Last day of prep coverage

The high school soccer season comes to an end Saturday with a whole lotta finals being held on the same field. Out in my neck of the woods, the CIF Southern Section, we've got the soccer finals held at two high schools: Downey High School in Downey and Warren High School in Downey. Not sure why they have to choose schools a few miles from each other to host the finals but then again I don't deal with CIF too often, thank goodness.

Anyway, there are two games I care about. One is the Boys D4 final between La Quinta and Coachella Valley. Unfortunately for me, the other game takes precedence but I would love to go out to Desert Mirage HS in Thermal and watch those two schools play. There are a lot of good soccer players out there that go unnoticed because they're in the desert and i wish I could go and watch it all. There is even at least one player who went from a desert high school to the Mexican league: Juan Carlos Zaragoza. However, that guy has since been spotted orbiting Mars after falling off the face of the Earth.

The other game, though, is a biggie: Temecula Valley-Redlands East Valley. Each school is in a competitive market for The Press-Enterprise and each school is pretty good. On soccer alone those schools' teams should get coverage but throw in the other stuff and it's a no-brainer.

The only bad part for me is that it starts at 8 p.m. Yes, a high school soccer game will start at 8 p.m. Now, never mind that this game will be played far from the two schools. It's roughly 60 miles from Redlands to Downey and 75 miles from Temecula to Downey. It's the last of six games, the earliest of which will start at 10 a.m. Yes, it is just my luck.

And to top it off, there will be no phone service available. In an earlier post I vented my frustration with that though of course then I thought I'd have plenty of time to get home and write. Now, I'll have to hurry and interview some kids and get the coaches and shuffle off to Starbucks. Yes, I'll be at the Starbucks on Firestone in Downey sometime around 10:30 trying to write up a story. So if you're in the neighborhood, come by, stop by, wait for me to file and you can gladly buy me some coffee :)

As far as the game goes, I think Temecula Valley will win handily. That might be the kiss of death for the Golden Bears but they looked very good when I saw them Tuesday against Thousand Oaks.