O'Sullivan update

Former Aggie J.T. O'Sullivan looks to be a going concern in the Detroit Lions' quarterback competition. Here's a link to my hometown paper, The Detroit Free Press, discussing his chances to beat out incumbent back-up Dan Orlovsky.

The Big South checks in

Here's an interesting piece from Lynchburg, Va. about the Big South Conference's football media day, one that uses the Great West Football Conference as a negative example of what can happen to a football conference. Apparently members of the Big South are feeling bullish on the future there. In 2004, when the Great West officially came on line, the Big South was a five-team league, but is now adding schools and may be able to start its clock toward an automatic bid into the NCAA football tournament as early next year.

The Great West, meanwhile, is still trying to figure out what it is going to do in 2008, when North Dakota State and South Dakota State leave for the Gateway and the replacement Dakota schools still count as Division II teams. A two-game conference season is basically useless and, unless some schools have gone Division I without telling anyone, there are no expansion targets out there. In 2008, UC Davis is scheduled to play North Dakota, but not South Dakota. UCD athletic director Greg Warzecka said the program was wary of playing two D-II counters in a year because that might impact negatively on its playoff chances. Cal Poly currently is playing USD instead of UND. Southern Utah probably will play both.

Two years ago, actually, there was some discussion in the Great West about forming an affiliation with the Big South. The plan would have called for a six-game conference season, with teams playing home game and one road game against a school from the other league. I'm not sure exactly how far the discussions got. The plan broke down for two reasons. Big South schools would have seen a major rise in travel costs, given they can mostly bus to everything. Also, it's hard to see just what the Big South schools (private schools like Liberty University or Elon) and Great West schools (big public schools like UCD and NDSU) ever had in common other than football.

Hitters' paradise

This was too late to get into Sunday's edition, but Yolo Post 77 bashed its way to the Area 1 American Legion championship on Saturday at Chico's Doryland Field. Yolo overcame a 7-2 deficit in Game 1 to beat the Redding Stars 12-9 and then cracked El Dorado 10-6 for the championship.

Yolo (39-6), which did not lose in the tournament, advances to Saturday's California State Championships in Yountville.

Talk about a day? Sal Hernandez notched the save in the first game and the win in the nightcap. Former Blue Devil Scott Heinig was 4-for-9 combined, and current Devil Mike Turay was 2-for-6 with three RBIs against Redding.

For more on the games, check out Monday's Enterprise.

Title IX at UC Davis

We'll be chiming in with our report on the latest UC Davis Title IX lawsuit when the paper hits the street this afternoon.

It's the third lawsuit in six years, if you're keeping count. That seems like an awfully high number for a campus that often mentions its commitment to gender equity almost every chance it gets. I tend to think UCD is an inviting target for suits because it has expressed, in writing, a commitment to reach proportionality without cutting sports. Both the plaintiffs' attorney and a university spokesperson disagreed when I broached this theory on Wednesday, but I'd be curious to hear what other people have to say.

Don't be surprised if you hear a lot about Title IX in the coming months. Its advocates appear ready to push back against the losses they feel have been inflicted upon them by the Bush Administration. The biggest defeat was when, in 2005, the Department of Education allowed institutions to use e-mail surveys to measure interest. In the age of spam, those supporters argued, that's a lousy way to measure interest.

As currently constituted, the plaintiffs in this latest case at UCD are seeking fairly modest damages. Their lawyer says they are more interested in compelling the university to make a plan to reach proportionality. That's good news for the campus, given the price tags we're starting to see attached to the litigation. Last month a former Fresno State volleyball coach won a $5.85M verdict against school related to her firing. And earlier in the year former UCD wrestling coach Michael Burch settled his case, which alleged retaliation for the coach's outspoken support for four women cut from the wrestling team, for $725,000.

So, stay tuned.

A close call

CHICO - As Yolo Post 77 tries to win the 2007 Area 1 tournament at Doryland Field, the players have to contend with tough opponents on the field as well as a scary incident during travel. Driving up to Chico on Tuesday, a car driven by an American Legion volunteer got into a collision with another car at the junction of Highways 113 and 99.

Luckily, no one in the Post 77 car was seriously injured, but two starters - Adrian Perez and Shawn Reynolds - were banged up and shaken as well. Perez, a shortstop, started and got plenty of work today during Yolo’s 13-6 win over the Redding Stars. Playing with a stiff neck that made it hard to get down on balls, Perez made a pair of errors in the early innings but more than made up for that when he blasted a two-run homer in the seventh.

Reynolds started at designated hitter and had more bad luck when he fouled a ball off of his knee in his first at-bat. He was hit by a pitch in his second plate appearance and after getting pegged again in the fourth inning, Reynolds was lifted for a pinch-runner.

Both players are expected to play Thursday as Post 77 plays its second game of the tournament. Yolo head coach Matt Castles said he thinks 24 hours of rest will do them good.

- Chris Saur

Early risers

Yolo Post 77 coaches better have Starbucks (or less-corporate coffee) handy when they open the Area 1 American Legion tournament Wednesday at Chico's Doryland Field. Yolo is pegged for a 10 a.m. start time against the Redding Stars (38-8-1) to open the tournament. Well-traveled Enterprise reporter Chris Saur will be on hand to write about Wednesday's game.

The team, comprised of players from Davis, Woodland and Pioneer high schools, blew through the District 6 tournament, beating Fair Oaks in the semifinals and championship to claim the title.

Yolo (34-6), which is trying to get to the state playoffs for the first time since 2003, would play at 4 p.m. Thursday against the winner of Red Bluff-El Dorado if it beats Redding. Of the eight teams in the tournament, Yolo has wins against three - Fair Oaks, El Dorado and Red Bluff - in the regular season. Only one other team in the tournament has single-digit losses, Vacaville (27-2).

Miles from home

Davis High grad Gina Miles took bronze in equestrian today at the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In fact, Team USA swept the podium, with Karen O'Connor (The Plains, Va.) and Phillip Dutton (West Grove, Pa.) grabbing the first two spots. That helped give the U.S. the team gold medal as well.

Miles, who resides in Creston now, rode McKinlaigh, a 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse. For more on Miles and the Pan-American Games, see Monday's Enterprise, and you can check out Miles' journal from Brazil at mileseventing.com.

Road warriors

Took a look at the Davis High football schedule this week. Ouch! The Blue Devils play Woodland, Elk Grove, Nevada Union and defending section champ Vacaville all on the road this season. In fact, three of the final four Delta Valley Conference games of the season are away from Halden Field.

Anibaba update: Former Blue Devil star Jalil Anibaba has played in two games with the U.S. men's soccer team in the Pan-American Games in Brazil. Anibaba logged 90 minutes at midfield in a 2-1 win over Venezuela and he started again when the U.S. fell to Bolivia 4-2. The U.S. takes on Mexico at 6 p.m. today, and the game is televised on ESPN Deportes.

Ace in the place

SACRAMENTO - Yolo Post 77 head coach Matt Castles was thrilled to have ace Scott Heinig on the hill Friday against Fair Oaks in the District 6 playoffs at Sacramento City College.

And Heinig did his part, helping pitch Yolo to a 7-2 win and into the Area 1 tournament in Chico. Yolo takes on the winner of Fair Oaks-Folsom at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday for the title, but Friday's victory loomed even larger. Heinig, the former Davis High star who played for Cosumnes River College last season, struck out 10 and Thomas Gojkovich finished it up in the ninth.

Heinig also doubled and drove in two, and Zach Vawter-Scroggins had two hits and two RBIs in the win.

Yolo improved to 33-6 overall.

UCD hoops schedule update

The charming human beings over at aggiesportstalk.com have gotten ahold of a leaked copy of Holy Cross' men's basketball schedule. That schedule has the Crusaders playing UCD as part of the first round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament in Storrs, Conn. Aggie coach Gary Stewart said his latest information was that the first-round pairings in that event were still fairly fluid. Lots of schools want to go lots of different places, and the Gazelle Group, which organizes the event is trying to accomodate as many schools as it can.

I was told last month that UCD had been slated to play in the Lexington, Ken. regional, not Storrs. Neither Kentucky nor Connecticut has released its schedule yet. Holy Cross hasn't either, so its hard to confirm anything. The other two first-round site in the Coaches vs. Cancer event are Memphis and UCLA. The Aggies are already scheduled to play UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, on Dec. 29.

Stewart said that aside from getting those pairings set, the non-conference portion of UCD's schedule is done. The Big West, however, is still tweaking the conference slate. In other news, we hear the women's basketball team is heading to Hawaii for a three-game tournament against some pretty good competition.

Press Conference wrap

In a way, Tuesday's press conference was simply an acknowledgement on what everyone knew was coming. There had been little doubt that UC Davis was soaring through its certification, and that there were going to be no hold-ups in it actually becoming Division I. But as one member of the athletic department said to me yesterday, "It does feel different than yesterday."

It seemed as if every member of the UCD athletic department that wasn't on vacation or on the recruiting trail was at the Memorial Union for the press conference. That's actually a pretty rare occurance, but you could really sense the excitment in the room. I can't really blame anyone for that. I mean they did just achieve something massive. The gist of today's story is that UCD's administrators feel pretty good about the way they were able to make Division I fit their model of college athletics. There is a sense that, when it comes to athletics, UCD strives to be the proverbial school on a hill. That's both an admirable goal and a tough thing to actually manage. That's the gist of today's story, anyway.

We'll have two more this week, marking UCD making it this whole D-I thing official. Thursday we'll have a piece about how current Aggies feel about those who went through the transition. And Friday, we'll start looking to future to discuss the short- and long-term challenges facing the UCD athletic department.

It's Division I Day (for real)

UC Davis has announced a 2 p.m. press conference to discuss its move to Division I. The NCAA Division I membership subcommittee has finally signed off on the campus' paperwork, officially ending the transition process.

Check this afternoon's newspaper for a story on the announcement. We'll have full coverage of the press conference in Wednesday's Enterprise.

Anibaba live on ESPN Deportes

Here's an update on the television schedule for the Pan-Am Games, which will include Davis High graduate Jalil Anibaba playing for the U.S. men's soccer team. ESPN Deportes has the exclusive American television rights and currently plans to show just one U.S. game in pool play, July 21's match against Mexico. That game appears to start at 6 a.m. PT. If the Americans qualify for the knockout stages, they'll probably be added to the schedule.

Blame it on Rio

It was a difficult end to Jalil Anibaba's prep soccer career last fall when his Davis High School team was upset by Vintage in the section playoffs, but there have hardly been any more down moments since then. Anibaba has been named to the 17-player roster for the Pan-American Games, which will begin Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The United States squad, coached by Bob Jenkins, will open the tournament on Sunday against Venezuela at 2:15 p.m. before taking on Bolivia on July 18 at 11 a.m.

Anibaba made his first appearance for the United States’ Under-20 national team in May, entering as a substitute in a game against Argentina. Anibaba was the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of California this year.

Anibaba’s half brother, Josh Reese, a football standout at Davis High, will not play in the East-West All-Star Football Classic on Saturday at Napa High. Reese does plan to play in the Optimst All-Star Football Game July 28 at American River College.

Today's headlines

It's a busy Monday in the Enterprise sports section. Here's what to expect:

A humble beginning

There were teams in Race Across America that were hand-picked. There were others with extravagant budgets and even more extravagant bikes. There were teams trained as many as 30 hours per week leading up to the race. That was not Team Donate Life Grace Valley, made up entirely of Davis residents.

Yolo takes over first place

Yolo Post 77 took over sole possession of first place on Sunday after beating Fair Oaks 6-2 at Bella Vista High School. Yolo took two of three in the American Legion District 6 series. Brendan Gill helped Yolo Post (27-5, 12-3), pitching eight innings and allowed one earned run.

Davis American advances in Woodland

The Davis American 11- to 12-year-old all-stars blew out Vacaville National 12-1 Sunday on the third day of the District 64 tournament at Woodland’s Camarena Field.

And up-to-date coverage of the Tour de France, something you can’t find in the morning papers.

A Saturday meditation

A columnist at the North County Times has checked in with the suggestion that San Diego State drop Division I football and join the Great West Football Conference. Despite the pedantic objection to that idea -- the GWFC is Division I football, just not Bowl Subdivision football -- and the fact I-AA is being floated primarily to blast an underachieving football program, the point is interesting as an intellectual exercise.

To join the GWFC, San Diego State also would have to leave the Mountain West Conference. And this is where it gets interesting. The Big West would love to hear from San Diego State.

It would open another market to the league. And given that the Big West is largely ignored in it's home base, it would be important new exposure. Also, it would give the conference a reason not to invite Cal State Bakersfield, which currently is in the process of moving to Division I. The now nine-team Big West would like to get back to an even number of teams. But one would imagine breaking into San Diego or the Bay Area would be a higher priority if there were a partner there. And after taking on UC Riverside and UC Davis in the past decade, the league probably would prefer adding an established program to lessen any perception that it is a haven for reclassifying schools. From the Aztecs' point of view, they would immediately be competitive in most sports and boast some of the best facilities in conference. In addition, putting Tony Gywnn on the baseball side of the conference would be a huge boost to both parties.

Of course, it will never happen. The money in the Football Bowl Subdivision is simply too attractive, even for a constant struggler like SDSU. More likely, if in a decade UC Davis upgrades its football stadium and builds out to 30,000 seats, it's pretty easy to see the Aggies trying to secure a home in the Mountain West as a Bowl Subdivision team.

The Great West probably will announce the addition of North Dakota and South Dakota in the coming months, to replace the departing North Dakota State and South Dakota State. UND should quickly move into the upper quarter of Football Championship Series programs, so the overall quality of the GWFC won't dip too much. But UND and USD won't count as Division I opponents until 2009, leaving the league scrambling in 2008. The Aggies have scheduled the Sioux in 2008, but want to avoid playing two Division II games in order to boost its playoff chances. On the other hand, two D-II games is less damaging in 2008 than in other years because FCS teams can schedule 12 games that year. A number of options are being considered for the 2008 season. We will be keeping an eye on this, obviously.

Photo policy

We receive lots of submitted photos in the e-mail, mostly for youth sports, and often get the question, "Why don’t you run team photos?" After all, in a team photo, every player gets their pic in the paper.

While team photos may look impressive displayed on the mantle, they don't make for strong copy in the newspaper. Sports are built on action and those are the kinds of photos that should leap out from the section everyday.

The city of Davis produces lots of championships throughout the year and if you run one team photo, you’ve got to run them all. It may make me an unpopular sports editor at times, but at least it makes me a consistent sports editor.

Prep football in July

It's not too early to think about high school football, at least when it comes to all-star games. The East-West All-Star Football Classic's final rosters were announced today, and the game will be played July 14 in Napa, where hopefully it's a tad cooler than the Sacramento Valley. All of the players are graduating seniors and it will be the final prep football game of their careers.

There's three Davis High players on the East roster: running back Josh Reese and linemen Dan Coronado and Frank Torres. Hard-hitting Blue Devils linebacker Chris Lundin was originally named to the team as well but looks like will be unable to attend.

The East team also consists of seven players from Pioneer (including Davis Enterprise Player of the Year Shane Rosin) and three each from Woodland, Winters and Dixon. It will be the final time for departing Pioneer and Woodland coaches, Joey Montoya and Adam Reinking, to see their players. Montoya is headed for Placer and Reinking to El Camino.

'Winders slither past Cats

WEST SACRAMENTO - The River Cats spotted Tucson a six-run lead after three innings on Tuesday and their comeback attempt came up just short as they fell 6-5 at Raley Field.

Travis Foley, normally in the bullpen, started in place of Shane Komine, who was called up to the Oakland A's. Foley allowed five runs on six hits and recorded just four outs. After Foley exited, three Sacramento relievers allowed just one run on six hits the rest of the game.

J.D. Closser hit a solo home run in the fifth and Jorge Piedra had three RBIs for the River Cats, who took three out of four from the Sidewinders.

Sacramento will head to Fresno for a crucial five-game series against the second-place Grizzlies before the all-star break. Fresno fell to Las Vegas 9-5 on Tuesday, preserving Sacramento’s two-game division lead.

Both Kevin Melillo and Landon Powell, who exited Monday’s game with injuries, were placed on the disabled list before Tuesday’s contest.

- Conor Tekautz

Make it official

The Big West Conference welcomed UC Davis today as a full-fledged member on its Web site. As a staff it will be a relief to not have to use phrases like "if the Aggies were an official member of the conference" anymore.

The Aggies' first official Division I competition is Aug. 24 when the volleyball team travels to Northern Arizona's Hilton Garden Inn Invitational. Volleyball will play UCD's first Big West match as well when it hosts Pacific at The Pavilion on Sept. 19.

Men's and women's soccer start their first Division I seasons in August as well. The women are at Kent State and the men at Xavier on Aug. 31. The women's first conference game is Sept. 23 when they host Cal State Fullerton and the men host UC Santa Barbara on Sept. 29.