Posted by: Staff Writer Eric Branch

Three sets of Empire track twins will be interviewed from 3-6 p.m. Monday on KSRO 1350 AM.

The 15^th annual Press Democrat All-Empire Awards Banquet concluded less than an hour ago. Master of Ceremonies Eric Branch, The Press Democrat's talented reporter and writer, handled his job with style and humor; our very own columnist Bob Padecky was the guest speaker, and three coaches were honored - Rick O'Brien, Casa Grande football; Lin Barrett, Mendocino/Fort Bragg and Doug Courtemarche of Santa Rosa.

Posted by: Press Democrat Staff Writer Rich Rupprecht

Which school's sports team got jobbed by either not making the North Coast Section playoffs, or getting what may seem an undeserving seed?

In competition would be the Windsor softball team, which didn't make the Div. II field, despite a 15-6 record. What sealed the fate of the Jaguars, was Casa Grande, the SCL champ and a two-time winner against Windsor, getting the 12th and final seed.

It's that 8-16 record of Heritage, the No. 10 seed, that sticks out. Okay, so Heritage is looked at as having a tougher schedule than Windsor. But how is that Windsor's fault, playing in the SCL on somewhat of a down year. Heritage has one win against a Div. II playoff team (Clayton Valley) and Windsor has none. Windsor lost close games to No. 1 seed Montgomery and No. 2 Rancho Cotate, but they aren't wins.

In NCS competition, it would appear to be one's schedule that's key. Heritage met the critera of having a winning record against teams in its own division. Still, it's hard to figure that 8-16 is even equal to 15-6.

The Analy boys' baseball team received the No. 5 seed in Div. III and didn't get a first round bye. Dublin at 14-10 received the No. 4 seed. Dublin has a win over Casa Grande and Analy went 1-1 against Casa Grande. Again, the selection committee must have interpreted Dublin as having a tougher schedule. Outside of playing some East Bay schools in the same division, how can Analy ever have the advantage?

The Petaluma teams were also left out of the Div. II mix in both baseball and softball. Petaluma baseball went 14-11 and split with No. 3 seed Casa Grande. Here, it looks like the Trojans ran into a pretty tough Div. II playoff field. No. 12 is Redwood at 14-11 and No. 11 is Northgate at 16-8.

The Petaluma girls softball team probably wasn't going to make the playoffs if Windsor didn't.

It's very possible - and considering the way this baseball season has gone - nearly a guarantee that Montgomery and Cardinal Newman will square off once again in the North Coast Section Division II baseball playoffs.

Time and space constraints many times don't allow us to give props to the many high school athletes that work hard.

Saturday was quite a day for Redwood Empire athletes. At the North Coast Section swim meet in Concord, Maria Carrillo's Maya DiRado set a national high school record in the 200-yard Individual Medley. Max Horrell, arguably the top swimmer ever at Analy, set an NCS record in the boys' 100 butterfly, and Healdsburg took home a gold medal in the 100 backstroke.