Pirate football battling the best

Tony Altobelli

With Orange Coast College entering its second campaign in the

Northern Division of the Mission Conference, there is still some talk

about how much of a difference is there between the two conferences.

Comparing the two divisions is like comparing the New York Yankees to

the Newport Beach Little League Yankees, no offense, youngsters.

It’s almost hard to comprehend just how dominant the teams in the

northern division are to those in the central.

Let’s look at the rankings.

The central division has mighty Palomar. After finishing 1998 ranked

second nationally, the Comets are the No. 1 ranked team in Southern

California, all of California, the USA and perhaps the entire Milky Way

Galaxy for this season.

After Palomar, there is, well, not much.

Not counting Palomar, in head to head matchups the central division

went an astounding 2-23 against the northerners, losing by a total of

968-351, or an average game score of 39-14.

To show how far Palomar is ahead of its own conference, the Comets

outscored their own division, 255-57, or 51-11 per game.

Yikes.

The good news is that the Pirates are no longer in Palomar’s division.

The bad news is they’re in the northern division, which has three of

the top 20 teams in the entire bleepin country.

Cerritos is ranked No. 2, Long Beach, No. 12 and Mt. San Antonio, No.

17.

To give you the proper prospective, with the exception of California,

obviously, there isn’t four teams from the same o7 statef7 on this

list, let alone the same division of a conference.

And guess what? OCC plays’ em all, including the aforementioned

Palomar Comets.

For those crying about another season of no local teams in the NFL and

are too lazy to travel to USC or UCLA for decent collegiate football,

here’s this bit of information.

OCC plays all four of these national powerhouses o7 at home f7 this

season. It should be fun.

Congratulations to sophomore running back Jimmie Banks and wide

receiver David Castleton on being mentioned as “Players to Watch,”

according to the J.C. Grid Wire, which covers all community colleges

throughout the United States.

For OCC men’s soccer co-coach Laird Hayes, jet lag will become a

normal job hazard as he begins his sixth season as an NFL side judge.

Games in Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Buffalo, New England and Indianapolis

will have Hayes consuming more airline food in eight weeks than any one

human should digest in eight years.

“You rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles, that’s for sure,” Hayes

said.

With the recent eastern shift of certain NFL teams formerly based in

Southern California, the mileage is pretty obvious.

“There are only five teams west of the Mississippi River in the NFL,”

Hayes said. “More often than not, we go east.”

Hayes’ first weekend off isn’t until week 9 and even that is not

etched in stone.

“If there’s an injury or if I have to fill in for someone that week,

I’ll be there working,” Hayes said.