Three days before its first official day of practice, the Richmond High basketball team’s 2014-15 season began in tragedy.     Fixing a bike on his grandfather’s front lawn, 16-year-old Rodney Frazier was fatally shot in what has been reported as a gang-related case of mistaken identity. It was... Read more

Why don’t water polo players get more respect? It’s a really hard sport; it’s got tactics, and there’s plenty of action. But other sports get more coverage, and it seems like water polo is something no one cares about but the players and coaches. A.N., Orinda    Everything you... Read more

   We’ve already reached November, which means two things: 1) We all have friends and family who are already Christmas shopping (and this annoys us), and 2) The 2014-15 school year has already reached its first championship season.     It’s true. The next six weeks should be quite eventful,... Read more

I love playing a lot of sports and I’m pretty good, I guess. I would like to try to play three varsity sports in high school, but my dad says I’m crazy. He says I’ll be trying to do way too much and I won’t get that good at any of them.... Read more

EDITOR’S NOTE: September was a rough month for professional athletes, the NFL in particular. It stirred strong feelings in our Sac-Joaquin edition coordinator and writer, Jim McCue. He sent this to me and I felt it deserving of this page this month. Hopefully you do too.    I am... Read more

   Heart Rate Variability measurements provide invaluable data for the training process. TRAINING TIME : Tim Rudd for IYCA    Heart rate variability (HRV) has been getting a ton of press lately, and with good reason. Coaches and athletes all know that training, nutrition and recovery always has been,... Read more

   Don’t wait for a suspected concussion to have your brain scanned     It’s hard to make the concussion statistics any scarier than they already are. Millions of traumatic brain injuries occur each year in sports and recreation-related activities. Many concussions are difficult to detect and many athletes underreport... Read more

   Your mental game matters — so what should you do about it?    Do your technical skills matter? Of course. How much time do you spend developing those skills? Most high school/youth athletes spend an average of 10 hours per week practicing and competing at their sport. If... Read more

     For as long as I’ve been writing about high school sports, at least 7-10 times a year, I have had the same question asked of me.     I’ve been asked this question a bit more since we began SportStars, but I’d hear it when I was in... Read more

   During the World Cup, there is a lot of talk about the formation and the tactics, but then they focus on the star players. What’s more important? P.L., Sonoma     Great question — and it applies to all sports. In fact, I’ll start with college basketball.    When... Read more