Woodbridge, Beckman and Santa Margarita football teams will be going for CIF state titles on Saturday at Fullerton, Buena Park and Saddleback College.

All the finals in 15 divisions will be held either Friday or Saturday in Orange County.

In the 7-AA division, Connor McBride’s Woodbridge Warriors (7-8) will meet Redding Christian (14-0) Saturday at 11 a.m. at Fullerton.

In the 4-A division, Marcello Giuliano’s Beckman Patriots (12-3) will take on El Cerrito (12-2) Saturday at 7 p.m. at Buena Park.

In the open division, Carson Palmer’s Santa Margarita team (10-3) meets De La Salle (12-0) Saturday at 8 p.m. at Saddleback College.

Schedule:

OPEN: De La Salle (12-0) vs. Santa Margarita (10-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. at Saddleback College

DIVISION 1–AA: Folsom (13-1) vs. Cathedral Catholic (11-2) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. at Saddleback College.

DIVISION 1–A: Central East, Fresno (13-1) vs. Pacifica, Oxnard (15-0) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 3:30 p.m. at Saddleback College.

DIVISION 2–AA: St. Mary’s, Stockton (12-2) vs. Bakersfield Christian (13-0) on Fri., Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at Saddleback College.

DIVISION 2–A: Sonora (14-0) vs. Rio Hondo Prep (15-0) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 11:30 a.m. at Saddleback College.

DIVISION 3–AA: St. Ignatius, S.F. (8-6) vs. Ventura (13-2) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. at Fullerton.

DIVISION 3–A: McClymonds, Oakland (11-2) vs. RF Kennedy, Delano (12-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at Fullerton.

DIVISION 4–AA: Sutter (13-1) vs. Barstow (11-3) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. at Buena Park.

DIVISION 4–A: El Cerrito (12-2) vs. Beckman 12-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. at Buena Park.

DIVISION 5–AA: Bishop O’Dowd, Oakland (10-4) vs. Christian, El Cajon (8-7) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at Buena Park.

DIVISION 5–A: Calaveras, San Andreas (12-2) vs. Bishop Union (12-3) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 3 p.m. at Fullerton.

DIVISION 6–AA: Lincoln, San Jose (11-3) vs. Valley Center (8-6) on Friday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m. at Fullerton.

DIVISION 6–A: Winters (13-1) vs. Morse, San Diego (10-4) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 3 p.m. at Buena Park.

DIVISION 7–AA: Redding Christian (14-0) vs. Woodbridge, Irvine (7-8) on Sat., Dec. 13 at 11 a.m. at Fullerton.

DIVISION 7–A: Balboa, San Francisco (11-2) vs. South El Monte (11-4) on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 11 a.m. at Buena Park.

TICKETS:

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Cal Petersen held onto a simple childhood dream: He wanted to play for the Waterloo Black Hawks.

He grew up in eastern Iowa, and he gravitated toward hockey – a sport often trumped by more popular sports in the state, like baseball, basketball, football and wrestling – because of his family’s history.

And while most young players dreamed of making it to the National Hockey League, Petersen set his sights on the local USHL – the top junior hockey league in the United States – team.

Every day is a new experience for Rotary Youth Exchange student Leo Canudas — including the area’s recent snowfalls. The United States was on the shortlist of countries Canudas wanted to attend school in for the year, after years of asking his mom when it would be his turn to spend a year abroad as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange. He did not know anything about Wisconsin when he was finally told he had been accepted and where he would be going. He did learn that Wisconsin is “full of cheese” and that it can get pretty cold. When he arrived at Gibraltar this past fall, he discovered that American school days are longer than those in Bolivia, but he quickly immersed himself after deciding to join the football team.

Canudas’ fall at Gibraltar included being named homecoming king and scoring a touchdown on his first and only carry of the game. A boxer in his home country, Canudas is also taking up another sport he has never played before: basketball. He says it is all part of the Rotary Youth Exchange experience and adds that sometimes you only have one chance to do something — and you should take advantage of it when it comes up.

Canudas will be enrolled at Gibraltar until the end of the school year, by which point he hopes to catch a Packers game and a boxing match before he goes home. You can learn more about the Rotary Youth Exchange program at this link.

HEAR THE STORY ABOUT CANUDAS’ TOUCHDOWN IN THIS YEAR’S GIBRALTAR HOMECOMING GAME

PRINCE ALBERT – High school basketball season is underway in Prince Albert and the Carlton Crusaders senior girls team had the chance to open in the city at the Kelly Smith Memorial Tournament at Ecole St. Mary

The Crusaders advanced to Saturday’s final after a 68-31 victory over the Indian Head Broncos on Saturday afternoon.

Crusaders head coach Kelsey Pearson said that the dominant performance was great but the club is still working out a few bad habits.

“We have got some work to do,” Pearson said. “Obviously, we missed a lot of easy buckets and that kind of set us back a bit. When your shots aren’t falling, it’s important your defence is even better.”

“We had a little bit of foul trouble,” she added. “We have a young bench, so we’re trying to get the minutes, which was great for them.”

The team got into foul trouble in the third quarter against Indian Head, but eventually fixed things and pulled away further in the fourth quarter. Pearson said the early adversity had its benefits.

“It’s good for it to happen early because then it’s something we can work on in the future,” she said. “We need our players in the game. It’s important that they recognize and understand that.”

As the team got further into the lead against Indian Head, the Crusaders could use their Grade 9 players to give them floor experience.

“We couldn’t get everyone in today, but yesterday we got everyone in,” she said. “We have 14 on our team, so it’s not always going to be like that.”

The Crusaders are coming off a trip to Hoopla as a young team last season. While they’re a more experienced team this year, Pearson said the squad still has many new players.

“We’re young and the experience isn’t there as it has been previous years, but our older girls are doing great at leading, and our younger girls are pretty smart, so they’re catching on quick,” she said. “We’ll just keep working.”

The Crusaders have two Grade 12 players but only one who was on the team last year, guard Lilly Slack. The team has five Grade 11 players, one Grade 10 and six Grade 9 players.

Slack said the team has a good mix of youth and veteran players. Even though it’s still early in the season, she likes what she’s seen so far.

“I think we have a lot of potential on our team,” she said. “Come five months from now, I think we’ll be a very strong team. We’ll be fast, (and) we’ll be running teams to the ground.

“I think our Grade 9s will get a lot of experience and I think we’ll be really fast. I think we’ll have a bunch of good tournaments,” she added.

Slack said that the team likes to stretch the floor and uses their speed to create offence.

“We would like to be a team that runs the court, has fast breaks, and good defence,” she said.

Pearson also said that the roster had a nice balance with the large group of Grade 11 and Grade 9 players.

“Those young girls have never experienced regionals, getting to Hoopla, so they don’t know that competitive drive yet,” she said.

“I’m really hoping to push the girls as far as we can. I would love to give those girls that experience and hopefully make it to Hoopla or get as far as we can with this team.”

The Crusaders opened the Kelly Smith Memorial with a 69-25 win over the Weyburn Eagles on Friday before advancing to the final with the win over Indian Head on Saturday.

Pearson liked what she saw from the players in their first tournament of the season at St. Mary.

“I’m super proud of the girls. They’ve been doing great, working hard. I mean, we can always get better and improve, and the ceiling’s a little higher for us, so we’ve got lots to work on, which is the exciting part, right? Seeing the growth is what I’m most looking forward to this season,” Pearson said.

The Crusaders lost the championship game 62-35 to the Swift Current Ardens on Saturday night but Pearson was still happy to advance to the final.

“I’m just really proud of them,” she said.

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