We are running a three-part series on high school coaches. The series started Monday with stories on coaches who are starting out. Tuesday’s package will be on coaches and what they endure to stay at it, and Wednesday we will close with coaches who got out. What’s surprised me is the candor of which coaches spoke of their respective hardships, especially in dealing with parents. It used to be whenever a coach told a reporter about anything in that realm it was prefaced by “this is off the record.” These days dissatisfaction with a coach is much more out in the open and thus many coaches are more willing to talk about these instances. Just checking the Times discussion boards or any other such boards demonstrates that. Another example of how life has changed in the cyber-era.

We’ve made an addition to an old feature. To serve our readers and the six high schools and Los Medanos College in East Contra Costa County, we are naming specific athletes of the week for East County, starting Friday. This is in addition to athletes of the week specific to the Contra Costa Times, West County Times and Valley Times editions. This week we also added a Community College notebook and next week we’re adding an alumni notebook. We’re always striving to add new features and offer readers some surprises. 

We have a story on North Carolina’s Independence High School  and its win streak. The Patriots have 92 wins heading into this fall’s football season, and it would take until late 2009 to break De La Salle’s national-record win streak of 151 games.

Do you think Independence can do it? Or will another school break the record at a later date? Or will it stand the test of time?

On Wednesday, the State Assembly voted down Bill 2312, which intended to loosen the rules of eligibility for high school athletes who transfer schools without moving. The subject long has been a controversial one in high school athletic circles. One wonders if this will be the catalyst for even more debate on transfers. Do the existing regulations keep the situation under control? Will there be any future legislation proposed, or do you expect the topic to drift away? Please weigh in with your comments.

At the Times prep sports department, we always are looking at new ways of bringing news to readers. And we want to open new avenues for our readers and athletes to express their voices.
Carondelet basketball star Jayne Appel has had a unique opportunity this week to play in two national all-star games, and we thought it would be a great idea to have her post her daily thoughts and comments on her experiences in San Diego and in Boston on our blog. Please read on.

From Jayne Appel:

Overall this has been oneof the most amazing opportunities of my life. I have bonded closer to my friends and taken so many things from every experience. I will never be able to explain how honored I was to be a part of all of this. I had so much fun and will never be able to repeat this again.
It’s off to Boston for the WBCA game!

From Jayne Appel:

Wednesday
GAME DAY! Finally we got to play! We started off today getting our uniforms and heading off to shoot around after practice. We shot and then while the boys were shooting we got to take individual pictures with John Wooden. We headed back to the hotel for family time and lunch. My Coach Lexy was there, along with a lot of my family. I got ready for the game and headed to Cox arena. We won the game by five! Diamond played really well. I won the MVP award. Nancy Lieberman said hello during warm-ups. After the game we had media and answered a million questions! We then headed out to watch the boys play. At halftime of their game we went to take pictures with Nick Cannon. However, a few of us found the media hospitality room and ate Chipotle on the way. After the game we returned back to the hotel and hung out in the players lounge until 12:30. We all hung out on our floor until about 3 am. This was such a fun day.

From Jayne Appel:

Tuesday
We started off again today with practice at 9. Today’s practice was so much better than yesterday. We had a lot more energy. We then had lunch across the street at Cox Arena, where they brought McDonald’s to us.
Media grabbed certain players at this time and asked questions. I talked with Mike Eubanks from the Stanford hoop board. We then scrimmaged the East team, and won! We played really tough. After we got back to the hotel we were starting to get ready for the banquet. That is until the power blew out in mine and Jacki’s room, as well as the room next to us. It created madness; we were all searching for plugs to do our hair. Also, the boys overloaded the elevator and got stuck in it for 30 minutes. We eventually all got ready and headed to the banquet. We practiced walking and then hid in the back until it was time for us to walk out. The banquet was so nice. We had dinner, guest speakers, and took lots of pictures. John Wooden spoke, and I liked his speech the best. We received our All American rings and watched a video on what we have done thus far. When we got back to the hotel we hung out in the players’ room.

From Jayne Appel:

Monday
9 a.m. practice … how fun is that!? Actually it wasn’t that bad, just a little sore, and still breaking in the new shoes. Practice didn’t go to well for our team today. We didn’t have a lot of energy and our coach made us well aware of this at the end of practice. We were very sluggish. After practice we showered at the facility. 10 showers-24 girls - 15 minutes … you do the math. Not going to work! So the boys went ahead of us and we met them at a McDonald’s restaurant for lunch. Kaili and Jacki had a McNugget race. Kaili whooped on Jac, she had eaten 20 when Jac was at 10.
We went into the McDonald’s and served regular customers and learned what it is all about. Ronald McDonald the clown was there today and Kaili and Jordan ran so fast when they saw him. They are so scared of clowns. We then loaded the buses and headed off to sea world. We played with dolphins and sea lions. We also got to ride the new water ride 3 times with everyone. As we got back to the hotel I visited with my family for a little bit then went and got my uniform and got ready for the jam fest. SO MANY PEOPLE in that gym! It was so packed. A definite home cheering section for the boy from San Diego. Me and Spencer didn’t advance to the finals in team ball. For once I had to look up at someone to talk to them. I feel so short here! The dunk contest was awesome! San Diego boy should have won in my eyes, but the boy going to Duke took it. No girls were in the dunk contest, although 3 girls wanted to be. They told them it was too late to sign up. It’s such a disappointment that they weren’t able to enter the contest. For some reason it seemed like they didn’t want the girls to be in the competition. Anyway, the Duke kid won with a windmill dunk.

From Jayne Appel:

Sunday
Today was a once in a lifetime experience. We visited the Ronald McDonald House and met all the kids who are sick and their families. This is the true reason we are here; to help them. It was so hard to see them so happy to see us when they are so sick. They are so full of life and hope, it is amazing. We colored with the kids, handed out mini basketballs, and gave away pro trading cards. It was so rewarding to see how happy we could make them just by showing up. We were told today that our game was going to raise half a million dollars for the new 47-room house. This would replace the current 12-room house. We then walked to McDonald’s in the hospital and enjoyed lunch and signed a mini hoop for the kids to play with in the hospital. We went to the San Diego State practice facility and had practice. The toughest part of the practice was the warm-ups! Some of the things they were asking us to do seemed impossible; but we pushed through them-made everyone so sore. We came back to the hotel, showered and went downstairs to dinner.
After dinner half of us were hanging out in the player hospitality room while the other half was signing different items such as photo mats, balls, hats, and trading cards. Yes, all 300+ trading cards. I’m almost positive I forgot how to spell my name toward the end of all the signing. The player hospitality room is really tight. It has 3 bball shooting games, 2 fridges full of drinks, constant supply of snacks, a big screen TV, and 3 other TVs hooked up to video games.
Everything here is first class and really makes everything fun. I hung out with all the girls that I became close with over summer at USA camp and Nike Camp. It’s cool seeing everyone else now that we all know what college we are going to.