LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, Sil Coccia, basketball coach at Sonoma Valley, had a well-thought out answer.

"For the first 46 minutes," Coccia said, "I would take LeBron. For the last two minutes I would take Kobe. Kobe is the best finisher in basketball. He's a stone-cold killer even in the last 10 minutes. He's an assassin. I am a big Kobe guy."

And Troy Baker of Santa Rosa High enjoys the stares and the ohmigoshs when he throws the shot putt farther than the sterotypical body types of 6-foot-4, 250 pounds.

"We formed a line at the MOC and everyone thought Jacob (Gowan, CN) who was standing at the other end had the best throw," Baker said. "When they called my name and so many people looked my way and said, 'What?' Speed and technique go a long way into throwing the shot. Sure, it would nice to have weight behind you but that's no guarantee."

Even his throwing coach, Paul Troppy, said Baker is not strong.

"But when he releases the shot," Troppy said, "you can't even see his right arm, he is moving it so fast."

A boy from Sonoma County finished first at the state track and field championships?

Between 1927 and now, there's been only one: Mel Gray of Montgomery won both the 100 meters and 200 meters in 1967. Montgomery finished second in the team standings with 16 points, based solely on Gray's two sprints.

This information is brought to you courtesy of Jim Crowhurst whose website - Northbay.com/running - is the most complete source for information in this area for track and field people.

Toni Noonan is one of the shot put thrower coaches for Santa Rosa High. I was speaking to her today about Troy Baker, who I am going to interview later for a column. So I asked Toni what she did for a living.

"I am a custom brewer," is what I thought she said. I thought to myself, well, I think I need to ask another question.

"Custom brewer? So that's what you do?"

"No, no, no," she said. "I am a custom embroider. Embroider!"

Oh.

Mark Reischling, like all the great basketball officials, spends most of his time going unnoticed. But on May 5 Reischling, who taught English at Petaluma High School for 29 years, entered the Chico State Hall of Fame.

Reischling, 63 and a 1969 graduate of Chico State, has been a Division One college basketball official for the last 40 years. He officiated in the 2001 Final Four, has worked 22 NCAA Tournaments and officiated 18 college conference championships in five leagues.

"It's an incredible honor for me," said Reischling, who plans to officiate two more years. "I got my start in officiating in a rec league in Chico, working three games a night for three nights a week, for five bucks a game. It all started for me in Chico. It was a special time for me."

By his count Reischling said he has officiated 1,750 games of college basketball.

Alex Morrow, the former Rancho star, has signed as a free agent with the Hamilton (Ontario) Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League and will report to camp in a few weeks.

Morrow, 23, a 6-foot-6, 270-pound defensive lineman from USC, signed with Hamilton April 8. Last year Morrow was in the New York Giants training camp and was cut near its end, August 30.

A Rohnert Park resident Morrow graduated from Rancho Cotate in 2003.