Talk about a nail-biter at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Mater Dei Monarchs were in full control over Long Beach Poly for most of the game, until a late run by the Jackrabbits made things very interesting.

Prior to Saturday night's Mater Dei vs. Long Beach Poly matchup, everyone was fully aware of what the Gary McKnight coached Monarchs squad had in its arsenal. UNLV commit Katin Reinhardt, Colorado Buffaloes commit Xavier Johnson, junior Elijah Brown and stellar sophomore Stanley Johnson filled out the star-studded Mater Dei lineup.

"They battle, they get after it. Their guards are very good," said Head Coach Gary McKnight of Loyola's Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Jacob Hazzard. Jackson-Cartwright nearly sealed the deal for the Cubs, however, Mater Dei's combo of senior center Xavier Johnson and sophomore forward Stanley Johnson put the clamps on Loyola's efforts.

Taft High School put in work tonight at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The LA City Section Division I Final Four got off to a hot start, as the Taft Toreadors jumped all over Crenshaw High School in the opening minutes. Taft was able to build an early lead over Crenshaw, and led 31-13 with 4:28 left in the second period.

It was 1999. I sat in the library at Chico Senior High School during third period Monday through Friday as a “library aide.” My duties consisted of sliding the sections of the day’s newspaper into the bamboo scroll and placing it in the rack for students and faculty to read, replacing books according to catalog number, and meticulously searching the internet using Netscape or Lycos for anything and everything to do with high school football recruiting. Anything.