Sports Shorts: Aliso Niguel-Woodbridge is Cox's Football Game of Week

Headed to the Aliso Niguel-Woodbridge football game on Friday night at Irvine High? If so, get home quickly -- but safely -- and you just might catch yourself on TV. The nonleague tilt will be Cox3's Game of the Week and the entire game will be broadcasted at 11:30 p.m. on Cox Channel 3.

Like the Wolverines, Dana Hills is also on the road for its 2011 football season opener, but they have to travel to Corona to meet Santiago High.

The Dolphins have a new coach this season in Todd Rusinkovich, who was a defensive line coach at Saddleback College last season. But he was also a first-year Algebra teacher at Dana Hills, so he should be familiar with the talent he has inherited from .

Melbon's teams combined for an 18-14 record in three years, including a 4-6 mark last season after going 9-3 in 2009. However, like his predecessors, he was unable to win a league title. In fact, Dana Hills has gone the longest of any Orange County team without winning a football league championship. The school opened in 1972 and it has yet to accomplish the feat.

Rusinkovich knows all about the rugged South Coast League, having played football at San Clemente High (Class of 2002). From that area of the county he has brought with him Dave Brown (offensive coordinator/quarterback coach), his son Rocky Brown (receivers), Bob Cunningham (defensive backs) and Trent Henson (defensive line), who played at Southern Oregon University. The only returning coach is Phil Skinner, the offensive line and strength conditioning coach.

 “I’ve been impressed with how the kids are buying into the new system,” Rusinkovich told Patch this spring. “Their effort and enthusiasm for the coaching staff has been great. We’ll run an offense and defense that best fits our personnel. I think we’re highly underrated. Other teams don’t know what we’re doing, and that’s an advantage for us.”

Who's on First in Coast View Conference?

As you probably know by now, the Coast View Conference is made up of the 10 high schools in the Capistrano and Saddleback Valley unfiied school districts. Where these schools are placed -- in either the South Coast or Sea View leagues -- is determined on a sport-by-sport basis.

However, the makeup of the leagues is scheduled to change every two years, which means after the 2011-2012 school year, the bottom two teams in the South Coast will change places with the top two teams in the Sea View in every sport. The South Coast is considered the stronger of the two leagues.

Dana Hills football will continue play in the South Coast League this fall, along with all of the school's fall sports. Aliso Niguel will be in the South Coast again in girls golf and boys and girls cross-country; otherwise, the Wolverines will participate in the Sea View League in football, boys water polo, girls tennis and girls volleyball.

This also is the final school year for the current CIF-Southern Section playoff groupings for football. Not that they'll change any, but there's always a league or two that would rather be in a different division.

Time Keeps on Ticking, Ticking...

Did you know that if a football team leads an opponent by 35 points or more by the end of three quarters of play this season, there will be a running clock during the fourth quarter?

This “mercy rule,” approved by the CIF Southern Section last spring, will be in effect for all CIF Southern Section football games -- nonleague, league and the playoffs -- beginning this fall.

During a “running clock,” the clock will be stopped only after a score, a fair catch, a charged team timeout or an official’s timeout. Coaches can agree to establish a running clock earlier in the game, but if the points gap between the teams is reduced to less than 35 points in the fourth quarter, the running clock will remain in operation.

Read more about the new "mercy rule" .

Summer Progressed Swimmingly

Mission Viejo Nadadores distance swimmer Janardan Burns won his first U.S. Junior title in the 1,500-meter freestyle on Aug. 8 at the Speedo Junior National Championships in Stanford.

Burns, a junior at Aliso Niguel, defeated runner-up Logan Redondo, a Nadadores teammate and senior at Capistrano Valley, by more than three seconds, finishing in a personal best 15 minutes, 34.36 seconds.

Wolverines Enjoy Polo Play in Hawaii

Aliso Niguel’s boys water polo team finished fourth in the Hawaiian Invitational Tournament this summer. Photos and videos of the Wolverines’ trip to the islands can be found here.

Coach Justin Ferdinand says the team is “working really hard to live up to our [CIF Southern Section] Division III preseason ranking.”

Have some sports news or results you'd like to share? Send it to Bob.Rohwer@patch.com.