Barstow Sports Blog

(AP Photo)

If you’ve watched the Barstow High School football team in recent weeks, then you know this isn’t the same-old double-wing team from a year ago. The Aztecs first-year coach Jose Rubio as made a point of opening up the run-based offense.

One of the ways the Aztecs have done that is by lining up in a shotgun formation and directly snapping the ball to one of their running backs. This is often referred to as a single-wing formation.

These types of plays are typically used on the high school and collegiate level, however, on Sunday the Miami Dolphins used it to upset the New England Patriot, ending the Pats 21-game regular season winning streak. Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown ran for four touchdowns and threw for another out their version of the single-wing formation called Wildcat.

Were the Dolphins taking notes from Barstow’s version?

Probably not. The Aztecs are still struggling through the air. In a 34-6 win Friday they attempted four passes with no completions, although they had open receivers most of the time.

Running backs DaMario Webb and Curtis Webb disagreed on whether the Aztecs attempt to spread out and some trickery to the double wing has given them more space in the running game — DaMario said no, Curtis said yes. However, coaches are beginning to take notice. Whether it’s successful or not, teams are spending time preparing for it.

“They do their power stuff really well, and then they make you prepare for when they spread out,” said Antelope Valley coach Brett Pape after Friday’s game.

Perhaps Miami’s win is a sign of things to come for the Aztecs though?

Here’s a look at what the Dolphins did so well (and what the Pats did so bad):

The history of single-wing football goes way, way back.

Dolphins lesson learned: winning is fun

Maybe Bill Belichick should read more of his own books.

Could Miami use Wildcat more often? Maybe …

The single wing was nothing new for several of the Dolphins coaches

Dolphins quarterbacks coach David Lee, former Arkansas Razorbacks offensive coordinator, used the single-wing formation to great success at Arkansas with current NFL backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. Here he is explaining how it works during his days at Arkansas to CSTV (via NYT’s Fifth Down blog).

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— Matthew Peters, sports editor

The Barstow City Little League Championships had all the thrills of an action-packed Major League Baseball playoff game on Saturday.What is really astonishing at this level is the reaction kids have to pressure situations. In both the 9-and 10 -year-old and Major division games, these kids were flawless.A quick example of the heroics under pressure is 9 and 10-year-old Yankees pitcher Alfredo Lopez. Lopez, who walked one batter and let another get on base because off a passed ball, could have crumbled. For a second, Lopez looked hittable. He had dazzled with his fastball and developing curveball for three straight innings, striking out nine.

A quick hit back to the pitcher with two men in scoring position could have resulted in a catastrophe for Lopez’s game and the Yankees with the score being deadlocked at zero. The whole complexion could have been changed in a flash and the Red Sox, stifled all day by Lopez, could have been rejuvenated with the knowledge that he was mortal. Instead, with lightning reflexes, Lopez didn’t hesitate to make a heads up throw back to his catcher, Desi Santos, preventing them from getting a 1-0 lead in the third inning. A quick tag by Santos and the umpire screaming, “Your out” was the catalyst that made his 15-strikeout performance happen in six innings of work.Another example of performing under pressure situation happened in the next game.

With two runners in scoring position and two outs, a routine fly ball hit to centerfield could have spelled disaster for the Red Sox. However, the centerfielder made the play, in an important moment of the game, look routine. Performance under pressure isn’t easy at even the big league level. The Little Leaguers made everything look easy, and reminded everyone why they were playing for the championship game.

-Jason Blasco, sports reporter

As a sports writer, traveling and learning different towns and cities becomes part of the gig in the quest to move up the ranks in the highly competitive business of being a sports journalist.

Through all of my travels, I’ve learned a lot from living in different areas such as Tracy, Taft and Scottsdale, Ariz., and Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. In addition to my travels, I’ve also had opportunities to interview a lots of interesting and famous people such as Wayne Gretzky, Dave Winfield, Fergie Jenkins, Arizona Diamondbacks young up and coming players Chris Young and Justin Upton and had the fortunes of meeting and doing feature stories on players like Albert Pujols when he was a Class-A player in Peoria, Ill.

As a music journalist and publicist, I’ve gotten a chance to learn about different aspects and perspectives of how business is conducted and had a chance to interview some of the best in the business including Vanessa Carlton, DJ Skribble, and Blue October.

In addition to hobnobbing with celebrities, I’ve also gotten an opportunity to meet many great and interesting people through my experience, and although I’ve only been in Barstow for a week, this place has been no different.

One observation that I’ve made about this city’s sport teams is that people in Barstow and the surrounding areas are passionate about their sports and the people that play in it. I’ve gotten a chance to cover the Silver Valley softball and baseball team, the Barstow Community College baseball team and you can tell the relentless enthusiasm that the teams and fans have.

As a person who loves music and sports, the two things the two industries have in common is the amount of passion involved in each. I look forward to translating my passion for sports into giving you the readers a great product and content the passionate sports fans will crave.

— Jason Blasco, staff writer

A good blog is like a garden … sort of. You’ve got to water it, put it near sunlight and sometimes talk to it. Somewhere along the way, we got away from that and now our blog is a bit wilted.

We’ve been away for so long working on enhancing our print content with new features such as athletes of the week, school notebooks, Q&As and other items.

However, starting today we brought some water and fresh soil to start nursing the blog back to health. We will be updating our blog with additional questions and answers from our weekly Q&As.

Look for things to start blooming a little more around here

— Desert Dispatch Sports Staff