Canyon track and field's Devin Baldwin: Endless tenacity

Every summer, Canyon's boys varsity basketball team participates in offseason conditioning drills. It's fairly standard activities - sprinting and agility workouts. But Canyon senior Devin Baldwin soon found out he was anything but a standard runner. Canyon track and field head coach Paul Broneer, who is notorious for finding the best athletes on campus regardless of sport, noticed something special in Baldwin right away. "He saw something in me that I didn't even know ...

Foothill League girls track and field preview: Turnover effects

Three new coaches, three CIF state qualifiers graduated and a couple of athlete transfers. It's fair to say the 2013 version of the Foothill League in girls track and field is far different than the previous year. But that doesn't mean the league will lack talent or excitement. Defending Foothill champion Canyon is proving it's not just a flash in the pan, but the second and third place finishers from last year, Golden Valley ...

Foothill League boys track and field preview: Separation time

Splitting a Foothill League crown isn't a way to make everyone happy. None of the three teams who split it last year, Canyon, Golden Valley and Hart, were thrilled about it. If one of those teams want to win it outright this year though, it will take some serious retooling. Just about every team in the league lost a major contributor, including three CIF state qualifiers who are all now graduated. Teams ...

West Ranch's Tanner Skabelund: Only one way

Tanner Skabelund grew up in an environment that demanded a lot. The West Ranch High senior grew up in a devoutly Mormon family, which required him to spend several hours a week with church, volunteer work and various types of training and studying. When it comes to his religion, Skabelund says, there was never any option other than a highly devoted, head-on commitment. It sounds awfully similar to the way the senior has approached his ...

Foothill League 2013 boys volleyball preview: Teams have a lot to live up to

It's hard to figure out which team has more pressure on it. Is it the team with two unprecedented streaks to uphold in Foothill League play? Or is it the team everyone is picking to end those streaks? Valencia, winners of its last 112 league matches and the last 12 league crowns, comes into Thursday's Foothill openers as an underdog. That's according to a poll of the league's coaches, who picked West Ranch as the ...

Saugus baseball wins the hard way

Saugus Centurions baseball took one of the more stressful routes to victory. But in the Foothill League opener against a talented Hart Indians team, the Centurions will take it. Saugus had to fend off multiple comeback attempts on the way to a 5-4 win over Hart after 10 back-and-forth innings on Wednesday at Hart High School. "I think we age 20 years with each game," said Saugus head coach John Maggiora. He was referring to ...

Santa Clarita Valley NFL players hit the open market

Even before the NFL free agency period began, a few blockbuster deals were already made, according to reports around the league.

The Master's College's Jacqui Marshall: Compatible pursuits

All the other schools that tried to recruit Jacqui Marshall were aggressive and almost pushy.

Hart High boys volleyball jumps out to early lead

Toward the end of last season, Hart High boys volleyball was playing at a high level and showing signs of vast improvement from earlier in the year.

COC hoops: The ride comes to a stop

For a while, it looked like College of the Canyons men's basketball was going to keep this ride going.

Golden Valley boys volleyball hits reset

With a new head coach coming in at the last minute and a young team trying to recover from graduation losses, Golden Valley boys volleyball has its work cut out this season.

Canyon boys volleyball's rallying cry

Canyon boys volleyball is a team trying to develop trust among one another. The Canyon Cowboys made plenty of progress in that category on Tuesday night, coming back from a two-game deficit to beat the Burbank Bulldogs 3-2 at Canyon High School. After losing the first two games 25-22 and 25-23, Canyon rallied back to win 25-13, 25-20 and 15-12 thanks largely to 20 kills, 24 digs and three aces from senior Lance Ayson. "You've ...

Prep boys hoops: Trinity gets a last shot

Don't close the book on this season just yet. Trinity Classical Academy boys basketball hits the road toward the Fresno area to face Tranquillity High on Wednesday night in the first round of the CIF State Division V Basketball tournament. The state tournament brackets were released Sunday night. On Saturday, the Trinity Knights fell short of a CIF-Southern Section Division VI title after losing 47-40 to Rio Hondo Prep. Given their performance in the Southern ...

COC basketball: One common thread

All three athletes had their separate reasons for taking the paths they took. But they all had the same reason for ending up at College of the Canyons - basketball. Valencia graduates Terrez Scott and David Horst and Saugus graduate Ron Harris all took significant breaks from the sport after high school, but they've converged onto the same team years later. "We all had things that were happening in our lives and it took time ...

Youth sports: Local AYSO teams make state

Even some of the coaches and parents in the community didn't realize a state championship existed for the American Youth Soccer Organization.

All-Santa Clarita Valley Boys Track and Field: Canyon's Jeremy Kimmer

Jeremy Kimmer once said he wished he was allowed to compete in more than the maximum of four events allowed during Foothill League dual meets.

All-Santa Clarita Valley Girls Track and Field: Golden Valley's Azaria Hill

The advancement of girls distance runners in the Santa Clarita Valley are well documented (See Saugus girls cross country and seven straight state titles).

All-Santa Clarita Valley Boys Volleyball: Tanner Skabelund

Years from now, it won't be possible to look back at the last two years of West Ranch boys volleyball without thinking of Tanner Skabelund.

All-Santa Clarita Valley boys tennis: Valencia's Chad LeDuff

Given Valencia's dominance over the rest of the Foothill League in recent years, the team's best singles player should naturally be honored.

Max Homa's week among the elite

Max Homa is starstruck and he's not ashamed to admit it.

Valencia football's Davis Pitner: Finding his way on the line

Saugus' Charles Dulac: A message of acceptance

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series of stories in which The Signal recognizes high school athletes whose greatest achievements go well beyond the playing field.

SCV track and field season ends at state finals

Somehow it was fitting that the last three remaining locals of the high school track and field season were all distance runners from Saugus High School, a perrenial power in distance races.

Max Homa, Cal upset in NCAA semifinals

The wave of emotion swung back the other direction this week for Valencia graduate Max Homa.

Saugus track's Rodrigo Ornelas: Determined to be the best

Even now, he still thinks about second place.

Local athletes will participate in NCAA baseball tourney

The Santa Clarita Valley once again has a few good reasons to tune into the college baseball postseason, which begins Friday.

Valencia track's Olivia Pear: On a different stage

It was Olivia Pear's goal all along to miss her high school graduation. Last fall, when it came time for seniors at Valencia High to order their caps, gowns and tassels for the ceremony, Pear astutely noticed that her school's graduation date fell on the same night as the CIF-Southern Section Track and Field Masters Meet. Pear decided to purchase the cap and gown anyway. But while 694 of her Valencia classmates walked across the ...

TMC baseball falls just short in game 2 of NAIA World Series

It all started to fall into place for The Master's College baseball.

Foothill athletes advance to state at Friday's Masters meet

NORWALK - The exact move Sabrina Janes was trying to make a week ago worked perfectly the second time around.

NAIA highlighted by distance runners

It was a good day for distance runners at The Master's College on Friday.