March 29--REPORTING FROM BERKELEY -- Roger Blake, the executive director of the California Interscholastic Federation, said Saturday one of his top priorities will be trying to move up the sports calendar.
"Our athletic calendars are not matching our school calendars," he told a gathering of media at Haas Pavilion here during the state basketball championships.
Schools are beginning classes in early August while football games don't start until the end of August. It's leading to bowl games not being completed until just before Christmas. But other schools don't begin classes until September.
Trying to get schools across California to change their calendars is not easy. Parents, teachers and school boards must be consulted.
Blake said no decision has been made on sites for eight of the 13 CIF state championship football bowl games in the fall. The only definite site is Sacramento State will replace StubHub Center and host five games over two days in December, including the Open Division games for large schools and small schools.
Return to Sacramento
The state basketball championships return to Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento next season after a one-year absence.
Attendance on Friday for six games at Haas Pavilion was 7,363, ahead of the 6,176 in Sacramento last year for the first day.
New Mission League coach
San Francisco assistant coach David Rebibo, a former Woodland Hills El Camino Real coach, was named head coach at Studio City Harvard-Westlake on Friday. He succeeds Greg Hilliard, who retired after 30 years as coach.
It's a pretty impressive group of coaches in the Mission League with Crespi's Russell White, Loyola's Jamal Adams, Alemany's Tray Meeks and Chaminade's Todd Wolfson. St. Francis is in the process of hiring a new coach and had 55 applicants.
Proud alumnus
Rooting for San Ramon Valley in the Division I boys' final Saturday was proud alumnus Mark Madsen, a Lakers assistant coach who starred at Stanford and San Ramon Valley.
Madsen tweeted, "Congrats to San Ramon Valley high school!!! Newly crowned California state champions!!!!"
Madsen addressed the team via FaceTime last week.
Travel ball begins
The basketball season is over, but travel ball begins after a week break.
April 10-12 is the first of the evaluation periods for college coaches, which means lots of travel tournaments will take place. Then it's April 24-26 for another evaluation period.
eric.sondheimer@latimes.com
