Hometown Report

Cliff Branch can still fly. "I go to the track three times a week to run, to see what I've got," the retired Raiders receiver great said.

Reggie Christiansen, the third-year Hornets coach, has a laundry list of reasons how a luminous home setting at John Smith Field would add more zest to a program that has surged under his command.

This is what F.P. Santangelo Jr. is: A split image of his father in that he attacks the game with reverence, and he could make a living talking about the game.

Now that the jelly-leg days are done, the Rio Americano graduate bounds out of the bullpen, confident and determined, with full feeling of all of his extremities.

Numbness and anxiety. That's what Sutter McLoughlin experienced the first time he was summoned out of the bullpen.

Bob Honda – a teacher, coach and counselor for 37 years in the Sacramento City Unified School District – died last month of a heart attack. He was 74. He was a kindly fellow who also could enforce harsh discipline. Kevin Johnson bears proof.

Even without a call on draft day and a hyperventilated seal of approval from Mel Kiper Jr., dreams can come true.

Jason Harper had character issues growing up in El Dorado Hills.

Chris Jones, citing too many hours and too many tasks, resigned as Vista del Lago High School's football coach Friday.

Matt Barnes isn't all tattoos, razor-hard stares and venomous tones.

We're sure to experience a rarity Thursday night.

Ryan Anderson anticipated a career in basketball. Maybe play overseas. Perhaps coach.

Preparation for this season was interrupted late last spring. It started with a sorrowful phone call.

Jerry Manuel of Cordova High School early- 1970s baseball fame and Lance Briggs of late-1990s Elk Grove football lore continue to give back to their communities.

Never mind the sing-song cheer, the braided ponytail, the accompanying blue and yellow ribbon that bounces with every step.

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.