Sports Shorts: Bailey Tanner to Skip Tritons' Volleyball Season

Outside hitter Bailey Tanner, an all-county fifth-team selection by the Orange County Register after her sophomore season with the San Clemente High girls volleyball team, has decided not to play high school volleyball this season, opting instead to take online classes through Capistrano Connections Academy, a charter school within the Capistrano Unified School District, said her parents, Troy and Desiree Tanner.

Troy, a former All-American volleyball player and member of the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s national team at the 1988 Olympics, said his daughter was suffering “horrific allergies related to environment.” Adding in an e-mail, “We all miss her competing, but [it’s] not worth all the congestion, headaches and overall miserableness.”

Capistrano Connections does not offer the option of letting its students play in high school programs while attending their program, Desiree said. Bailey will continue to train at Tstreet Volleyball Club in Irvine, which is owned and directed by the Tanners. She has orally committed to the University of Washington as a setter/opposite. This summer, she made the 16-under all-tournament team at the Junior Nationals (open) in Atlanta.

Desiree added that her daughter “would like to play high school ball her senior year.”

The Tritons, led by All-CIF Southern Section Division 1AA first-team player Alexa Strange (Colorado commit), open their season on Tuesday at Torrey Pines High in San Diego and play their first home match of the season Sept. 20 against Huntington Beach. Last year, San Clemente (28-1, 8-0 in the South Coast League) advanced to the quarterfinals of the Division 1AA playoffs.

Who’s on First in Coast View Conference?

This is the second and final year of current league configurations within the Coast View Conference, which is made up of 10 south-county schools. The compositions of the conference’s two leagues, the Sea View and South Coast leagues, differ from sport to sport.

The makeup of the conference’s leagues will change every two years, with teams moving from one league to another based upon the previous two years’ performance. The bottom teams in the conference’s South Coast, considered the better of the conference’s two leagues, will trade places with the top teams in the Sea View League in each sport.

All of San Clemente’s fall teams -- football, boys water polo, girls tennis, girls volleyball, girls golf and boys and girls cross-country -- participate in the South Coast League.

This also is the final school year for current CIF-Southern Section playoff groupings for football.

Time Keeps on Ticking, Ticking...

Did you know that if a football team leads an opponent by 35 points or more by the end of three quarters of play this season, there will be a running clock during the fourth quarter?

This “mercy rule,” approved by the CIF Southern Section last spring, will be in effect for all CIF Southern Section football games -- nonleague, league and the playoffs -- beginning this fall.

During a “running clock,” the clock will be stopped only after a score, a fair catch, a charged team timeout or an official’s timeout. Coaches can agree to establish a running clock earlier in the game, but if the points gap between the teams is reduced to less than 35 points in the fourth quarter, the running clock will remain in operation.

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ESPNLA.com Disses Diablos

And if you have a few minutes, here's ESPNLA.com's preseason ranking of the Southland's top 25.

Servite being the top-ranked team should be no suprise, considering they are the defending CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Divsion champions, but the third-ranked Diablos also find themselves behind No. 2 Centennial of Corona.

OK, yes, their reporters did write, "Any of the top three teams in these preseason rankings could have been No. 1. On the surface, Mission Viejo might be the best of the lot...," so we'll excuse the slight slight.

Other Orange County Patch teams ranked are Santa Margarita at No. 6 and San Clemente at No. 22.

The Tritons (1-0), , plays Fountain Valley (1-0) tonight at 7 at Westminster High. The Barons in Henderson, Nev., 52-48, over Green Valley on Aug. 26.