Bob Padecky

Free basketball clinic to be held Dec. 29

padecky — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:53:49 +0000

A free basketball clinic will be held Dec. 29 at Sonoma Academy High School in Santa Rosa.
The classes will be age appropriate, divided into four categories: kindergarten through second grade, third grade through fifth grade, sixth grade to eighth grade and high school.
The clinic will be conducted by professional trainer Jeremy Russotti.
For further information contact Kevin Christenson at 478-0240 or via e-mail at kevin@1percentclub.org.

I have never seen anything like this. Never.

padecky — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:21:36 +0000

In all the years I have been covering sports, 1965 I wrote my first story, I have never seen anything to match the repulsiveness of this Penn State sex abusive scandal.
I used to think Pete Rose gambling, NCAA buying gifts for athletes, baseball players doing steroids, was the worst examples of human behavior I would ever see in sports. Not anymore.
When I spoke to former Penn State player Keith Dorney the other day about Joe Paterno and the program, we had a conversation that was as baffling as it was sad. Dorney, now living in West County, working as a certified financial planner, will always credit Paterno for being the third most influential person in his life, after his mother and father. What’s happening at State College right now won’t change that.
But when I ended the conversation with, “You know, Keith, absolute power corrupts absolutely”, Dorney agreed.
Paterno and Penn State have lived in their own little bubble for so long – you might even say Joe Paterno was Penn State – that horrific transgressions might be dismissed with a wink and nod. Paterno has created a kingdom and for all the man’s good works, he has destroyed so much of his legacy.
And the most sad part of all this? It’s not Paterno booted in disgrace, although he is getting the Nittany Lions’ share of sympathy right now. The real sympathy should be directed at all the boys Sandusky abused, when so many of them could have been saved from the experience.

Newman grad produces football movie

padecky — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:56:58 +0000

Marshall Cook, a former quarterback for Cardinal Newman and now a movie producer, will be attending a special screening Thursday at 7:30 of a football movie he directed.
It’s entitled “Division III: Football’s Finest” and will be showing at the Roxy 14 Cinema in downtoen Santa Rosa.
Tickets are $10 apiece with half the proceeds going to the Cardinal Newman Youth Empowerrment Services.

It felt like a privilege to watch it

padecky — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 06:08:28 +0000

Watching Newman and Montgomery Friday night was as close to a perfect reason as I ever can give on why I watch sports. Montgomery supposedly was overmatched, didn’t have a chance and yet it came down to the game’s last play, Newman batting away a pass, for the Cardinals to clinch the victory.
Sports, at its best, is a surprise, which of course is why they keep score because it everything was predictable 2-5 Monty would have been clobbered 5-0-1 Newman.
As Jason Franci told me after the game, “This is why I coach, for games like this.”
And these are the games I love to write, although I would have preferred more than 35 minutes to do it.
In the game’s last seconds Montgomery’s backup quarterback threw to Montgomery’s starting quarterback who couldn’t throw but could catch the football.
That’s some nice theater.
Just before that Newman’s backup quarterback who has seen very few snaps from center this season threw a beauty, a 29-yarder, to Alex Roberts to Monty’s one-yard line. It was Roberts’ only catch of the game. It set up Steven Tomasin’s fourth and winning touchdown.
That’s seome nice theater, too.
“One of the two best Montgomery-Newman games I ever coached,” Franci said.
The other one was in 2004.

It’s a shame Windsor and Newman won’t play this year

padecky — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:42:06 +0000

Clearly they are the two best high school football teams in the area but in different leagues and different divisions. Two good running backs, two good coaches, two teams with superlative high school athletes, I don’t know what the score would be but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be 0-0.
“They remind me a lot of the old Montgomery teams,” said Mick O’Meara, the Sonoma Valley coach beofre his team lost 53-7 to Windsor Friday night. “They play aggressive, come at you hard, try to wear you down.”

Al Davis was one of the best things to happen to the NFL.

padecky — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:41:59 +0000

Other than maybe Pete Rozelle, and that’s a maybe, no one had more of an impact on the league than Davis, who died Saturday at the age 82.
He was instrumental in bringing the AFL and the NFL together. He provided a villian to the league, and every sport needs a villian. The Yankees, the Lakers and Al Davis. A nice three-pack.
If you had the opportunity to talk to Davis, it would have been a conversation you would remember for the rest of your life. His mind was as keen as any I have ever met and in covering the Raiders for their last four years in Oakland before they moved to L.A., his team dwarfed every team in the Bay Area.
I’ll miss Al because life in professional sports will be so boring without him. I don’t get much of a thrill anymore of seeing a wide receiver beat his chest like a five-year old everytime he scores a touchdown. That’s false theatrics. Al was the real deal. The only time they would have been guaranteed sellouts at the Coliseum since the Raiders returned from L.A. in 1995, would have been to hold an Al Davis press conference and charge admision.

Kim Navarro still recovering

padecky — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:08:52 +0000

Kim Navarro, the 1999 El Molino graduate who went on to become a two-time bronze medalist at the U.S. National Ice Skating Champinships, still is mourning over the death of Wade Belak August 31st.
Belak was the 14-year NHL veteran who took his life in a Toronto hotel room. Belak, 35, was to be Navarro’s partner on “Battle of the Blades”, the Canadian ice skating version of “Dancing with The Stars.”
“Wade was bigger than life,” Navarro said. “He loved his family, his daughters. It doesn’t make sense. It’ll never make sense.”
Belak had been battling depression for years but Navarro said she never saw any incidence of that when she skated with Belak.
A column on Navarro and Belak will run in Friday’s Pres Democrat.

If the Fondo keeps going like this…

padecky — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:59:37 +0000

Santa Rosa or Sonoma County is going to have to name a road after Levi. All big cities have marked their celebrities that way, even if it’s only a block or two of a street. I raised the point with Levi (in Thursday’s column) and he blushed. Of course he would. It’s one of the big reasons the King Ridge GranFondo has been such a success. Leipheimer is doing it for other people, not himself.

El Molino- King for a Day or King for a season?

padecky — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:42:53 +0000

El Molino beat Casa, 20-13, last Friday. It was El Mo’s first over Casa in 14 years. The victory quite logically raised the spirit of not only the players but the students at the school as well. But Matt Transue, in his first year as head coach, would like to see more good come out of it than just one celebratory night.
The Lions face Petaluma this Friday night and Transue is wary of the 0-5 Trojans.
“I am more scared of an 0-5 team than a 5-0 team,” said Transue, 35, once a defensive end at Rancho Cotate and SRJC. “An 0-5 team feels like they got nothing to lose.”

If this keeps going, Levi is in line for another award

padecky — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 03:37:39 +0000

The 2011 GranFondo was a raging success, rider injuries notwithstanding. As this was being written Levi Leipheimer knew a couple of ambulances took injured riders off course to hospitals.
“For sure,” Leipheimer said after the ride, “somebody was hurt out there but I am hoping it’s nothing serious.”
Typically injury reports at the GranFondo are released a day or two days later. Rumors as if this writing indicate no serious injuries were sustained. Then again, those are rumors.
The course was affected Saturday with a light rain that made the King Ridge Road and the Hauser Bridge especially treacherous.
As with the two previous GranFondo rides, rider injuries produced the only downturn feeling, as the riders themselves receiving glowing revues.
Which is why I told Levi afterward, “If this keeps up, you’ll have to be named Santa Rosa Business Man of the Year again.”
Leipheimer received that honor in 2010.
I believe Levi blushed a bit when I said that.