Heaven is summer tournaments

From combines to showcases, from camps to tournaments, the months of June and July can be the most hectic time of the year for high school athletes. Anyone who doesn't have a calendar posted on the refrigerator door is destined to run laps for being late to an event or face the wrath of an angry parent for forgetting to explain why he has football lifting in the morning, a baseball game in the afternoon and a basketball game at night.

For a sportswriter, however, summer is heaven. Every weekend, there's someone to see, so here's a peek at my upcoming schedule.

The football seven-on-seven passing season begins Saturday with perhaps the best tournament of the summer at Dana Point Dana Hills and San Clemente. There's star power everywhere, with Long Beach Poly, Santa Ana Mater Dei, Ventura St. Bonaventure, Westlake Village Oaks Christian, Huntington Beach Edison, Lakewood, Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro, Harbor City Narbonne and Encino Crespi.

Of course, someone will inevitably anoint the winner of the tournament No. 1 in Southern California for 2009. That would be a mistake because there's one big missing ingredient from passing tournaments: linemen.

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, which returns quarterback Ryan Kasdorf, the Gatorade state player of the year, has three top senior linemen in Ben Gottschalk (6-foot-4, 260 pounds), Daniel Munyer (6-3, 265) and Tyler Sulka (6-5, 270). Asked what they will be doing this summer, line coach Jeff Kraemer said, "They're eating raw steak while pancaking people in practice."

That's the warning on passing tournaments, but they are important in revealing which teams have the best skill-position players, and that's why I'm going all out on attending passing competitions.

Also on Saturday are tournaments at Pierce College and Moorpark High.

Here are other passing competitions to watch:

On June 20, Beverly Hills and Crescenta Valley host competitions. Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, which returns several starters and hopes to compete for a Division II state bowl berth, is the team to watch at Beverly Hills. There's also the Conejo Classic at Westlake, Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park.

On June 26-27, La Verne Bonita is the site for a large tournament that brings together teams from the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley and San Fernando Valley. The Saugus tournament will take place on the same days at Central Park in Santa Clarita. Oaks Christian and Notre Dame are entered.