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St. Bonaventure closes practice to media
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More from FootballAfter a 59-13 loss to Oaks Christian School a year ago, the St. Bonaventure High football team wants to limit distractions before Friday night's rematch with the defending Division III state champion at Larrabee Stadium.
First-year coach Todd Thierrien has taken the unusual step of closing their practices to the media this week. Star photgrapher Eric Parsons and a television news team were turned away from the Seraphs' practice field Wednesday afternoon.
"We're just getting after it," said Therrien. "We're focused on football."
Therrien explained that he closed practice after "several out-of-area outlets," like the Santa Clarita Signal and Los Angeles Daily News showed up unannounced to practice last week.
The Star staffed both St. Bonaventure and Oaks Christian practices with reporters — daily — prior to last year's much anticipated showdown.
Ticket crunch far different this year: The buzz hasn't matched last year's game.
At least not yet. Officials at St. Bonaventure and Oaks Christian report tickets remain available for Friday's game.
"It's not like last year's game, when we sold out almost as soon as the tickets went on sale," said Mike Gianelli, the athletic director at St. Bonaventure. "We sold almost no tickets until this week. People were waiting until we had played our game with Canyon."
Gianelli said he expects his school to sell as many as 3,000 tickets by Friday. Jan Hethcock, athletic director at Oaks Christian, said approximately 2,100 tickets had been sold on his campus by Wednesday afternoon.
Tickets are $8 for adults, and $3 for students.
The game is scheduled to be broadcast live by KVTA (1520 AM) and televised on tape-delay by Time Warner Cable.
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