I may not have the musical talents of Chris Stapleton, Snoop Dogg, or Cindy Blackman Santana, but like others I\u2019m humming the Monday Night Football tune, asking: \u201cAre you ready for some football?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since I\u2019m guessing most Bay Area fans are sick of seeing the San Francisco Giants and Sacramento Athletics fold quicker than Superman\u2019s laundry, I\u2019m guessing the answer to that question is, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will be plenty of football this week as high school squads from Vallejo, Benicia and American Canyon begin the 2025 season, while college football gets going for most teams this weekend.<\/p>\n
With the U.S. Open in tennis, baseball and women\u2019s basketball also in full swing, it can be a lot to gauge on what to watch and when. Thankfully, the Thomas Guide column can help you keep your cool, especially as temperatures soar. So let\u2019s get going \u2026<\/p>\n
Local sports<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll have to hit up your local gas station this week, with football squads from Vallejo, Bethel, St. Patrick-St. Vincent, Benicia and American Canyon high schools all on the road. Don\u2019t worry, some of them are playing close by.<\/p>\n
American Canyon High School begins defense of its state title with a road contest at Vacaville\u2019s Will C. Wood High on Friday. In a week that sees the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen\u2019s \u201cBorn to Run\u201d album, the Wolves could put out a promotional poster with Andre Lopez with a saxophone, rather than the late, great Clarence Clemons. After all, Lopez was born to run, scampering for 124 yards a game and a total of 25 touchdowns a year ago.<\/p>\n
The Wolves also have a new head coach in Marcellus Holmes, who takes over for Trevor Hudson, who left to coach in Colorado after winning a state title. The game at Wood, which won last week, starts at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.<\/p>\n
Benicia is also on the road, but in nearby Rodriguez High at 7:30 p.m. This will be the first game with new head coach C.J. Anderson, a prep star at Jesse Bethel who played college ball at Cal before excelling in the NFL \u2014 especially in 2016 with a Denver Broncos Super Bowl win over Carolina. Anderson is familiar with Benicia, having played games against the school when he was in high school. Benicia, however, is not slated to play Bethel this year in the regular season.<\/p>\n
Bethel is at Las Lomas this week, looking to continue to improve under second-year head coach Gary Lee. Although Bethel went 3-8 last year, the Jaguars did make the playoffs with a 3-2 record in the Tri-County Athletic League, one of the weaker leagues in Northern California. Sorry, a 3-7 record should not be enough to make the postseason, but kudos to the Jaguars for never giving up, even though they were once 0-7.<\/p>\n
A team in that league last year and this year is St. Patrick-St. Vincent. The Bruins lost the tie-breaker with Bethel last season to make the postseason, but are also looking to improve. The Bruins play at Napa in a 7 p.m. game.<\/p>\n
Vallejo High, at Highlands, may need some name tags for fans to get to know the squad better. Times-Herald Athlete of the Year candidate Sedrick Vaughn has graduated. Same with Darius Hurd and Robert Guzman. Meanwhile, David Bernstine III has decided not to play football his senior year to focus on a promising baseball future.<\/p>\n
Team previews on American Canyon, Vallejo, Bethel, St. Pat\u2019s and Benicia are all coming to the Times-Herald sports section this week and can also be found at timesheraldonline.com.<\/p>\n
The volleyball season kicked off last week with St. Pat\u2019s going 1-1. The Bruins\u2019 win was a big one against Freedom at home. St. Pat\u2019s is back at home on Wednesday night in a matchup against Berean Christian at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Also at home on Wednesday night is Bethel. The Jaguars look to improve after they made the section finals against St. Joseph a year ago. Times-Herald 2024-25 Female Athlete of the Year candidate Precilla Williams is gone after graduating, but outside hitter Riah Paopao is back for her junior year. Bethel plays at home against Richmond on Wednesday and hosts Benicia at home on Friday. Both those matches start at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Another key match this week is American Canyon at Vanden High on Thursday. Both teams made the playoffs in different sections last season. That match starts at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Vallejo plays at Ygnacio Valley in girls volleyball on Tuesday and then has a home match against El Cerrito on Wednesday night. That starts at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
On the college level, Solano has a 7 p.m. home match on Wednesday against Folsom Lake.<\/p>\n
College football<\/p>\n
Stanford lost to Hawaii in the season opener on Saturday and will be back at it in two weeks with a home contest against BYU.<\/p>\n
Cal is in action this week on Saturday night with an old-school Pac-12 matchup against Oregon State. That starts at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
San Jose State is at home against Central Michigan at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night, while UC Davis football plays at Utah Tech on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Sacramento State is at South Dakota State at 4 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n
There is also some great non-local action on television this week.<\/p>\n
Boise State is at South Florida on Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., while Nebraska is at Cincinnati later that night on ESPN at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
The biggest game to watch is bright and early on Saturday when No. 1-ranked Texas plays at No. 3 Ohio State at 9 a.m. on FOX. Ohio State won the national title a year ago.<\/p>\n
Other key matchups to watch on Saturday are Alabama at Florida State on ABC at 12:30 p.m., LSU at Clemson at 4:30 p.m. on ABC, Georgia State at Ole Miss and Utah at UCLA later in the evening.<\/p>\n
U.S. Open<\/p>\n
Anything can happen in tennis on any given day, with Australian Open champion Madison Keys losing in a shocking upset to Mexico\u2019s Renata Zaraz\u00faa in the first round of the U.S. Open Monday as huge proof. The men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles finals aren\u2019t for another two weeks, and a lot can happen before that time comes. Me? I\u2019ll be watching Venus Williams. She\u2019s the oldest singles player since 1981 and it\u2019s her first appearance in the event in two years.<\/p>\n
Matches can be seen on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC all week.<\/p>\n
Major League Baseball<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s and Giants are both out of playoff contention, but they are both at home this week against some good teams.<\/p>\n
The Giants host the Cubs at Oracle Park on Tuesday through Thursday, while the A\u2019s play in Sacramento against the Detroit Tigers Monday through Wednesday. All those games are night games except for the Thursday matinee between the Cubs and Giants. The Cubs are five games behind the Brewers in the N.L. Central entering Monday, while the Tigers are the best team in the A.L., a few games ahead of Toronto.<\/p>\n
During the weekend the Giants host the Orioles, while the A\u2019s host the Texas Rangers. I know you all are asking and yes, it\u2019s possible to see a game at both venues on Saturday, but you\u2019ll likely be late to the second game, even if you skip out early of the Giants game. The Giants play at 4 and the A\u2019s at 7:05 p.m. Both teams play day games on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Other key games to watch early in the week include the San Diego Padres at the Seattle Mariners, the Cincinnati Reds at the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Philadelphia Phillies at the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Angels at the Texas Rangers. Key weekend matchups include the Atlanta Braves at the Philadelphia Phillies, the Miami Marlins at the New York Mets, the Seattle Mariners at the Cleveland Guardians, the Detroit Tigers at the Kansas City Royals and a clash of two of the best teams when the Milwaukee Brewers travel to face the Toronto Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
WNBA<\/p>\n
The Valkyrie\u2019s play twice this week at home \u2014 on Saturday against Washington and on Sunday in a big matchup against Indiana. Sorry, but Caitlin Clark is still ruled out for the Sunday game, so prices may be a little cheaper if you were planning on going.<\/p>\n
Read<\/p>\n
\u201cCourage Beyond the Game: The Freddie Steinmark Story\u201d by Jim Dent (to read while watching Texas football on Saturday)<\/p>\n
\u201cHank Greenberg\u201d by John Rosengren (to read while the Tigers are in Sacramento)<\/p>\n
\u201cCrazy 08\u201d by Cait Murphy (to read while the Cubs take on the Giants)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I may not have the musical talents of Chris Stapleton, Snoop Dogg, or Cindy Blackman Santana, but like…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":175961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[276,1369,1318,3102,16915,1266,1317,1315,1316,2295,1585,27951,15184,62,67,132,68,92465,16914],"class_list":{"0":"post-175960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-local-sports","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-ncaa","15":"tag-ncaa-football","16":"tag-ncaafootball","17":"tag-newsletter","18":"tag-north-bay","19":"tag-northern-california","20":"tag-solano-county","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-vacaville","26":"tag-vallejo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115092907865062445","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}