Rancho Bernardo defeats Del Norte during the 4S Ranch school's first-ever varsity game; Poway loses a close match to Scripps Ranch.

The ritual of high school football starts back up this Friday, and local squads are excited about the new year.

For Poway and Rancho Bernardo, the goal this year is the same: The schools are out to do better this season than they did last year.

For Rancho Bernardo, that means finishing strong, a lesson the Broncos learned the hard way last year after they suffered a first-round exit from the playoffs in what many considered to be an upset.

“We want to try to finish the season better,” Coach Brad Elrod said. “We are concentrating on finishing strong in everything that we do. Every practice we’re focusing on finishing strong.”

Rancho Bernardo will play its first game of the season against Del Norte High School at 7 p.m. on Friday at Del Norte. The event will be the inaugural varsity football game for the 4S Ranch high school. The pregame ceremony is scheduled to include a parachute landing by U.S. Navy SEALs.

Rancho Bernardo High School will be losing two of its head coaches come spring.

Lacrosse coach Bruce Seitz and volleyball coach Rachael Grant Dixon won’t be returning this school year.

Seitz has been a lacrosse coach at Rancho Bernardo for 12 years — 10 as head coach. He said he’s stepping down because his job duties have changed and won’t leave him time to work with the program.

Seitz said he enjoyed his time coaching the club sport at RB High when it was still new to the area.

“We’d play in old football jerseys and we lacked school support,” Seitz said. “Through the years I built the program and it got more respect and support.”

The San Diego Hall of Champions will be honoring Lisa Reis, the former Poway High School volleyball coach who spent 26 years with the school before she was controversially dismissed from coaching in 2007.

Reis, who kept teaching physical education at Poway High until this past year, is one of eight retired coaches who will be recognized during the 12th annual San Diego County High School Coaching Legends Induction Banquet, which will be held Nov. 10 at the Scottish Rite Center.

The awards are meant as a way to honor coaches who leave a lasting legacy upon their retirement.

During her time at Poway High, Reis and her teams won 11 CIF section championships — they were runners up six times — and she had an overall win/loss record of 571-155.

The National High School Athletic Association named Reis the Far West Regional Coach of the Year twice and she was California Coach of the Year four times.

It’s gearing up to be another year of firsts for Del Norte High School. As the 4S Ranch school begins its second year, the athletic department is set for the first year of playing varsity sports.

Though the school still lacks a senior class, the Nighthawks are ready to enter the varsity level, said Athletic Director Mike Giaime.

“We’re excited to go out there and have an opportunity to compete,” said Giaime. “Our coaches have worked hard in the off season.”

Every sport — the school has 23 teams last year — will have a varsity squad, said Giaime. If there’s enough interest, the teams will also have junior varsity and freshman squad.

Del Norte will be competing in the Valley League.

Mary Jeghers, a 2007 Poway High graduate about to start her senior year at the University of California, Berkeley helped Team USA win the Women’s Under-23 World Rowing Championships this summer.

Jeghers traveled to Brest, Belarus, to be part of the Women’s 8 team, which won its third gold medal in five years.

The team was up against five other boats and the championship was decided by two races. The first decided lane assignment and the second was for the championship.

In the second race, the American team was in second place at the 500-meter mark, part of four crews that were racing within less than a second from each other, according to a release by the U.S. Rowing Association.

In the end, Team USA finished the race in 6:31.97, a 4.51-second victory over New Zealand. Canada finished in third place at 6:38.16.

WEB UPDATE:
Bradley Klahn was eliminated from the 2010 US Open on Wednesday after falling to Sam Querrey, the tournament’s 20th seed, during a first round game.

Querrey defeated Klahn 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Klahn, the NCAA Division I singles champion, is returning for his junior year at Stanford University. He was a wild card entry into the U.S. Open.

***
Poway ’s Bradley Klahn is among seven players who were awarded main-draw wild card entries to the men’s singles tournament of the 2010 US Open Tennis Championships.

The event will be held Aug. 30 through Sept. 12 at the US Tennis Association’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

The draw for the tournament will be held on Aug. 26. It will be broadcast on ESPN2 and followed at www.usopen.org.

On Sunday mornings, the 4S Ranch Community Park looks like most other busy recreational centers: runners out for a jog, families enjoying a day out and sports leagues (this time of year, it’s soccer) engaged in competition.

But at the park’s skate rink, Sunday mornings feature something that, according to organizers, you won’t see anywhere else — at least not yet.

That is wheelchair lacrosse.

For about a year and a half, players have been convening at the 4S Ranch park — at 16118 4S Ranch Parkway — to learn the new sport, which was created by San Diegans Ryan Baker and Bill Lundstrom, who use wheelchairs.

Baker, who was injured in a car crash soon after he graduated high school in 1991, said he was looking for a team-oriented sport — other than basketball, which he does not enjoy — that could be adapted for people in wheelchairs.

A new equestrian club in Poway is introducing people to horse vaulting, a little-known sport that is often described as gymnastics on horseback.

The Poway Valley Vaulters, which operates out of the Rolling Hills Stables at 15529 Sycamore Canyon Road, formed about six months ago.

It has four regular vaulters, said head coach and club founder Bonnie Bruce, who said the sport is growing in popularity in the United States.

“It’s not that well-known in the United States, but it’s popular in Europe,” Bruce said. “It has been around since ancient times.”

Part gymnastics and part dance, the sport requires participants to perform a series of moves — from headstands to scissors — on a horse that is being led in circles by a rope, called a longe.

Going into the final round of the PGA’s Turning Stone Resort Championship this past Sunday and trailing the leader by four strokes, Poway native Bill Lunde had only one thing in mind: to go home on a high note after spending seven weeks on the road.

In a phone interview after his victory, Lunde said he felt he needed to finish strong in the championship, held in Verona, N.Y., to keep his PGA Tour playing privileges for next year after what was turning into a less-than-stellar season.

“I thought that even if I wasn’t going to win the tournament, it was very important to me to have a good round and get a solid finish,” Lunde said.

After a day of golf, Lunde came out on top. He won the championship, his first victory on the PGA tour since turning pro in 1998, by shooting a final round of 6-under par 66 for a total of 17-under par 271.

Along with the victory, Lunde secured a PGA tour exemption through the 2012 season and earned a $720,000 payday, as well as 250 FedEx Cup points. He also earned the right to compete in the 92nd PGA Championship, which will take place through Aug. 15 at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis.

Lunde said that even after his victory, it didn’t cross his mind that he would be playing at the PGA Championship until a television crew reminded him.

“I sort of had mixed feelings about it,” Lunde said with a laugh. “I was so looking forward to going home... and celebrate (the victory) with my family and friends. It’s so crazy with everything that just happened and I have this other great opportunity, so I’m like, ‘you know, I’m done, you guys have fun.’?”

Lunde, who is now a Las Vegas resident, is paired with England’s Ross McGowan and Mitch Lowe of San Francisco. Their first round is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. on Thursday (Pacific Time) while their second round is scheduled for 6:50 a.m. PT on Friday.

It’s not often that a brother and a sister with a six-year age difference can train and compete in the same sport.

In that respect, Alec and Elizabeth Dubow differ from most siblings.

Alec, 16, and 10-year-old Elizabeth are second-degree black belts in taekwondo. The Rancho Bernardo residents train at the San Diego Black Belt Academy at the RB Swim & Tennis Club.

Recently, both of the Dubows — who have been practicing the martial art for three years — reached milestones.