Reiswig Named Interim EGUSD A-D

Todd Reiswig has been named interim athletic director of the Elk Grove Unified School District. He’ll temporarily replace the recently retired Jim Smrekar, according to district spokesperson Elizabeth Graswich.

Smrekar spent the past twelve years at the district’s A.D. post.

Born and raised in San Jose, he graduated from UC-Davis in 1975. For eight years, he taught English at San Jose's Yerba Buena High School, where he also served as co-head basketball coach during his first year. In addition, he was the assistant basketball coach at San Jose City College from 1978 to 1985.

Jim Smrekar

He and his family moved to Sacramento in 1985, and he went on to become an English and physical education teacher, as well as varsity basketball coach at Valley High School, a position he held for four years.

He became varsity basketball coach at Florin High School from 1989 until 1998, and was the school's athletic director from 1989 until 2001 when he moved on to his position with the school district.

Reiswig has temporarily left his mathematics teaching position at Elk Grove High School, according to Graswich.

He came to Elk Grove in the fall of 1993 and was the head boys' basketball coach for six years. He took over a team that won only six games the year prior and they won the Delta League Championship. During his tenure the Herd won the league four time, placed second twice and won the Section championship once. His overall coaching record was 142-41.

In recent years he’s been a fixture at the Sac-Joaquin Section’s basketball playoffs and has maintained the power rankings for the Section over the years.

A permanent replacement for Smrekar will be named sometime in March, according to Graswich. At that time Smrekar will return for about six months to train his permanent replacement.

Van Dyke Commits To UCLA

Cosumnes Oaks’ wide receiver Alex Van Dyke has verbally committed to attend and play football for UCLA, according to Wolfpack coach Ryan Gomes.

Van Dyke, a 6-3, 200-pounder, will join his former high school teammate Marcus Rios in Los Angeles. Rios is a reserve defensive back for the Bruins.

Through the first six games of this season Van Dyke has 24 receptions for 306 yards and four touchdowns.

He’ll also join another Elk Grove-area student playing for UCLA, former Sheldon standout Nate Iese.

Van Dyke, along with teammate Kameron Schroeder, a Duke University –commit, will sign their NCAA National Letters of Intent on Feb. 5, 2014 to make it official.

Winter Sports “Dead” Period Starts Monday

The official “dead period” or the time in which high school coaches cannot work out their winter sports teams begins Monday and will last until Nov. 10. The next day,  Monday, Nov. 11, will be the start of the winter sports season, according to the CIF website.

At that time boys’ and girls’ basketball teams along with wrestling squads can officially begin practice.

One local standout not expected to be on the court is Laguna Creek basketball player Malik Pope. The 6-9 post has once again fractured his leg, an injury initially suffered during a rally at Harriet Eddy Middle School in February.

Pope and his Cardinal teammates were doing warm-ups in front of the Eddy students and was going up for a dunk when his leg gave way, ending his season.

Pope re-broke his leg again last month and probably won’t play for Laguna Creek this year.

Despite the setbacks, he tweeted last week that he’s accepted an offer to play basketball at San Diego State University.

If he does make that decision official, Pope will join former Sheldon players D’Erryll Williams and Dakarai Allen along with Xavier Thames, an ex-Pleasant Grove Eagle, and Parker U’u, a former Jesuit Marauder, in San Diego.

The National Letter of Intent early signing period for basketball, baseball, softball and aquatics will be November 13-20.