Elk Grove (MPG) - In this world of Internet access, cellphone apps and information at the tips of your fingers on devices you stick in your pocket, Maxpreps has emerged as the go-to source for high school sports information. They’ve now been around about 20 years, and for us journalists, a terrific resource for background information on any team sport.

Maxpreps is now nationwide and state high school sports associations, to varying degrees, prompt their member schools to keep schedules, rosters, scores and statistics on the app.

Locally, the Sac-Joaquin Section uses the Maxpreps ratings to determine basketball playoff participants. That’s how confident they are in Maxpreps statistics and information.

“The top three teams in every league go (into the playoffs), no matter what,” Section assistant commissioner Will DeBoard explained. “Then if you’re ranked in the top 15 in your division, Division I through IV, in Maxpreps you also go. And, if you’re in the top 10 in Divisions V and VI, you also go.”

The smallest schools by enrollment will fall into either Division V or VI. Any school with an enrollment of 600 or more will be in Divisions I through IV. The exception will be those schools who qualified as “continued success” because repeatedly they play for or win Section basketball championships, such as Central Catholic or Modesto Christian.

“We then determine who will make the playoffs,” DeBoard added. “It could be 64 (schools) or 84, but it is generally somewhere in between. We then divide them into four even brackets. It could be four brackets of 16 or two of 18 or 17.”

In recent years more boys teams have made it to the playoffs than girls under this Maxpreps ratings system.

“There’s been a handful of fourth or fifth-placed teams of boys teams that have made it, not so much on the girls’ side,” DeBoard said.

So, in order to be rated accurately by Maxpreps, the teams have to upload their material to the app. This is where that can get interesting. There are coaches who think putting too much material on Maxpreps is like giving their opponents a scouting report. Plus, for us journalists (and there are fewer and fewer of us nowadays who cover prep sports) we can write more in-depth stories because we have access to team’s rosters, results and stats.

Still we have teams, especially ones locally, who do the bare minimum that is required by the Section.

“We require schedules and rosters only,” DeBoard said. “Anything beyond that is up to (the team/coach). Some people don’t put stats. We care about the schedules. We care about the rosters.”

At the time of this writing, the second, third and fourth highest rated boys basketball teams in the Section are Elk Grove Unified schools; Monterey Trail (8-0 record, 25.20 rating), Franklin (10-1, 24.18) and Cosumnes Oaks (7-0, 21.95). The Mustangs and Wolfpack have full stats, results and roster on their Maxpreps page. Franklin has a roster with uniform numbers and height of each player, but no statistics.

Sheldon boys, who played in a three-day tournament in Idaho and then flew to Las Vegas to play in the Tarkanian Classic for four games, has a schedule, a roster with uniform numbers and player names only (no height/weight), and no statistics at all.

“That’s silly,” DeBoard commented. “People seem to do that because they think the less information out there about them, people can get a scout on them and that sort of thing.”

He noted that each season more and more teams are making use of live streaming, particularly the NFHS Network. That allows opposing coaches an opportunity to watch them in advance.

Wrong scores, stats

A big issue that I’ve learned sort of the hard way is that Maxpreps’ scores and stats can be only as good as the person inputting the numbers. At least three times during football season we posted a final score online only to be corrected by a coach who saw the post on EGCitizen.com. I, of course, replied we got their score from Maxpreps and that whoever was posting scores had better 1. Stay until the end of the game to report the true final score or 2. Admit defeat and use their access to the Maxpreps app with honor.

Same thing with individual stats. I was recently made aware of some inflated rushing statistics for a talented running back in this area. The young man was keyed on and successfully stopped by his school’s opponent that night. He had 11 carries and 17 yards. I noted that stat in that week’s Local Football Roundup in the Citizen. However, I noted on Maxpreps he now is credited for 11 carries and 124 yards. That didn’t happen.

As a journalist, I rely on the help that Maxpreps offers. It is my request that each coach and athletic director assigns someone who is reliable to be responsible with posting scores, full rosters and actual statistics for their athletic department.

Courtesy - MLB

Rowdy Tellez, a 2013 graduate of Elk Grove H.S., has signed a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Rowdy now a Pirate

This past week former Elk Grove High School baseball player Rowdy Tellez signed a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Tellez had two decent seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers where he stroked 35 home runs in 2022. Spotrac.com says Tellez signed for one year and a base salary of $3.2 million with incentives that could earn him as much as $8 million.