As the new high school season is beginning to hit its stride, I wanted to take the time to remind or introduce you to the Tri-Valley Preps Playbook.
The Playbook is in its second year and is all about East Bay Athletic League sports. It is another product of Embarcadero Media and their other publications, with the idea to focus on the EBAL -- something sorely missing in the daily newspaper world.
It gives me the chance to cover the EBAL in depth, something I did for 26 years with the former Tri-Valley Herald. I enjoyed our inaugural season of the Playbook as it gave me a chance to get back to the entire league and not just Amador Valley and Foothill.
We've got four to five different things to read each week, starting with the feature article called The Big Picture. In addition, there are Power Rankings each week, with football occupying the fall, with the winter season featuring basketball and soccer for both the boys and the girls.
In the spring, find out who the best baseball and softball teams are and why.
What to Watch gives you the best sport matchups for the upcoming week and why these events are important.
Finally, the Fast Five is one of our popular features where we ask local athletes five questions not related to sports. This gives our readers a little insight to our hardworking student-athletes.
When North Coast Section playoffs roll around, the Playbook is your clearinghouse for all the playoffs, allowing our readers to see where and when our local teams are chasing section titles, all in one place.
When the All-EBAL teams are released, the Playbook brings them to you! New features will appear throughout the year.
The Playbook is free but does require signing up to guarantee prompt delivery every Tuesday afternoon!
If you would like to be among the growing number of readers of the Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, please signup on the Weekly website at www.pleasantonweekly.com. Click on the "Sports" tab and then on the Tri-Valley Preps Playbook link. Get the inside information on all things EBAL sports!
CYO Basketball signups
The CYO organization has announced that its CYO Basketball program, sponsored by the Catholic Community of Pleasanton (CCOP) and the Oakland Diocese, is returning this fall.
The program is open to any child in grades 3-8 who reside in Pleasanton or Sunol. To register, complete the application found at ccopcyo.org. Important dates upcoming include:
* Player evaluations will be held Sept. 11-13.
* Practices begin in October.
* Games begin the first week of November.
* Season concludes in February 2023.
For questions about the CCOP CYO basketball program, contact the co-athletic directors Brad Gersich bradley.gersich@us.dlapiper.com) and John Baer (john.f.baer@gmail.com).
Fall sports are here!
I wanted to take the time to put this out there one final time as the fall sports are all going on!
It is the time of year that I am looking for results from Amador Valley and Foothill teams this season. The deadline each week is noon on Sunday.
It is an easy job for a parent of an athlete to help take the burden off the coach. Here is what I am looking for the fall:
Volleyball: The final score and the opponent. Highlights can include the leading hitter, blocks, assists, digs and service points, to name a few. Also, if there was a streak of points run off by your team that was a key to winning.
Water polo: Final score, as well as all goal scorers and any other pertinent stats like blocks, steals and goalie saves. It can also include names of people that played well and match details.
Tennis: Final score and who won their matches. Can include the details of an important match.
Golf: Opponent, course the match was played at (with par) and scores from your team. If you have players from the opponent that shot great rounds, please include that as well.
Cross-country: Opponent, final score, where the race was run and the top times for the race along with the distance.
Sending pictures is a bonus as we love to get in as many as possible, with the following: names of athletes in the picture, as well as who gets the credit for taking the picture. We cannot accept pictures that were taken by another media outlet though.
One final thing that will help is a roster of your team so I can get the correct spelling of each name!
Send all the information by noon on Sunday afternoon -- you can submit it earlier in the week as well -- and email to acesmag@aol.com.
Editor's note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
