently or will do so Wednesday: Bryce Keene, golf, Stockdale to Navy; Carissa Cruz, water polo, Centennial to Cal State Bakersfield; Andrew Ramay, track and field (pole vault), Liberty to Cal; Elli Hight, soccer, Liberty to Southeast Missouri State; Brenna Moss, softball, North to Fresno State.
• One guy who won't need to sign Wednesday is Cody Kessler, the Centennial quarterback already enrolled at USC. There's no real news with Cody this week, which is the bummer: The Parade High School All-American team, one of the country's most prestigious, comes out Sunday, and Kessler's name won't be on it, either on the first team or "the bench," as Parade calls it. That's a surprising snub for a guy who was a U.S. Army All-American and finalist for national player of the year and Gatorade State Player of the Year.
• Among other top senior athletes, Bakersfield High wrestler Bryce Hammond was involved in a controversial match Saturday in the finals of the Raul Huerta Memorial tournament in Canyon Springs. Hammond beat Scott Bacon of Corona-Santiago 2-1 in overtime when Bacon made a third false-start violation to start the OT period. Hammond got his point in regulation when Bacon was called for fleeing the mat Hammond was trying to escape. There's actually a video of the match up; pretty compelling stuff. Bacon is the defending Washington state champion, so there's a good chance No. 1-ranked Hammond sees him again. About everything else went perfectly for the Drillers on the weekend: They won the tournament with 298 points, way ahead of state No. 3 Poway (231.5). Individual champions for BHS were Ian Nickell (112 pounds), Timmy Box (135), Coleman Hammond (145), Adam Fierro (152, beating Centennial's Brandon Sotomayor in the final), Bryce Hammond (160) and Silas Nacita (171). Natrelle Demison (130) was second, as was Liberty heavyweight Frankie Hurtado.
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