A look at coverage from all 13 CIF-State bowl games

This year marks the second season that the California Interscholastic Federation has conducted its massive statewide football bowl games, and I was curious to see how each of the divisions was covered by local media. Every game was covered by at least one newspaper. In all we found 47 links to content related to the Bowl games. Some of the interesting stats included a pair of current NFL quarterbacks sending positive messages to their alma maters playing for titles, a female kicker booting her way into the record books, a former NFL running back making headlines as a coach and one team with five players with NFL roots. Here's a look at how each of the 13 games played Dec. 16-17.

OPEN DIVISION

Bellflower St. John Bosco 56, Concord De La Salle 33

In a matchup of parochial school heavyweights, this game attracted plenty of attention from the major newspapers around the state because of the national implications of the game. Bosco was playing in its 15th game of the season and had to navigate the rugged Pac-5 Division of the Southern Section in order to reach the Open Division Bowl Game, where perennial power Concord De La Salle was waiting.

The Los Angeles Times Eric Sondhemier summed up Bosco's win: If you want to know why St. John Bosco (13-2) proved itself the best high school football team in California over the six weeks of the postseason, it’s because the Braves could not be stopped running the football.

I really like this piece of context from Southern California Newspaper Group writer Mike Guardabascio uses to sum up Bosco's run to the title game: After the loss to the Monarchs, which saw Bosco (13-2) score a season-low 21 points, the Braves scored at least 42 points in every game the rest of the year. They put up 49 points vs. Corona Centennial in the CIF-SS Division 1 semis, 42 on Mater Dei in the championship in a rematch, and 56 on De La Salle, the most points the Spartans have given up since their run of dominance began in 1979. Prior to Saturday, they hadn’t given up more than 42 in any game.

The San Jose Mercury News uses a quote from De La Salle coach Justin Almaugh to set up the context for the Bosco victory:

“That team is better than we are,” De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “Our margin for error was really small, and we didn’t do the little things that we needed to. We put the ball on the ground six times. We lost three. We moved the ball well. I was happy about that. But our defense, we were just out of position the whole time.“You got to tip your cap. Those guys are really good, and they’re well-coached. That’s a tough combo. We didn’t play well enough tonight.”

Here's the rest of the coverage from the game:

http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/california-86009-salle-john.html

USA Today curated a story: http://usatodayhss.com/2016/no-6-st-john-bosco-scores-56-points-in-winning-cif-open-division-bowl

Max Preps: http://www.maxpreps.com/news/s3UExg1wtU2OiOszhKxMxw/no-5-st-john-bosco-bowls-over-de-la-salle-for-second-time-in-four-years.htm

Division 1-AA
Cathedral Catholic 38, Stockton St. Mary’s 35, OT

http://www.recordnet.com/sports/20161216/heartbreaker-st-marys-forces-ot-but-cathedral-wins-title-on-fg

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/high-school-preps/sd-sp-preps-cathedral-1217-story.html

Here’s how USA Today played it, in curated fashion, and by emphasizing Cathedral Catholic’s NFL heritage

http://usatodayhss.com/2016/with-sons-of-five-ex-nfl-players-on-roster-san-diegos-cathedral-catholic-wins-state-title

MaxPreps

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/Bq8GK2DL_U-8odyB1avUDA/cathedral-catholic-finishes-perfect-with-instant-state-title-classic.htm

DIVISION I–A
San Clemente (13-3) 22,  Del Oro (13-3) 17

http://www.auburnjournal.com/article/12/18/16/one-got-away-del-oro-slips-22-17-san-clemente-cif-bowl-game

Nice sidebar from the game by the Auburn Journal:

http://www.auburnjournal.com/article/12/18/16/3-plays-changed-outcome-saturday%E2%80%99s-cif-bowl-game-del-oro

http://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/varsity-times/la-sp-san-clemente-del-oro-20161217-story.html

http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/oro-86005-san-clemente.html

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/high-school/joe-davidson/article121604487.html

LA Times 

http://www.sanclementetimes.com/champions-california-san-clemente-football-team-defeats-del-oro-claim-division-1-state-title/

 San Clement’s return home was covered by the Orange County Register:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/state-738657-game-team.html

DIVISION II–AA
Madison (13-2) 21, Valley Christian (13-2) 17

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/high-school-preps/sd-sp-preps-madison-1217-story.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/16/cif-football-valley-christian-falls-just-short-of-state-crown/

DIVISION II–A
Sierra Canyon (16-0) 42,  Serra (10-5) 40

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/sports/2016-12-19/serra-comes-up-just-shy-of-state-title-in-loss-to-sierra-canyon/1776425173027.html

 This led the roundup of Los Angeles Times coverage: 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/varsity-times/la-sp-state-football-championships-20161217-story.html

DIVISION III–AA
Paraclete (12-4) 39, def. Menlo-Atherton (12-4) 21

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/sports/2016-12-19/menlo-atherton-falls-to-paraclete-in-3-aa-state-championship-bowl/1776425173026.html

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20161217/paraclete-football-topples-menlo-atherton-for-improbable-state-crown

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/17/cif-football-menlo-atherton-its-own-worst-enemy-in-defeat/

DIVISION III–A
Oakdale (14-2) 47, Bishop’s (14-1) 0

http://www.modbee.com/sports/high-school/prep-football/article121700267.html

http://www.modbee.com/sports/high-school/prep-football/article121611747.html

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/high-school-preps/sd-sp-preps-bishops-1218-story.html

DIVISION IV–AA

Campolindo (12-3) 31, Bakersfield Christian (13-2) 7

http://www.bakersfield.com/sports/eagles-grounded-in---loss-to-campolindo/article_f03de90f-0a54-5751-9dca-7f19c238691d.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/17/cif-football-campolindo-bakersfield-christian/

DIVISION IV–A
Pleasant Valley (11-3) 50,  St. Anthony (13-3) 49,  OT

http://www.chicoer.com/sports/20161217/vikings-go-for-2-and-win-state-championship-with-50-49-overtime-victory-over-st-anthony

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/20161217/st-anthony-football-drops-state-championship-heartbreaker-in-overtime-to-pleasant-valley

http://www.chicoer.com/sports/20161218/pleasant-valley-high-football-team-soaks-in-state-title-as-fans-welcome-them-home

http://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/pleasant-valley-wins-first-ever-football-state-title-in-ot-thriller/

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/butte/aaron-rodgers-message-to-pv-football-team-for-title-game/219710988

DIVISION V–AA
Bishop O’Dowd (15-1) 43,  Valley View (12-4) 24

http://www.pe.com/articles/valley-821206-view-play.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/17/cif-football-bishop-odowd-valley-view/

More on Bishop O’Dowd head coach Napoleon Kaufman, one of the greats in California sports history in football and track and field.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/15/cif-state-football-napoleon-kaufman-inspires-from-sideline-at-bishop-odowd/

http://www.pe.com/articles/alma-820846-napoleon-college.html

DIVISION V-A
McClymonds (13-1) 20, La Jolla Country Day (12-4) 17

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/17/cif-football-mcclymonds-la-jolla-country-day/

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/high-school-preps/sd-sp-preps-torreys-1218-story.html

DIVISION VI–AA

Rancho Christian (14-2) 38, Amador (14-2) 13

http://www.pe.com/articles/christian-821203-rancho-yard.html

http://www.pe.com/articles/napoleon-821208-down-amador.html

http://www.recordnet.com/sports/20161217/amador-football-falls-in-state-finals

http://usatodayhss.com/2016/emma-baker-of-rancho-christian-calif-sets-national-record-for-points-by-a-female-kicker

http://www.modbee.com/sports/high-school/prep-football/article121633982.html

DIVISION VI-A
St. Patrick-St. Vincent (13-3) 29, def. Strathmore (14-1) 28

http://www.fresnobee.com/sports/high-school/prep-football/article121612352.html

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/sports/20161218/st-patrick-st-vincent-high-football-team-claims-state-title-in-dramatic-fashion

http://www.recorderonline.com/news/strathmore-spartan-s-dream-season-ends/article_fed89efa-c59f-11e6-9c90-cffc34df126c.html

Serving a niche audience: Motor sports All-Area Team

When I first came to Bakersfield in 2012, I was introduced to a grumpy veteran sportswriter named Mike Griffith, who was a second-generation journalist for The Californian. He was first introduced to drag racing as a kid by his father, who was a longtime editor at The Californian, and that proved to be a life-changing moment for Griffith.

From the late 1970s to now Griffith still writes about the motorsports scene in Kern County. He covered the heyday of Indy Car champion Rick Mears, who would win four Indianapolis 500 titles in his career, to the start of NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick's career. Along the way, Griff would also cover every March Meet, once the biggest independent event on the NHRA season, and that's where I first got to work with him.

To many in Bakersfield motorsports is a really big deal and we wanted to further explore the niche of the audience. So in 2014, we launched the Bako Motorsports Power Hour as a partnership with Budweiser, Auto Club Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield Speedway and Kern County Raceway Park. The show has been a modest success but we worked hard to connect the audience to multiple channels, including video and print.

Last year, we introduced the All-Area Motorsports Team, which was sponsored by convenience store chain Fastrip, and it proved to be one of the more popular sections we produced in 2015. Unfortunately, this year's section didn't receive the sort of financial backing to make it a regular section, but its social media reach is interesting.

When Mike posted the page via Facebook it attracted more than 4,000 people -- twice the size of The Bako Motorsports Facebook page's audience. Of course, it's difficult to analyze the impact of the print readership, but it's an interesting case study about doing things on an annual basis as a way of attracting a one-time audience. Readership surveys suggest that interest in motorsports ranked poorly. but we did see some positive audience development numbers based off an analysis of bakersfield.com readers conducted through an American Press Institute study.

The thing I like about the All-Area team is that it puts 60 people into the newspaper and continues to make the newspaper indispensable. Hopefully, it's something that the track's see value in but it also points to the ongoing issue if those institutions still need us? In the old days, newspaper coverage was vital to any sports operation. Today, that is arguable. That's an unfortunate state, but I still believe there are plenty of people who value the independent coverage a newspaper brings to its community.

An All-Area team is one of those differentiators.

In the end, the reaction to the section was well received on Facebook, and here's a look at the response:

Print journalists can do some remarkable things

The BVarsity crew calls a high school volleyball game in 2015 with Zach Ewing (front), Justin Roberts, Charmaine Cleveland (on camera) and Trevor Horn. 

A recent post about hiring television-trained talent to help produce impactful video drew a "hey wait a minute" response from The Bakersfield Californian sports editor Zach Ewing.

It was actually a pretty good call on Ewing's part, because he wanted to remind me that last year he did the play-by-play for a radio broadcast of the CIF-Central Section Division I title game between Bakersfield Liberty and Clovis, and then wrote an award-winning game story on deadline.

Here are some samples of his play-by-play work:

One of the things that always bothered me about sportswriting were the writers that just sat in the press box taking notes. Zach is one of those journalists who can take exquisite stats, keep play-by-play, Tweet and call a game that is being simulcast on the radio and a website. That's a pretty good talent to have. During my four years at Bakersfield, I lost count how many games we worked together but it was a profound number of programming hours.

During that time, nearly every member of the TBC sports staff participated in a video production. Former sports editor Tony Lacava masterfully provided analysis on basketball games, Mike Griffith always participated in shows and with racing video, Trevor Horn is a man possessed when it comes to multi-platform delivery and Jeff Evans even efficiently called play-by-play of an entire baseball series between Cal State Bakersfield and Oklahoma. I'm pretty certain we had Ron Staff involved as well. Great team.

And here's a sample of Jeff Evans work:

Letting Casey Christie go out and explore was always the right call

A screen shot of a flower photographed by Casey Christie during a trip to Death Valley.

As a manager, I'm a big believer in letting people pursue their intellectual interests or passions as part of their work, because I ultimately believe it makes for great content. Fortunately at The Bakersfield Californian, I had three magnificent photographers in Felix Adamo, Henry Barrios and Casey Christie. Each had their own unique gifts and areas of interest.

Adamo loves motorcycles and Bakersfield and he channeled those interests into a motorcycle journey across America to visit towns named Bakersfield. Barrios is brilliant at capturing people and when he's tasked with a project he would give it 100 percent and more.

Then there was Christie, who is retiring this year, and he loves photographing nature. Casey would frequently come into my office and say something like: "I was driving down the (Kern River) canyon and I shot this bobcat and I got this." He would then hand you a gallery-worthy collection of pictures that needed to go into the paper at some point. Prolific is what best describes these men, and giving them the opportunity to do what they love was always important to me.

So, when Death Valley was awash in blooming flowers, I said to Casey Christie why don't you take the day and get out there and shoot. He did. Some may question the value of sending someone so far to take pictures, but I believe it's an important morale builder. Journalists are curious and passionate people and letting them explore what interests them (within reason) makes sense to me. It has to have some benefit to the company, the community and our audience. With that, Casey drove out to Death Valley for a Super Bloom and came back with stills and video. A true master. Here's one of my favorite projects that he produced during my time as his boss at TBC.

New Barnes and Noble stores are interesting, yet weirdly sterile

The new Barnes and Noble concept store features a bar with espresso, beer and wine offerings.

I've always enjoyed visiting bookstores, even the big boxes, but I'm not exactly sure what to make of the new Barnes and Noble concept stores, which feature a restaurant and bar. We visited the new store in Folsom, which opened on Dec. 13, and it immediately struck me as a takeoff on the spectacular Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Ore., but with a big difference -- a full-service restaurant and bar.

For the most part, the new Folsom store is pretty well laid out and everything was easy to find. The entrance to the store features a big section of tables to browse, with bare concrete floors, but you get a pretty good command of what the store has to offer when you walk in. Gone is the big music and video section, replaced by a hefty offering of vinyl records. To me the two big sections in the traditional Barnes and Noble stores were the media and children's sections. Both are minimized here. In fact, the children's section here was very sterile and had zero charm and whimsy that characterizes traditional stores. When I was a young parent, Barnes and Noble's children's sections were fun to visit.

The history section was easy to find and I liked how the new Barnes and Noble Concept store in Folsom made it easy to find content vs. the traditional stores. 

We enjoyed a mocha and some cookies in the cafe area but it was interesting to watch people wander into the restaurant, and most seemed confused by the concept. Unlike traditional Barnes and Noble outlets, the Folsom store does not have a tie in to Starbucks or other brands, such as Cheesecake Factory desserts. Instead, this bar offers a range of espresso drinks, beer and wine. The restaurant part offers a range of dining choices, including some pasta dishes, and it seemed what was being brought out to customers seemed appetizing, but if you're looking to camp out in the coffee shop part of a traditional Barnes and Noble this isn't the place for you.

The entry, which was the part that reminded me of Powell's, is full of tables of best-selling books and what's hot in particular genres. The store doesn't feel as big as some traditional stores, which have often relied on non-book merchandise to power sales, and you won't find the big bargain sections that dominate the front of some of the previous stores -- at least from what I could tell.

The concepts are still rolling out and here are some links to coverage of the plan:

Fortune on Barnes and Noble
Sacramento Bee on the store's opening

The importance of hiring talent

Newspapers have been working hard to figure out video and I thought I understood it, but once I started hiring the right people it really helped formalize my beliefs about the importance of good talent. In 2005, I hired my first television-trained journalist and she made our videos better, but she was also scorned at times by those who didn't believe newspaper-based websites should be doing video like TV -- I agree with that. However, the delivery and execution of someone trained for TV certainly helps polish packages and there's no reason that you can't have the best of both worlds -- great video and great journalism.

Here was one of Juliane Ngan's video packages when she was working with me at The Press-Enterprise.




Later I hired a young reporter from a Palm Springs TV station named Chris Ercoli, where he was a breaking news reporter. While he wanted to focus on sports, he continued to show great promise as a breaking news reporter, who could also write. At one point we teamed Ercoli and writer Will Holden, who would later do some important things online and on TV, for a late-night show around high school football. Here's a sample of their collaboration:

My last hire in Riverside was Pep Fernandez, a longtime sports anchor in Bakersfield. Fernandez immediately improved the overall production our live video programming and was instrumental in improving the brand of HS GameTime -- the Press-Enterprise's high school sports vertical. Here's a sample of Pep's work:


When I got to Bakersfield, I hired a number of people with broadcast experience to help improve our video efforts. They were Chris McCullah, Lisa Krch, Lisa Kimble, Vance Palm, Charmaine Cleveland and John Farrand. All made important contributions to our video efforts at The Bakersfield Californian.

Mobile video and production

Mobile video and mobile production is probably one of the future outcomes for video, and I've been experimenting with it for some time. I recently wrote a story about the toxic legacy of gold mining in Amador County -- in California's Gold Country -- and I was able to produce a short video from the site where the Environmental Protection Agency will conduct a massive cleanup. I shot the video with my phone and edited the whole thing during a flight from Oakland to Dallas. The idea was to add a strong narrative piece, for those who don't listen to sound, to the video piece, which seems to be a trend among video producers for social media.

GRAPHIC: The importance of the live video workflow

Mike Griffith's top Facebook videos from 2016

The top videos from Mike Griffith and the Bako Motorsports Power Hour
This video of promising Late Model drivers Buddy Shepherd and Blaine Perkins was viewed more than 34,000 times and allegedly reached (Facebook stats) one million people over the course of the year. Again it's an allegation, but it's a good post.



When a fire broke out during a race at Bakersfield Speedway, TBC's Mike Griffith was on scene to capture the action, but the result provided some interesting comments from racers and racing fans about safety at the track. The video was viewed more than 30,000 times and reached more than 66,000 people.


Nothing attracts bigger numbers for racing fans than Fuel Altered racing from Auto Club Famoso Raceway, and Mike Griffith provided it.



While the Fuel Altereds hit it big -- regularly -- we often see success with videos from historic Auto Club Famoso Raceway, which is due to the track's unique international reach. It's not uncommon to find fans from Sweden, Australia, England and Germany who want to see the nostalgia-based action on the quarter-mile track.

Interview with Trayvon Martin's father

Earlier this year, I had the chance to interview Trayvon Martin's father, Tracy, about his son and his efforts to keep his son's memory alive. Martin was in Bakersfield as part of a speaking tour, and stopped by The Bakersfield Californian for the interview with us and our radio partner.

It's all about the longtail: how a Christmas parade goes a long way

In 2014 and 2015, The Bakersfield Californian was hired provide live video of the Bakersfield Christmas Parade. In years past, local television stations provided the coverage but when they wanted to be paid $20,000 to produce the event we stepped in and provided a low-cost solution. While, we estimated that about 1,500 people watched the parade coverage, which was webcast in English and Spanish, we saw significant reach after the live event. To me it's further proof that the power of live video is more in the workflow, the authenticity and the efficiency of the event and that often carries over into longtail views. In this instance, we were able to produce an entire video from the event, along with more than 100 smaller clips and Spanish-language clips for on-demand consumption.

We also saw strong video on demand numbers from the smaller and searchable clips.

And here's the parade in Spanish

The power of a studio demonstrated for breaking news

When Country music legend Merle Haggard passed away earlier this year, The Bakersfield Californian was one of the first media outlets to report it, but we were also uniquely positioned to add an important layer of context to the news with a live segment on bakersfield.com and our radio partner NEWSTALK 1180 AM KERN, which interrupted its regular scheduled programming for a live update. With radio host Scott Cox leading the way, we were able to get The Californian's Bob Price, who has written extensively on the history of the Bakersfield Sound, along with lifestyles editor Jennifer Self to discuss the importance of Haggard to Country music, but also to Bakersfield.
Here's the segment:

Keeping busy with a print, photo and writing project

With career changes, comes the challenge of staying busy and I recently decided to go to an Amador High School football game and do a package from the game. Normally, I do a lot of video with football but in this case I tried to fully stat the game, take pictures and keep play-by-play. To top it off, I went home and turned this around for a print sample. Enjoy

E-books showcased multimedia skills of The Californian

During my career, I've worked on several projects but we had a lot of fun developing multimedia books for The Bakersfield Californian in 2012. They were designed to showcase the multimedia talents of our staff, including the 2012 March Meet -- a historic drag race held in Bakersfield each March.

Here's the link to the March Meet page, where the book is available for $4.99
March Meet

But if you're curious about some of the content from the book, here's a documentary that Mike Griffith and I produced in 2012.

March Meet 2012 Documentary from Louis Amestoy on Vimeo.

We also produced some other titles of interest, including this one on Bakersfield High School's unbeaten season of 2011.
Unbeaten

If you're interested in the history of Earthquakes, I think this was one of our best multimedia projects with a major story package in print, an hour on the radio and video interviews. All of that was wrapped up in a tidy e-book package with the aid of reporter Steve Mayer.
The Great Quakes of 1952

President Obama visited in 2012 to make Cesar Chavez's home a National Monument. It was a team effort to cover it, which included a complete live stream of the president's remarks.
Obama's Tribute

Finally, this was a personal journey for me as I uncovered my Basque roots in Bakersfield, which features the nation's second largest population of Basques. All of the photos and video were produced by myself, with ample copy editing by Logan Molen.
Being Basque in Bakersfield

Of course this is still for sale: Being Basque in Bakersfield - #iBooks https://t.co/1VdG7PpvPy

— Louis Amestoy (@LouisAmestoy) December 14, 2016