Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. After five weeks of high school football, you think you know who’s good and who’’s not. Guess again. The sit-out period for transfers is ending, and the cavalry is about to arrive to change the fortunes of teams.
Here comes help
The sit-out transfer period ends for City Section players Thursday and for Southern Section players on Sept. 29. Some teams will be getting better.
Carson is adding receiver Jordin Daniel (Dominguez) and defensive lineman Tion Marshall (Gardena). King/Drew is picking up several players that will boost its chances of winning the Coliseum League.
Cathedral, which started the season as a top 25 team, is 1-4. A group of linemen become eligible to help protect quarterback Jaden Jefferson and add to the defensive front. Linebacker Daequan Jeffes from Loyola and lineman Mike Watson (6-4, 265 pounds) from Warren will help immediately on defense.
Unbeaten Sierra Canyon adds talented kicker Carter Sobel, who was a standout at Chaminade. Orange Lutheran’s running game will get a big boost with the arrival of Sean Morris, a transfer from Loyola. Corona del Mar adds standout lineman William Herrington from Newport Harbor.
Offensive lineman Saik Fiataugaluia, a transfer from Santa Margarita, becomes eligible at Corona Centennial. He’s 6 feet 5 and 350 pounds. Cornerback Jacob Whitehead, who was a star at Inglewood, joins an already talented St. John Bosco secondary. Cornerback Khalev Patrick Hall joins Mater Dei from Crean Lutheran. Richard Dunn, who was a standout at Hamilton last season as a freshman,, becomes eligible at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. He’ll play on the defensive line.
Murrieta Valley will get two new defensive starters in linebacker Erick Romo from Orange Vista and defensive end West Gomes from Vista Murrieta.
There’s dozens of players becoming eligible around the Southland, so prepare for some new names to be heard on the public address system at games.
It was gut-check time for Mater Dei in its trip to Las Vegas to face Bishop Gorman. The Monarchs were facing the possibility of losing two games for the first time since the 2013 season.
They came away with a 27-24 victory to resurrect their season behind tight end Mark Bowman, receiver Chris Henry Jr. and quarterback Ryan Hopkins. Here’s the report.
Sierra Canyon stayed unbeaten and earned respect with a dominating win over Trinity League power Orange Lutheran. Here’s the report.
Freshman quarterback Jonah Tuaniga of Long Beach Millikan passed for 508 yards and nine touchdowns in a 63-0 win over Cabrillo. That’s a freshman record for touchdown passes.
Verbum Dei won its first game since the 2022 season with a victory over Belmont. Here’s the report.
Rocco Thomkins had 16 tackles and sophomore quarterback Gino Wang rallied JSerra to a 39-35 win over Leuzinger.
Edison won its 21st straight game in its rivalry series with Fountain Valley.
Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.
Here’s the top individual performances from the weekend.
Here’s this week’s schedule of games.
There’s plenty of parity at the top in the City Section. Birmingham, Carson, San Pedro and Banning continue to lose to Southern Section teams, so it leaves lots of questions when league play begins.
Carson lost in double overtime to North Torrance 42-35. Birmingham lost to Calabasas 49-38. San Pedro lost to El Modena 34-14 at SoFi Stadium. Banning lost to Palos Verdes 52-0. They’re all following the Birmingham example that losses to Southern Section opponents can turn out to be victories by preparing teams for City Section play.
Elyjah Staples of Marquez had four touchdown catches and two sacks in a win over La Puente.
Quarterback Liam Pasten of Eagle Rock was 17 of 19 passing for 309 yards and five touchdowns in a 56-21 win over Taft.
Here’s this week’s top 10 City Section rankings.
Wait your turn still works
“Wait your turn.”
Those three words are repeated again and again by parents trying to teach their young sons and daughters good manners, whether it’s at the dinner table, the amusement park or the ice cream shop.
So why do parents suddenly forget or ignore their words of wisdom when their kids become teenagers, find themselves in sports competitions, lose out on a starting job or don’t receive the attention they think they deserve and decide to flee rather than “wait your turn.”
Two of the top quarterbacks this season, Luke Fahey of Mission Viejo and Taylor Lee of Oxnard Pacifica, waited their turn and are thriving. Here’s the report.
On Monday, the No. 1 high school basketball in the country for the class of 2026, Tyran Stokes of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, started practicing with the football team. He’s 6 feet 8, 245 pounds and will play receiver. He needs 10 days of practices before he can play in a game.
Here’s the report.
With an injury at quarterback, Camarillo turned to its best athlete, Mya Rei Smith, to move from receiver to quarterback, and she has adjusted as if she’s been playing the position all season. She’s the starting point guard for the basketball team and is receiving lots of interest from college programs. Camarillo is 16-1.
Orange Lutheran’s Makena Cook passed for a season-high 410 yards and seven touchdowns in a 46-20 win against Aliso Niguel. Orange Lutheran is 17-0 and begins league play on Thursday against Mater Dei.
Other top teams are JSerra (18-0), Newport Harbor (16-1) and Dos Pueblos (16-1).
In the City Section, Panorama has won its first 16 games. Quarterback Yadhira Hermenegildo has thrown 41 touchdown passes.
Girls volleyball
There was a terrific national tournament in Las Vegas, the Durango Classic, and Marymount emerged as champion by knocking off No. 1 Sierra Canyon in the final. Redondo Union, Mater Dei and Mira Costa were also in the tournament.
“Elle Vandeweghe was awesome,” coach Cari Klein said.
Vandeweghe had eight kills in the 21-25, 25-15, 25-12 win over the Trailblazers. Teammate Sammy Desler was named tournament MVP.
Thousand Oaks won the Chatsworth tournament, defeating Palisades in the semifinals and Canyon Country Canyon in the final.
Senior setter Hailey Lauritzen of the Lancers was named tournament MVP.
Cross-country
The Woodbridge Classic brought out lots of top runners from outside California. Here’s the report.
Notes . . .
In an interview with NBC Los Angeles, former Bishop Montgomery football coach Ed Hodgkiss said he was approached before the season to change the philosophy of the football program.
Last December, according to Hodgkiss, he met with Bishop Montgomery’s now former President Patrick Lee and two others, who previously worked for football powerhouse St. John Bosco.
“They approached me and said we can do the same thing at Bishop Montgomery,” Hodgkiss said, adding the three men had planned to hire a new coaching staff, build a new stadium and bring top players to the Torrance high school. Hodgkiss ended up being fired and the school canceled its varsity season after an Archdiocese investigation and CIF penalties that resulted in 24 players being declared ineligible.
Also the high school association that runs Arizona passed an emergency bylaw to disallow out-of-state transfers to play who transfer in the middle of the season. At least four former Bishop Montgomery and one Long Beach Millikan football player have transferred to Arizona after being declared ineligible for two years in California. They transferred before the bylaw went into effect and are eligible. . . .
Sage Hill standout guard Amalia Holguin has committed to Texas for women’s basketball. . . .
Pitcher Noah Darnell of Santa Margarita has committed to Harvard. . . .
Junior pitcher Sean Parrow of Sierra Canyon has committed to LSU. . . .
Delan Grant, who played basketball at St. Francis until transferring this year to Sierra Canyon, has committed to New Mexico State. . . .
Junior softball player Mattea Stern from Garden Grove Pacifica has committed to Arizona. . . .
Infielder Tate Hammond from Long Beach Poly has committed to UCLA. . . .
Junior pitcher Mason Sims of Corona has committed to Texas. . . .
Former Sierra Canyon quarterback Wyatt Becker will be enrolling at Princeton in 2026. He’s taking a Catholic mission this year. . . .
Maddie Smith from Flintridge Prep has committed to Yale for women’s basketball. . . .
Junior softball catcher Riley Hilliard of La Mirada has committed to Oklahoma. . . .
Junior pitcher Ben Lewis of Corona Santiago has committed to Oklahoma State. . . .
Chadrack Mpoyi, a 6-foot-11 center at Crean Lutheran, has committed to Minnesota. . . .
Gardena Serra baseball coach AJ Perry will become the school’s athletic director. He will be replaced by Ryan Odums. . . .
Jordan Myrow is the new baseball coach at Palisades. He played at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, UCLA and Cal State Los Angeles. He has a tough task because the campus baseball field is gone for several years while temporary bungalows are used because of damage from the Palisades fire. . . .
From the archives: Robin Yount
The best baseball player in Taft High history is Robin Yount, a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame who turned 70 years old last week.
He had a 20-year career with the Milwaukee Brewers playing mostly shortstop. He got his 3,000th career hit on Sept. 9, 1992. He made his major-league debut as an 18-year-old.
Here’s a story from 1986 by the great Hall of Fame writer Ross Newhan.
Here’s a bio of Yount’s accomplishments.
Recommendations
From NFHS.org, a story on high school football continuing to rebound national in participation numbers.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story of the growing concerns with artificial turf fields.
From ESPN.com, a story on MLB banning teams from watching or compiling information on high school baseball during a period that should be a break.
From the Riverside Press Enterprise, a story on Lorenzo Sims, Ramona’s latest top running back.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time….
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.