This just in, Liberty’s David Klingsheim, who was scheduled to drop from 119 pounds to 112 for the Mission Tournament, has just bumped back up to 119.

Also, there was no reasoning for Jesse Delgado’s disapperance from the tourney at 112 pounds. He’s ranked No. 1 in the state. I don’t know if Delgado knew Klingsheim’s plans to go back to 119, but you can only wonder if Delgado is dodging Klingsheim and or San Leandro’s Markjay Acosta, who now becomes the No. 1 seed at 112.

 Speaking of The Mission, here’s a quick video for everyone to check out http://bayareanewsgroup.com/multimedia/iba/2008/player/?f=0131_hoose

Kyle and I will be there on Saturday, providing live updates (pending a wireless signal). We’ll also be including picks and hopefully some video. Check with us on Friday night for updates, I’ll be providing them ASAP.

Ooh baby. Big news from Pleasanton today. Dennis Miller is reporting that Matt Sweeney, architect of so many great Foothill football teams, is heading back to the sideline next year. He stepped down before the ’07 season and his longtime assistant John Mannion took over. Read about it over on our sister blog, Prep Corner.

We have learned and are writing a story to run tomorrow in the paper, that long time Foothill coach Matt Sweeney will return to guide the Falcons. John Mannion, who did a wonderful job in his one year coaching the team, made the decision to step down so as to make room for Sweeney to return.

Mannion will remain on the staff and as Sweeney said, “He will be a co-head coach as far as I am concerned.”

Congrats to Mannion for guiding the Falcons to the playoffs in his first year running the show,  and welcome back to Sweeney. 

 More later…

NOTE # 2: The MSJ tournament web site has been updated and has a few changes. Clovis’ Scott Sakaguchi, the No. 1 seed at 140 pounds, will miss the tournament due to illness. Klingsheim has moved to 119 pounds and is the No. 1 seed. A few locals have dropped out as well. Liberty’s Paul Gomez (103) is out. College Park’s Dylan Phillpy (119) is out. Dublin’s JT Baumann (171) is out. There were also a couple of seed changes, the most notable being College Park’s Joe Heffelmire is now the No. 2 seed at 152 pounds, swapping spots with Cal’s Aaron Drake. Also, if you need a wrestling fix, hop on over to InsideBayArea.com/sports and check out this week’s edition of the Hoose and the Whistle. No Whistle this week, so let’s call it the Hoose and KB, but they talk to MSJ coach Tommy Thompson about the upcoming tournament.

NOTE: The Hoose himself, Steve Waterhouse, got word this afternoon that Liberty wrestler David Klingsheim will wrestle at 119 pounds, not 112 as he was originally seeded at. I would imagine this moves Klingsheim to either the No. 1 or 2 seed at 119 pounds and Markjay Acosta of San Leandro will be the new No. 1 at 112 pounds. Also, my take on Gilroy’s Jesse Delgado not being at MSJ. When I asked Delgado’s teammate Hunter Collins if he’d be with a full squad this weekend, he said no. He said a few guys have some issues with match counts. I’m assuming Delgado is one of those guys.

Larry Katz and his team down at Mission San Jose have the seeds up in a timely fashion as usual. Check them out here: MSJ seeds. Also, as I’ve been typing this, the new state rankings came out at thecaliforniawrestler.com! Check those out here: State rankings.
Now, I thought we’d take a look at the tournament by seed. As usual, this is going to be one heckuva show come Saturday night.

103 – Clear Lake’s Tyler Hayes is the No. 1 seed. I saw No. 2 Madison Gambrell of Clovis up at the Tim Brown and he was awfully good. He was named Most Outstanding Wrestler for the lightweight divisions up there and that was a solid tournament. Still though, this is a great division with Freedom’s Zack Wiley, MSJ’s Ricky McFerrin, Liberty’s Paul Gomez and Newark’s Nguyen Truong. Watch out for Gomez, who is now down to weight and is the defending NCS champ.
112 - I looked at this bracket and did a double-take. Liberty’s David Klingsheim is down to 112, the same weight he wrestled at last year, after wrestling most of the year at 119. Clovis’ Clinton McAlister is good but I gotta think the final will be 1 vs. 2, Klingsheim vs. San Leandro’s Markjay Acosta.
119 - Clovis’ Jon Gay is the No. 1 seed and to be honest I don’t know too much about this class now that Klingsheim got down to 112. Livermore’s Alec Fraser has been wrestling well.
125 – This is another class up for grabs. Watsonville’s Robin Miranda is the No. 1 seed and I’d sayJames Logan’s Ruben Baca probably has a good shot from his No. 2 spot also. If Freedom’s Mike Sherman uses this to get over the hump and pull out a win, his season could take off.
130 - Clovis’ Stephen Weimer is No. 1 but I’m anxious to see Alhambra’s Aaron Westphal. He got hurt late last year and that derailed his season but this year I think he’s got a legitimate shot at an NCS title. That quest starts at Mission.
135 - San Lorenzo Valley’s Cody Rodebaugh is No. 1 and he seems likely to stick here. This is another situation where if a wrestler (say, Nick Hernandez at Granada) puts together his best effort, he might be able to steal a win.
140 - Defending NCS champion Trent Stevenson of Arcata is the No. 3 seed. That tells you all you need to know. Clovis’ Scott Sakaguchi is No. 1 and is coming off a win at the Tim Brown. Livermore’s Stephen De La Cruz is good, but he’s going to have to do major work to catch up with Sakaguchi, Stevenson and Scotts Valley’s Dane Stevens (ranked No. 3 in state).
145 - If the seeds hold, this final will be one I pay close attention to. De La Salle’s Tyler Sheridan is No. 1 and Gilroy’s Travis Sakamoto is No. 2. Sakamoto is ranked No. 2 in the CCS and Sheridan is No. 5 in the state.
152 - St. Helena’s Gian Traverso is No. 1 here and behind him is a group of wrestlers trying to make a name for themselves. California’s Aaron Drake, College Park’s Joe Heffelmire and De La Salle’s Luke Sheridan would all benefit greatly from an MSJ title.
160 - Only need one name here. Clovis’ Josh Esparza is back as the No. 2 seed. Welch beat Esparza by tech fall at the Tim Brown.
171 - Tito! The elder Pica is back in action after a win at the Albany tourney two weeks ago. Clovis’ Tommy Burriel showed well up at the Tim Brown and could put a run together but watch out for College Park’s Gerson Nkunku. If he puts it together, he can be quite good.
189 - I spoke with Gilroy’s Hunter Collins last night and what a nice kid. On the mat? Not so nice. I see Collins’ fourth MSJ title there for the taking.
215 - Jesse Bethel-Vallejo’s Matt Gibson is the No. 1 seed and he’s got something to prove after a VERY close loss in the Tim Brown championship to Ponderosa’s Matt Demarco. Of course, Gibson is ranked No. 3 in the state.
285 - Everyone wants to see No. 1 Jonathen Zamora of Clovis take on No. 2 Roger McCovey of Del Norte. And why not? It would be No. 1 in the state (Zamora) vs. No. 3.

Alright, since the rankings just came out, here are some locals who are ranked. Acosta is No. 2 at 112 pounds (Klingsheim is still listed at 119, where he’s ranked No. 4). De La Cruz is No. 7 at 140. Tyler Sheridan is No. 7 at 145 and Liberty’s David Rios is No. 8 (he won’t be at MSJ due to a high match count). Welch is No. 1 at 160. Pica is No. 3 at 189 (again, he’s dropping for the postseason).

Alright, I’ve been waiting for this time of the year _ top-notch wrestling. The Mission is coming up this weekend and the seeds just came out.

Here is the link to get to all the info on The Mission tourney: http://www.msjwrestlingtournament.com/

Kristian Blanco and Nguyen Truong wrestle at 105 on Wednesday. Blanco pinned Truong in 5:03.

Today should be a big day in the Oakland Athletic League boys basketball race with two good matchups. McClymonds, the No. 1 team in our poll, travels to Fremont. The Tigers have had an up and down year but are a lot better than I think some our giving them credit for. Mack, for one, knows how dangerous this game could be. The last time the Warriors lost a game (outside of the state title game) was in the regular season finale last year on the road at Fremont. Also, with two league losses, the Tigers know they can’t continue to fall further in the hole if they still want a chance to earn one of the three OAL playoff spots.The other big game is No. 13 Skyline at No. 7 Oakland. For most of the preseason, Oakland looked like the second best team in the OAL to Mack. Now, Skyline’s starting to grab that role, having won 8 straight, including three straight against ranked opponents. A win here for the Titans sets up a possible first-place showdown Friday at Mack (if Mack gets past Fremont). An Oakland win ties them for second with Skyline and gives them another quality OAL victory. Should be fun stuff.

Also, on the girls side, Oakland Tech faces Castlemont. The Knights have looked like easily the best team in the OAL and Tech continues to struggle. Still, Tech is the defending champions and has a pretty good rivalry going with Castlemont. Expect an intense game there.

***UPDATE***
Guess I might as well update this post with what happened. Mack stayed undefeated with a wild 78-61 win. The Warriors actually trailed by 8 early in the third quarter, used a 14-0 run to take a six-point lead, then had to get a pair of clutch free throws by Frank Otis in the final minute and use pressure defense to not allow Fremont to get off a final shot so the game could go to overtime. Whoooosh!! I’m out of breath. Once in OT, Mack dominated as you can tell by the score. One scary moment was when Otis was fouled hard and went down and stayed down for 3-4 minutes. He eventually walked off and afterwards just said he had the wind knocked out of him. Otis finished with 21, Damario Simms had 18, William Cherry had 16 and Damon Powell had 15, including four dunks. Powell Lee had 18 for Fremont and James Albright had 14 points and 15 rebounds.

As for Skyline-Oakland, the Wildcats got the big home victory, 62-57. Damian Lillard had a game-high 22 points and P.J. Taylor had 13 for Oakland. Kwame Vaughn led Skyline with 17 points and Nefi Perdomo added 13, but the Titans couldn’t extend their winning streak to nine.

On the girls side, no big surprise as Castlemont rolled past Tech. They’re looking like the clear league favorite right now, but don’t sleep on Mack. The Warriors won again today, beating Fremont to go to 3-1 in league. A good game should be Friday when they play Skyline, which is also 3-1 after surviving a scare from Oakland to win 39-33.

Dominic Galas of Central Catholic High School in Modesto, has decommitted from Oregon State and is now headed to Cal according to Will DeBoard of the Modesto Bee. You can read the full article here.

Galas paved the way for Central Catholic running back Louis Bland to excel this season and is ranked as the No. 9 center in the country according to rivals.com. I know him more as a heavyweight wrestler, and he excels on the mat as well. He’s the No. 2-ranked heavyweight in the state according to thecaliforniawrestler.com.  I’m expecting to see both Galas and Bland at the CIF state meet on Feb. 29 in Bakersfield.

These rankings were done by Staff Writer Dennis Miller for games through Jan. 27

1. Amador Valley (13-3-2)

2. Pittsburg (14-1-4)

3. Richmond (14-3-3)

4. De La Salle (10-1-8)

5. Deer Valley (13-4-2)

6. California (9-4-3)

7. Hayward (13-2-2)

8. San Ramon Valley (8-4-6)

9. Miramonte (15-2-2)

10. Washington (11-4-3)

Others receiving consideration: Granada, Newark Memorial, Monte Vista, Piedmont, San Leandro, College Park and James Logan.

These rankings were done by Staff Writer Dennis Miller for games through Jan. 27

1. Castro Valley (17-1-1)

2. Monte Vista (16-2-3)

3. Carondelet (14-1-4)

4. Clayton Valley (14-2-4)

5. Foothill (14-3-2)

6. San Ramon Valley (11-4-5)

7. California (11-4-2)

8. Miramonte (14-1-2)

9. Bishop O’Dowd (12-4-0)

10. Campolindo (12-3-3)

Others receiving consideration: Northgate, Amador Valley, Piedmont, College Park and Liberty.

Boys Basketball East Bay Super Poll
Team                            Record             Pts       Last week        Comment

1. McClymonds (14)    20-0                 210          1                   Warriors are idle, rumor is they moved up in this poll during off week

2. De La Salle              16-2                 193          2                   Spartans got a couple of those No. 2 votes back, still not all of them

3. St. Mary’s                22-1                 185          3                  In many other years, Panthers would occupy top spot, just not this year

4. San Leandro 14-3                 167          5                  Win over previous No. 4 Castro Valley earn shares of first in HAAL and the No. 4 spot in poll

5. Castro Valley           18-2                 150          4                  Admirable effort on the road against SL without star, but those in the know, know CV should have two losses to Pirates

6. Monte Vista             16-4                 139          6                  I personally have these guys ranked No. 12, still not sure about the strength of the EBAL in hoops

7. Oakland                   15-6                 117          8                  Move up a spot while idle as OAL takes week off for finals, play No. 13 Skyline on Wednesday

8. Kennedy-Rich.         18-3                 105          7                  Again take lead into fourth against St. Mary’s only to lose to No. 3 Panthers

9. Berkeley                   11-7                 86            11                I predicted about three weeks ago that they’d eventually be a top-10 team, I guess I know what I’m talking about

10. Newark Memorial  17-5                 82            10                Bounce back from loss to Skyline at MLK to win twice in MVAL

11. Salesian                  17-4                 79             9                 Knew it’d be hard for young team to keep rolling, but 86-58 to St. Mary’s was a bit rough

12. Miramonte              17-2                 56            12               All they do is keep winning, have won 8 straight now

13. Skyline                   13-7                 48            13               Tough week as they return to OAL play, host Oakland on Wednesday, travel to face Mack on Friday

14. Foothill                   15-5                 26            14               I still haven’t thrown the Falcons a vote this year and 19-point loss to Monte Vista makes me question why they’re still ranked

15. James Logan          18-5                 14             15              Not a whole lot of great wins (except Skyline when the Titans were down) but they continue to rack up the W’s

Others receiving votes: Pittsburg (15-4) 12, Campolindo (12-6) 7, El Cerrito (12-5) 3, Fremont-Oakland (13-7) 1.