Barstow Sports Blog

Football season is almost upon us. We’ve been doing our own preparations for the season at the Desert Dispatch, and so have the Barstow and Silver Valley teams. Here are some news and notes from the teams.

Barstow

• The Aztecs will begin the second year of coach Jesse Ceniceros’ regime Aug. 31 against Highland in Palmdale. Barstow went 5-6 overall last year and finished the year with a 49-0 playoff loss to Palm Desert.
• Barstow plays the exact same schedule as last year, except the home and road dates are reversed. The Aztecs have five home games and five away games. They end the season with three out of their last four games on the road.
• Training camp officially opens up on Monday. It will be the coaches’ first opportunity to see their players in pads.
• The Aztecs have a smaller roster this year. Their roster is at about 30 players, according to Maxpreps.com. However, there are still a few players who need to be added. You’ll notice Jerrell Green isn’t on the list, but the junior running back was at the team’s weight-lifting session Thursday. Ceniceros will also fill out his roster with about 10 JV players on game nights.
• Green will be an important part of the Barstow’s success as its only returning running back in a predominantly run-oriented offense.
• Ceniceros warned his players about enjoying the new skate park at Dana Park after the team’s weight lifting session Thursday. With the season set to begin on August 31 and a small roster, the Aztecs can’t afford any injuries, Ceniceros said. He said he’d be making frequent trips past the skate park to make sure none of his players are skating.
• We’re not even into preseason yet, but Ceniceros wasted no time breaking out the inspirational speeches. He talked about making Barstow proud before sending his players off for the weekend. We were ready to put on some pads, and we aren’t even on the team.

Silver Valley

• Silver Valley begins its first year under the direction of coach Andy Campbell on Sept. 7 at home against Needles. Campbell served as an assistant coach with the Trojans last season when the team went 3-7 and missed the playoffs.
• It will be a season of firsts for reasons other than just Campbell’s debut. The Trojans have new jerseys and a new logo. Campbell plans to install an up-tempo spread offense this season.
• The Trojans play a similar schedule to last season but not exactly the same. Non-league games against Summit and Roosevelt have been replaced with games against St. Genevieve and Tahquitz. Silver Valley has six of its 10 games at home.
• John “Tex” Williams will not be joining the Trojans as an assistant coach as originally planned. Williams is focusing on his work with the Barstow Riffians instead. The Trojans will have about eight assistant coaches this season, though.

— Matthew Peters and David Heldreth

Along with video, we took plenty of photos while Jim McCall was undergoing his hair metamorphosis. The entire process was quite lengthy. McCall went under the shears at Head to Toe Beauty Salon at about 1:45 p.m. on July 21 and didn’t finish up until roughly 4:30 p.m. Much of the time was spent waiting for his newly colored hair to dry in stages.

Travis McCall looks at his uncle Jim’s new hair style after the first step — bleaching his hair. There was still a long way to go.

Jim’s blue transformation begins while hairstylist Diana Rodriguez preps for more coloring.

Erica Torres, right, joins in to help color Jim’s head.

Rodriguez begins the final step — carving a “WB” into the side of Jim’s head. She referenced a West Barstow baseball hat for the design.

— Matthew Peters, David Heldreth

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Barstow had its own place at the Home Run Derby on Monday night. Angels slugger Valdimir Guerrero selected Barstow’s own Dino Ebel as his designated pitcher for the evening. Ebel set him up pretty well as the duo took the title and Vlad teed off with several homers topping the 450-foot mark.

Dino didn’t get much face time on ESPN. Every once in a while you could see the back of his head as he prepared to pitch. The announcers talked about Vlad’s pitcher a few times but never mentioned Dino by name or said anything about him. Apparently there are more people interested in that Vlad guy than Dino — go figure. At least we’ll be able to see brief shots of Dino throughout the next year when ESPN inevitably replays the derby over and over again.

As Vlad blasted the derby-winner out of the park, he started to make his way toward Dino before being mobbed by his entourage. The two eventually met halfway and exchanged a quick hug before Dino departed and Vlad received his reward.

Dino was interviewed over the phone on ESPN’s First Take, formerly Cold Pizza, Tuesday morning. Dino briefly talked about the normally aggressive hitter’s patience at the plate for one night and also deflected the credit for the win. The anchor, however, said it was a team win. Dino also go some press in a Q&A with the Sporting News’ Stan McNeal.

Vlad often sent hand signals to Dino indicating where he wanted his pitches. Vlad seemed to tire by the final round, but you’ve got to wonder how Dino’s arm was doing. If you guess that Vlad swung at one out of every four pitches Dino, 42, threw, his total would be around 176 (17 homers + 27 outs multiplied by four) for the night, and that doesn’t include the batting practice that players were taking before the derby and in between rounds.

Swinging the bat that many times isn’t easy either. News reporter Aaron Aupperlee and I went to the batting cages at the Sportspark on Saturday and took 60 pitches. Our performance didn’t quite match up to Vald’s, but we were still tired. We did OK on slow-pitch softball, but when we kicked it up a notch to medium-pitch softball, we were out of our league.

I can relate with Vald on some level, though. Anyone who watched the derby saw Vlad re-taping his hands from blisters. A Band-Aid was stuck to my left thumb for the last two days as a reminder of Saturday’s swings.

— Matthew Peters, sports editor

There’s been a lot of excitement about Matt Mitchell in Barstow during the last few months, and rightfully so. Mitchell was drafted by the Royals in June and made his first professional pitching appearance June 23 for the Arizona League Royals. He earned two strikeouts in 2.2 innings pitched.

Mitchell’s family and several others visited him in Arizona recently. All reports say he’s adjusting well to life in Arizona. He’s living in a hotel and without a car. The Royals bus the players back and forth between the training complex. They often get to the stadium at 5 a.m. to begin working out. Games generally start at 10:30 a.m.

Although he’s pitched just 2.2 innings a few weeks into the season, he’s receiving pitching instruction from former Cy Young winner Mark Davis. Mitchell is on a 45-50 pitch limit for now. He will make his second appearance June 30.

“He’s made some changes in his delivery and is listening to what they have to say,” said Curt Mitchell, Matt’s dad.

Terri Peralta, a family friend of the Mitchell’s, saw Mitchell and said he still looked level-headed and calm despite the pressures of professional baseball. Curt, said his son pitched well for his first performance and his change up was working particularly well that day.

“He felt OK,” Curt said. “He was glad to get his first appearance over with. He said was nervous but he enjoyed it.”

Peralta snapped a ton of pictures during the trip and even some video. Here’s what she shared with the Desert Dispatch.

- Matthew Peters and David Heldreth