Hometown Report: Former Del Oro football star joins siblings as prep head coach

Bill Sherman grew up surrounded by taller, tougher sisters who used to rumble with him in the living room and backyard.

Then he grew, and the sisters became a great deal nicer.

Sherman now joins his siblings in the high school head-coaching fraternity. The Bee's 2005 Defensive Player of the Year from Del Oro has been named the football coach at River Valley in Yuba City.

His two sisters are softball coaches: Lisa Sherman is preparing for her fourth season at Antelope and Jennifer Birch her 16th at Roseville. Both played on scholarship in college, Lisa at Middle Tennessee State and Jennifer at Oklahoma.

Bill Sherman, a member of The Bee's All-Decade Team for the 2000s, was a two-year starting defensive lineman at Sacramento State.

Sherman's teams went 35-1 at Del Oro, capped by a 13-0 record in 2005. He spent the past three seasons coaching there, including last fall as the junior varsity coach. He started teaching physical education at River Valley last week.

High memories

Jan High won 304 games as the women's basketball coach at Sacramento City College in the 1970s and '80s with stars such as Cheryl Bradley and Diana Molden, and she gained many admirers over the years in championing the Title IX movement.

High, who died of cancer on Jan. 9 at 76, served as the athletic director and started the Sac City women's golf program in 1995. She told me in 1997 that "the drive of a woman athlete should be recognized, and it has, and generations of women are thankful."

Around the region

• Beau Hershberger, the heart and soul of a Granite Bay defense that helped the Grizzlies to a CIF State Division I title, has accepted a scholarship to play linebacker-defensive end for Nevada.

• The annual Cordova baseball spaghetti feed and Hall of Fame banquet is set for tonight at 7 at the Rancho Cordova Elks Hall hosted by coach Guy Anderson. Inductees are Walt Hill, class of 1974 (and father of Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Aaron Hill); David Staydohar, class of '87; Jason Beauchamp, class of '89; and Rich Haley, class of '90.

• Former Roseville guard Elston Turner Jr. found out just how fleeting college basketball success can be. The Texas A&M senior scorched Kentucky for 40 points at Rupp Arena on 14-of-19 shooting in an 83-71 victory Jan. 12, then was held to four points on 1-of-10 shooting in a 68-47 loss to Florida on Thursday.

• Former Vallejo High School, Pacific and Pittsburgh Steelers star linebacker Mike Merriweather was hired as Vacaville Christian's athletic director.

• Lineman Vince Johnson of Christian Brothers flipped his verbal commitment from Iowa State to Cal.

• Read more articles by Joe Davidson

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