Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 28
Last year Culver City football hit another historic milestone when they went to their third CIF Semi-Final in a row. Obviously, after the success of the CIF Championship of 2018, many people hoped for back-to-back championships and a State title. Unfortunately the Centaurs had an aberration, committing five turnovers during their semi-final loss to St. Paul thwarting their chance for a second straight CIF Divisional title. After the end of the season, the coaches met to vote on the All-Ocean...
During the early signing period for NCAA football, Culver City High School had two outstanding athletes sign with Division 1 programs. Corner and slot receiver Khary Crump signed with the University of Arizona, and wide receiver and defensive back Chris Miller signed with Sacramento State. In the more recent late signing period, wide receiver Tanner Duve was offered a grant-in-aid to the University of Pennsylvania of the Ivy League, and offensive lineman Blake Kneebone was offered a scholarship...
Culver City hosted its first sixteen team passing tournament this past weekend. It was challenging to get a good field of teams because there were other established tournaments already scheduled, including the Mission Viejo Tournament, which attracted some of the top programs in Southern California, And the Redondo Tournament, in its 7th year, was also scheduled. But because of the hard work of Tournament Director and Centaur coach Dovie Reed and Head Coach Jahmal Wright, they were able to...
Going into last year Culver City High realized that with the talent they possessed, all they needed was a good, solid performance from their new starting quarterback, Zevi Eckhaus, to have a big shot at winning the 2018 CIF crown. Eckhaus was replacing only the second three-year starting quarterback at Culver City High since 2002 in Jonathan Martin, the second all time passing yardage leader in school history (over 8,000 yards). The other three-year starter was arguably the best quarterback in C...
Culver Sets Record - Wins Passing Tourney Title Third Year in a Row This past Saturday, Culver City traveled to the San Gabrielle Valley to Pico Rivera to play in the El Rancho 7 on 7 passing tournament. Culver won this tournament in both 2017 and 2018, and they were hoping for the 3-peat. The games started at 8:00 a.m. under a forgiving June-gloom sky keeping the temperature down until 1:00 p.m. This was very favorable for the Centaurs due to a shortage of personnel, with their potential...
On Saturday May 18th, Culver City High football traveled to Glendale High School for the La Crescenta Valley passing tournament. Centaur head coach Jahmal Wright received a late call from the head coach at Crescenta Valley to invite the Centaurs into the tournament because they were looking for more teams. Since Culver City had played the Crescenta Valley freshman team the last few years, they have a good relationship with them. So Coach Wright decided to enter the tournament. The Centaurs had...
Centaurs Have Record 10 Football Players Make All-CIF After last year’s record run with the Centaurs winning a CIF Championship for the first time in 40 years, a record number of players were chosen for the All-CIF team. And for the first time in Culver City football history two players were selected as the offensive and defensive players of the year for the All-CIF team. The Offensive Player of the Year award in Division 7 was given to slot receiver, senior standout and team captain Kevin McGuire, for his tremendous contribution during the reg...
Culver City had not won a CIF Divisional Championship since 1978. Over the last 40 years the Centaurs have had many good teams and some of those had the ability to become CIF Champions but for whatever reason they came up short. From the beginning of spring practice and especially through the summer, the Cents won two passing tournaments, and went to the finals and lost on the last play of the game in the prestigious Bonita tournament, and they competed equally with some of the major national powers (Mater Dei, Corona Centennial and Long Beach...
The Culver City Centaurs are hosting the El Segundo Eagles, and it’s a very important night. Not only are the Cents most likely playing for second place in the Ocean League and a playoff berth, but tonight is also Homecoming and Senior Night. Since it is Homecoming, it is interesting to note that El Segundo head coach Steve Shevlin will feel right at home because he is a Culver High alum. Both teams will feel the pressure to do well in this game because the stakes are high as the results will go a long way in determining the playoff p...
After absorbing their first loss of the season 37-36 in their first away game at Palos Verdes, the Cents return home to face another strong and powerful winless team in the Dorsey Dons. The reason why the Dons are winless is because they have faced highly ranked schools in their first four games. Friday's game will be the third meeting between Dorsey and Culver High. In the first meeting in 2016, Culver City jumped out on top and held the lead for most of the game until Dorsey came back and notched the win. Last year, the then-undefeated Centau...
After several years of total frustration with West Torrance High, the Culver City Centaurs finally broke through and walloped West 58-24. Senior quarterback Jonathan Martin last year broke through with a one-game passing record by throwing for 537 yards and five touchdowns versus West. The Centaurs were ranked No. 1 all year in Division 11 but lost a heartbreaking 57-56 overtime game to Covina in the semi-finals. Culver is starting this season with a relatively experienced sophomore quarterback, Zevi Eckhaus. But he started three games last...
The Centaur defense performed well last season and even had three consecutive shutouts in league competition. But it got pushed around in the semi-final playoff game, when they were shredded for over 300 yards rushing by Covina, and lost 57-56 in overtime. Over the years, the Achilles heel of the defense has been stopping the run, but the coaching staff is very confident that the longstanding problem won't be an issue this year. “Our defense is filled with size, speed athleticism and experience," said Culver High Head Coach Jamal Wright. "This...
Culver City High School's football coach, Jamal Wright, is understandably excited about the new season that begins later this month after his team sparkled in summer tournaments. "We’re excited about the ’18 team, and we’ve got a good mix of returners who have improved and newcomers who are hungry to improve themselves," Wright said. For the first time in recent history, the Centaurs won two passing tournaments this summer, went to the finals in the prestigious “Bonita Air Assault,” and performed very well in the last and most prestigio...
The Culver City High School football team opened their fall camp this week and will train for three days running and conditioning before they "put on the pads" and combat their fellow Centaurs in practice soon. The Centaurs had an amazing summer. some who say that it was the best in two decades. Culver opened the summer "passing league" season with two big tournament championships, and then in the prestigious Bonita passing tournament, they finished second among 30 top-ranked teams. To prove...
Culver High's head football coach, Jamal Wright, decided to place his team into one last passing tournament this summer. And based on the way the team played, the regular season that begins at the end of next month looks like yet another promising one for the Centaurs. This tournament was probably the most prestigious and had the highest level of competition that the Centaurs played in this summer. It included a veritable "who's who" of powerhouse programs in Southern California. For starters,...
On Saturday, the Centaurs returned for the tournament portion of the Bonita “Air Assault” passing contest with the officials determining the top seeds and who the Centaurs would play in the first round. The No. 1 seed was the Valencia Vikings and the No. 2 seed was the Hart Indians. Both schools compete in the same league and are bitter rivals but are unquestionably two of the best teams in Southern California. Since there were 30 teams in the tournament, the first two seeds received a bye in the first round. Culver City was undefeated in poo...
After winning their first two passing tournaments, the Culver City Centaurs entered one of the biggest and most prestigious tourneys of the summer--the "Bonita Air Assault" in the San Gabriel Valley. It is such a big tournament that it is played over two days. To win, it takes a combination of talent, luck and depth: Making the finals requires five games one day and five more the next. In the first game, the Cents played Glendora and blew them out, 52-18. The Centaurs were on fire, even though...
Culver City has been very fortunate to have outstanding athletes who have been talented enough to go on to get college football scholarships. This past spring there were three Centaur football players who were able to sign National Letters of Intent to play college football. One was a running back at El Camino College. The other two were defensive standouts at their respective positions: One an extremely hard-hitting linebacker at West LA College and the other a cornerback who played in spring...
By Greg Goodyear and Jerry Weiner Special to the Observer For the first time in recent memory, Culver City won the El Rancho passing tournament for the second year in a row and also won back-to-back tournaments on consecutive weekends. The Centaurs faced a slightly better level of competition this past weekend than they faced in the Western Tournament the weekend before. In addition, two of Culver’s better players were unable to attend last weekend’s tournament as Dominick Tatum was on an official trip to the University of Nevada and Khary Cru...
Special to the Observer By Greg Goodyear and Larry Weiner Over the years, Culver City has been a traditionally strong program in the summer passing tournaments, but they have generally not won many of these events. The Centaurs usually participate in four or five a summer and last summer had some success winning one and going to the finals in another. In the Centaur’s first passing tournament of this summer, they entered into a new tournament they had not participated in before played at Western High School in Anaheim. The biggest question t...
Is Heritage Christian Really a 16 Seed? By Greg Goodyear and Larry Weiner According to CIF officials the #1 seed always plays the #16 seed unless that team happens to be in their league. As the #1 seed Culver City drew 8-1 Heritage Christian as thier first round opponent. One has to wonder how an 8-1 team can be a 16 seed in any division? The CIF has a playoff formula that determines how the teams are seeded. However, as a #1 seed typically Culver would play either a wild card or a third or fourth place team in their respective league. Heritage...
Lucas O’Connor, star quarterback of the 2011 Culver City High football team that went to the CIF Western Conference finals has signed a scholarship offer to play football at West Liberty University in West Liberty, West Virginia. West Liberty is a strong Division 2 program. In his big season with the Centaurs O’Connor passed for 3,341 yards in 14 games, second only to Darius Banks who threw for 4,115 in 2006. His 32 touchdowns passes makes him the third highest in this category behind Banks and Jonathan Martin. He was second all time in Cul...
The Culver City High Centaurs continued their dominance in the passing tournaments in Southern California this past weekend when they blew through most of the competition in the Santa Fe “7 on 7” Tournament on Saturday, July 8. The tournament began with more than 20 teams and the first four games determined the team seeds for the later rounds. In Culver City’s pool were host team Santa Fe High, Arcadia High, Dominguez High (Compton) and Bellflower High. Culver City opened up pool play against the host Santa Fe Chiefs. The Centaurs domin...
Ever since former Culver City High football head coach and current athletic director Tom Salter took over the football program in 1999 the varsity players have periodically staged a varsity verses alumni "7 on 7" game around the July 4th holiday. Because several of the alums playing college ball would come home at that time of year. It is a great tradition and a way of honoring the alums and having a super competitive game verses the varsity squad. Since many of the alums that come back are...
Centaurs Look to Upend Covina in First Semi-final Since 2011 By Greg Goodyear & Larry Weiner After traveling three hours to Coachella Valley to play a strong and large opponent and coming away with a nail-biting 45-27 victory Culver City High comes marching home for a CIF Division 11 semi-final contest against the Covina Colts. The Colts finished tied for first place in the Valle Vista League and are 10-2 this year (4-1 in league play) and ranked fourth in Division 11. Last Friday night they defeated Westminster 42-28 to advance. They are a...
