It's T-minus 19 days and counting until the start of high school football season, so let the lists begin!

Hanford High senior offensive lineman Beau Felder was named to CalHiSports.com's preseason all-Central Section squad.

The 6-5, 290 Felder is labeled as one of the top college prospects in the Central Section after gaining all-West Yosemite League honors in football as well as basketball last season. His father, Brad, is the Bullpups' boys basketball coach.

The only other WYL athlete to make the squad is Mt. Whitney (Visalia) wide receiver Titus Grayson, coming off a season where he had 66 catches for 854 yards and 13 touchdowns. A greater output is expected this season as he hooks up again with quarterback Tanner Mendonca, who threw for more than 2,600 yards and 27 touchdowns last year for the Pioneers.

This year's surprise? No athletes from the Clovis Unified School District, but three each from Tulare Union (which plays at Lemoore Sept. 18), Edison (Fresno) and Kingsburg, led by uber-prospect QB Tyler Bray.

And now, a few items hopefully worth that second cup of coffee on a Sunday morning while we wait to see if Tiger Woods is going to pull another rabbit out of his hat:

• Best news of the week? Yes, Virginia, they will be turning on those lights on Friday nights, splashing away in the pools and spiking those volleyballs in the gyms at Hanford and Hanford West.

All it took was a little fiscal discipline (words they may utter in Sacramento one of these days, most likely followed by glaciers forming in the Mojave Desert), and barring any massive midcourse corrections, there will be another year of action for Bullpups, Huskies and Golden Bears alike.

Admittedly I'm biased, as someone who earns his daily bread as part of the sports industry, but in my book, a solid sports program (not to be confused with a winning one, but that's certainly an extra added attraction) helps define the high school experience not only for the players, cheerleaders, band members and others who serve, but for the student body as well, along with activities such as drama, music and academic decathlon. And in areas such as ours, athletics are the biggest link between the community and the schools, not to mention a huge source of civic pride.

And while I have no research to back me up, I truly believe there is a connection between increased childhood obesity rates and the rise in drug use and influence of gangs when athletic programs are downsized. When one door closes, another inevitably opens, sometimes with bad consequences.

But mostly, they're fun, or as the late Willie Stargell put it, "The (umpire) says 'play ball,' not 'work ball.'"

• Second call for high school schedules, via e-mail to sports@HanfordSentinel.com or fax to 587-1876.

• We have huge respect for all officials here, but one has to wonder which event last week had more poor calls, the Giants-Dodgers series in San Francisco or the World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Mexico in Mexico City?

• And I still don't understand the latter being played as a midweek day game, unless the Mexicans were making a point about having to play games north of the border on the frozen tundra of Columbus, Ohio, or Foxborough, Mass.

• I like the concept of the new United Football League, which is to develop talent for leagues higher on pro football's food chain. I also like that they're starting small and hope to build into something bigger, especially in the current economy.

I wasn't sold on some of the team nicknames, like the California Redwoods (sorry, too-travel team-ish) or the Las Vegas Locomotives (I've seen box cars in that town, but I don't recall any trains).

But, doggone it, they went and named the New York team the Sentinels. A great, noble nickname. One I get behind daily. And now, besides from our brothers in the struggle in Santa Cruz and Lodi (OK, they're the News-Sentinel), no other mainstream paper in the state has a football team as a namesake!

Richard de Give is The Sentinel's sports editor. He can be reached at 583-2430 or rdegive@HanfordSentinel.com

(Aug. 16, 2008)