Hometown Report

Even the assistant coaches for Pleasant Grove High School's basketball team embraced the Eagles' theme of "Get dirty," the battle cry Bill McCoin used to implore players to dive for loose balls, to box out.

Roger Blake still has a lot of kid in him.

Tony Gill has his game in order after a shaky start. Brad Waldow reports that his grill is good to go after chewing on a wayward elbow that sent a tooth flying.

The games were not for the meek.

Today is big. Historic, trendsetting big.

It is the most significant day in regional high school boys basketball history, with two teams in position to take down tradition.

Balance for Sierra College women's basketball coach Brandie Murrish comes in the form of a pair of 3-footers.

Coach Brian Katz has Sacramento State within a win of tying the program's Division I-era record for victories in a season.

John Williams is surrounded by contentious paperwork in his Lodi office.

Sacramento State second baseman Andrew Ayers' weekend of damage control included soothing his girlfriend's heated emotions.

How smooth was Joe Gill?

The weather turned nice last week, and a baseball season broke out.

Devante Bond and Aaron Young offer proof football scholarship hopes can be realized upon leaving – and arriving at – community colleges.

All in all, the new Cosumnes River College baseball field has the look and promise of a fine facility.

The linemen have taken over.

Brian Penserini was fighting a cold Monday, his voice hoarse, his nose clogged.

The sting of playoff defeat never goes away. It lives with you, eats at your soul, Dusty Baker was saying this week.

Armond Armstead stopped by familiar turf Friday night in Elk Grove, his grin and good cheer the only things more striking than his 6-foot-5, 290-pound frame.

The Colin Kaepernick running roughshod through NFL defenses today isn't to be confused with the teenage version.

The Bee's 2005 Defensive Player of the Year from Del Oro has been named the football coach at River Valley in Yuba City.

John Brodie speaks in halting sentences. His right arm hangs limp, and his fist is uncontrollably clenched, effects from a stroke in 2000.

Travis Hatcher embraces the story and memory, but that comes with a warning.

Now that he has pulled his headset off for the final time, the most reluctant coaching celebrity in Northern California the past 34 seasons offers an easy answer to a not-so-easy query.

The big kid who goes by "Big Eddie" isn't always so big on himself. He usually displays more modesty than bravado, but Eddie Vanderdoes couldn't help himself.

One thing about college football coaches: They have to trust their recruiting base on a player hunch.