The Fall Sports season is about to kick off on Monday. After a summer filled with baseball, golf and track stories, we’re about to see the start of football, volleyball and soccer seasons. I’ve been looking forward to the month of August for a while. For one, it’s my birthday month. And two, it brings exciting times for me and the Sports department.

Cal Poly football begins its preparations for the 2010 season on Monday. The Mustangs open their preseason training camp at 11am. We’ll have a full report on the evening news from the start of camp. I’m excited to see how the local kids, Kevin Britt and KJ Cusack do in their first camp as well as see how much better the 2010 Mustangs will be compared to the 2009 version. High school football teams kick off camp this week as well with more starting camp the following week. Cal POly and UCSB soccer teams and volleyball squads also get in to action the next few weeks.

We’ve already spent time planning new things for our Friday Night Highlights program that starts on September 3. OUr high school football show will have some exciting new things this year as well as more of the same comprehensive coverage of games, highlights and postgame reaction.

Fall is my favorite time of year on the local sports scene. That fire inside that motivates me everyday to provide the best possible local sports coverage is burning a little brighter these days. If there are any athletes who you think deserve special recognition or coverage please let me know. amasuda@ksby.com or just leave a comment here.

Also, be sure to join our new Friday Night Highlights Facebook page. Just search for FRiday night Highlights and become a fan to get the latest information and score updates throughout the season. Cheers!

Bill Here.  I got a chance to talk with former Cal Poly football player Ramses Barden about his second training camp with the New York Giants.  Barden is confident he will catch more passes than the one reception for 16-yards he had as a rookie. 

Barden is currently 4th on the depth chart at wide receiver for New York.  Some playing time was likely created for him when Domenik Hixon got injured for the season.  Barden says being 4th on the depth chart doesn’t mean anything at this point in camp and he still has to prove himself in the N.F.L.  He says his goal is to eventually become the teams go to target.

The 6′6″  230-pounder is almost big enough to be a tight end but says blocking is still something he needs to work on.  Barden says camp has been much easier this year because he knows what’s going on and can “apply the details” now.

Barden had 206-receptions for 4,206-yards with 50-touchdowns in four years at Cal Poly.  Those numbers, plus his size helped him get drafted in the 3rd round by the Giants despite playing in the NCAA F.C.S. 

If you want to keep up with Ramses you can follow him on his website.  ramsesbarden.com

High school football is right around the corner. The season starts with Week 0 on September 3 or technically on Thursday, September 2 because Atascadero plays at Salinas.

We are working on upgrading our HS football show, Friday Night Highlights. Season 4 of the show starts on September 3 around 11:10 pm. We’ll once again be live with our game of the week and have all the scores and highlights.  I can honestly say I am so excited for the football season to kick off. It is always such a rush getting the show together and planning it each week.

Pretty soon, our FNH webpage will be up and running and all the schedules will be listed there. If you want to seem them ASAP then click here .

This year will be interesting with St.Joe and Pioneer Valley moving to the Pac-7 and Lompoc moving to the Los Padres League.  It means Righetti and St.Joe will play for the first time in years and that there will be a new LPL champion after a two-year run by St.Joe.

Templeton’s Tyler Gray, who’s getting recruited by nearly every big name school in the nation, is a big guy to watch this year for the Eagles.  Arroyo Grande should be pretty good once again.

Who do you think is due for a big season in 2010? Let me know your predictions for PAC-7 and LPL champions. Can Righetti repeat in the Pac-7?

The clock is ticking… the return of Friday night lights and Friday Night Highlights is less than a month away.

Andrew here: Sometimes when it is slow during these summer months, I just start putting the names of current or former athletes from the Central Coast in to Google and see what comes up. Well, today I did and found a story on former Cal Poly shortstop Kyle Smith. He was drafted in the 14th round by the Cleveland Indians after his stellar junior season with the Mustangs.

This week, he was called up as a back-up infielder from the Indians’ Single-A affiliate to Columbus, the organization’s Triple-A squad.  Wednesday, he made his debut for the team and made quite an impression. Click here to read the article I found by googling.

To most people, finishing fourth in the world out of the top junior runners would be an accomplishment. Sunday, Mission Prep graduate and University of Oregon track star Jordan Hasay finished fourth in the women’s 1,500 meter final at the World Junior Championships in Poland. She also finished fourth at the 2008 World Juniors, the top finish by an American woman in the event.

And while we are all proud of Jordan and amazed by her accomplishments, Jordan seemed pretty upset and disappointed in a post-race interview.

Click here to watch. It was tough to watch since I am one of Jordan’s biggest fans. I know she’ll learn from the experience and be better because of it.

Andrew here:

History was made recently at Mission Prep. The school hired Knengi Martin to be its junior varsity football head coach. Martin will be the school’s first female head football coach and the first in recent memory at the high school level on the Central Coast.

Martin has plenty of football experience. She’s played the last few seasons in the International Women’s Football League. Right now she is in Sweden representing the United States in the Inaugural Women World Football Championships. Team USA won its opening game 63-0 over Austria. The Americans play Finland on Thursday for a spot in Saturday’s Gold Medal game.

It is pretty exciting to hear that Knengi, who lives in San Luis Obispo, is making history in Sweden and will soon make history at Mission Prep. Congrats to Knengi and to Mission Prep for its new hire.

Hey folks…Andrew here again….

I saw on-line that all the HS football schedules for 2010 have been released. Just click here to check them out.

If you have Game of the Week ideas let us know. For sure, we want to do the St.joseph/Righetti game since it will be the first matchup in years between the two neighboring schools.

I can’t wait for the HS football season to kick off. Cheers!!!

I came across an article today on the internet posted on a Vancouver newspaper’s website.

It reports on the salaries of UFC 115 fighters from two weeks ago. As you recall, San Luis Obispo resident and former UFC champion Chuck Liddell was the main fight of the night. He was knocked out by former champion Rich Franklin with five seconds to go in the first round. Many people speculate it will be the Iceman’s final fight.

Before I tell you… think about how much you think Liddell made just for fighting that night?

The Answer… $500,000 for stepping in the octagon. What’s even more insane is Franklin made $70,000 for fighting and received an additional $70,000 for winning. So he made $140,000 for beating a man who earned $500k.  Does this surprise you or did you expect he’d make more for fighting? He is the biggest name in the sport and helped make UFC/MMA a worldwide hit.

Click here to read the newspaper article.

Andrew here…

World Cup madness is sweeping the United States with Team USA advancing to the round of 16 and winning its group for the first time in 80 years.

Apparently, the madness is spreading in the KSBY newsroom as well. Tonight, we ran a story on a new catchy Vuvuzela song that’s spreading like wildfire on the internet. We all got a really good kick out of it and we listened to it and laughed about it a while. It rhymes vuvuzela with Cinderella, Nelson Mandela and umbrella.

Click here to listen to the song. Feel free to attach links to other catchy songs. Click here to listen to what a vuvuzela sounds like.

By the way, the vuvuzela is a South African horn that was used to summond distant villagers to attend community events. Now, it’s become a symbol of soccer fans. 

Do you like or dislike hearing the constant vuvuzela noise during the games?

It should be a pretty exciting week for local track and field athletes and fans. Eleven local athletes will compete at the US Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.  The meet runs from Wednesday-Sunday. All time listed below are PST

1) Jordan Hasay- competing in the 1,500 and 3,000 meter event at the US Junior Nationals meet. She has won four junior national titles the previous four years. This will be her first attempt at winning two in the same meet. The top two in each event advance to the World Junior championships in Canada. Thursday at 11:30 am, 3,000 meter final; Friday, 9:55 am, 1,500 m 1st round; Saturday, 3:25 pm, 1,500 meter final

2) Stephanie Brown Trafton – women’s discus throw; the Arroyo Grande High and Cal Poly graduate is going for her second straight US outdoor title; the Beijing Olympic Gold Medalist qualified with the fourth best throw;  the women’s discus final is Sunday at 10:20 am

3) Sharon Day – women’s heptathlon; the Cal Poly graduate finished second at last year’s US outdoor championship. The 2008 Olympian will compete over two days on Friday and Saturday.

4) Maggie Vessey – women’s 800 meter; the Cal Poly graduate took the world by storm last summer with a time of 1:57.27, the fastest time by an American woman in five years; the 1st round will be Thursday at 2:45; the semifinal is Friday at 5:15 pm and the final is Sunday at 11:50 am

5) Chelsea Johnson – women’s pole vault – the Atascadero native looks for her first-ever US outdoor national title; last year, Johnson surprised the world by finishing second at the World Championships; women’s pole vault final is Sunday at 10 am

6) Kara June – women’s 3,000 meter steeplechase – the St.Joseph High graduate will look  for her first-ever top 5 placing at nationals; the 1st round is Thursday at 2:15pm and the final is Sunday at 11:15 am

7) Chaunte Howard Lowe – women’s high jump – the Templeton native is the favorite in the event; she’s looking for her fourth US outdoor title; She set the American record earlier this month by clearing 6 feet,8.25 inches;  the high jump final is Saturday at 10:30 am

Duane Solomon – men’s 800 meters; the Lompoc native and former USC star is looking for his first national title; the 800 meter 1st round is Thursday at 3:05 pm; the semifinals are Friday at 5:30 pm and the finals will be Sunday at noon

9) Aris Borjas – men’s javelin throw – the Cal Poly graduate looks to leave his mark on the national scene; the final is Sunday at 10 am

10) Ben Bruce – men’s 3,000 meter steeplechase – the former Cal Poly star will look to capture his first national outdoor title; the final is Sunday at 10:50 am

11) Paul Denlinger- junior men’s 3,000 meter steeplechase – the Templeton High graduate and Cuesta star will compete in the junior meet;  last summer on the very same track and Drake Stadium in Iowa, Paul set a national record in the 2,000 meter steeplechase at the AAU Junior Olympics; he will run on Thursday at 11:45 am

All events will be streamed live on www.flotrack.com.

KSBY will air the meet on Saturday from 12-1pm and Sunday from 12-1pm. ESPN will also broadcast events on Friday from 5-7 pm , Saturday from 10-11:30 am and Sunday from 10-11:30 am.

I predict that at least six local athletes will finish in the top 3 if not win their events… Hasay, Howard Lowe, Johnson, Brown Trafton, Day and Vessey.

Do you guys plan to watch the meet either on-line or on television? Either way, I’ll let you guys know how our local athletes fare in Des Moines.