Bay Area Sports On The Rise

In recent months a number of Bay Area teams have begun to emulate the success of the recently crowned World Series Champion San Francisco Giants.   In the realm of Division I college basketball, The University of San Francisco had the opportunity against St. Mary’s of Moraga to take first place in the WCC for the first time since the 1981 season.  Although they fell short, The Dons demonstrated that they are a legitimate threat to not only create real problems in the conference tournament, but to possibly win their first championship since 1998.

Switching gears to college football, national signing day has come and gone and in its wake Bay Area community colleges boasted an impressive 31 athletes who have received scholarships to 4-year universities.  The City College of San Francisco Rams outmatched other schools in their conference with 11 Ram players from their national title runner up team earning scholarships:
CB Allen Chapman, Kansas State, 
OL David Garness, USC
OL Michael Franceschi, Rocky Mountain College (graduate of Sacred Heart Cathedral H.S. in San Francisco)
OG Jay Haro, Western Oregon (also from SCHP)
RB Kenny Haynes, Western Oregon
WR Aaron Horne, Iowa State
QB Steele Jantz, Iowa State
OT Ian Maguire,  Utah State (Lowell HS of San Francisco)
CB Nigel Malone,  Kansas State 
S DeShon Marman, New Mexico(Lincoln HS of San Francisco)
OG James Robinson, UTEP
LB Sua Tuala,  Idaho (SHCP)
With a lineup like this it was no surprise that teams in CCSF’s conference barely stood a chance against a Rams team infused with this much highly regarded talent.

This year’s team especially speaks to the strength of San Francisco football products.  Over the years, the City has produced a number of successful gridiron athletes, notably former Heisman trophy winning running back and NFL Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson (Galileo High school and CCSF alum).  Other former Rams include Nebraska Cornhuskers QB Zach Lee (who once threw balls into the fog at the Sunset District’s St. Ignatius Prep).  In case you wondered, his father, Bob Lee, was once a signal caller for Lowell H.S. before eventually playing 14 years in the NFL and winning 2 Super Bowls.  

As for San Francisco natives currently playing on Sundays, one must look no further than the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay packers and their starting linebacker Desmond Bishop (born in the City, played for CCSF and then the Cal bears).  The City also boasts 2 ex-49ers in now-Jaguar receiver Jason Hill (SHCP) and CB Donald Strickland (Riordan HS) who is now with the Eagles.  Other big names include Browns CB Eric Wright (Riordan) and Cowboys DE Igor Olshansky (St. Ignatius).  San Franciscans with successful pro football careers can be traced a long way back to the likes of Kevin Gogan (SHCP), the aforementioned Bob Lee, Gill Byrd (Lowell HS alum and San Diego Chargers all-time interception leader) and Niners legend Bob St. Clair (alumni of the now defunct Polytechnic HS and USF) who was fortunate to spend his entire playing career in the same city playing on the same field (the one and only Kezar Stadium, one of San Francisco’s sporting gems).  Which such a prestigious list of notables, it is not very hard to see that this city has consistently produced a ton of talent and things do not seem to be changing. This year’s Rams squad featured 5 San Francisco natives receiving scholarships to play at the next level in Franceschi, Maguire, Tuala, Marman, Haro, with 3 of the five coming from the same high school (SHCP).  It would seem that the pedigree of player being developed and molded in this city is still very high and everyone should look forward to seeing these guys play on Saturdays and perhaps someday even on Sundays