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Tuesday Boys Hoops — Yreka at Corning, 7:30 p.m. Hoops — Los Molinos at Portola, 6 p.m., DH Hoops — Maxwell at Mercy, 6 p.m., DH Girls Hoops — Corning at Yreka, 7:30 p.m. Girls Hoops — Red Bluff at Foothill, 7:30 p.m. Soccer — Yreka at Corning, 3:15 p.m. Sports 1B Tuesday February 1, 2011 More Top Fueler medals Raiders hire Wylie as offensive line coach Oakland Raiders ALAMEDA (AP) — The Oakland Raiders have hired longtime assistant Bob Wylie as their new offensive line coach. The team announced the move Monday, with head coach Hue Jackson calling Wylie a ‘‘spectacular teacher, motivator and drill sergeant.’’ Wylie spent last season sharing offensive line coaching duties for the Denver Broncos. He has also been a line coach with Arizona, Tampa Bay and Chicago, while coaching tight ends for Cincinnati and the New York Jets. Wylie has coached seven offensive linemen who earned Pro Bowl berths. Wylie is well versed in the power-blocking scheme, which the Raiders will be switching to after using more zone blocking under former head coach Tom Cable. Oakland has already hired former Pro Bowl guard Steve Wisniewski as its assistant line coach. Sharks want to avoid another post-break slip San Jose Sharks Courtesy photo Top Fuelers were at two tournaments on Jan 15th, one was the Spider Patch Invitational at Orland High School and the other was the Corning Novice at Corning High School. Pictured are wrestlers who won medals at either one of the events (from back left): Shane Barrow, second place; Brinden Hethcoat, second place; John Raker second place; Joey Skaggs fourth place;Wyatt Richison third place; Kimberly Bailey third place; Jonathon Hurst third place; Darren Carter, third place;Tyler Parks, first place;Sammy Elliott, third place and Triston Vaillette, first place. Polamalu named AP’s top defensive player DALLAS (AP) — Now that the NFL voters have chosen Troy Polamalu over Clay Matthews for The Associated Press 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award, the two stars can prove their worth against each other on the field. In the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh safety Polamalu received 17 votes Monday from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who cover the league, edging Green Bay line- backer Matthews by a hair — two votes. Despite missing two games, in which Pittsburgh went 1-1, Polamalu became the sixth Steeler to win the award. He had seven interceptions this season along with 63 tackles, but made his mark with big plays. In a late-sea- son victory at Baltimore, his leaping tackle forced a fumble that set up the winning touchdown. That victory cata- pulted the Steelers to the AFC North title. Now, they are in the Super Bowl for the third time in six seasons, where they face Matthews and the Packers. ‘‘I don’t imagine their game plan changing over one player,’’ Polamalu said. ‘‘We don’t single out anybody. Anything we achieve here is done as a team, as a whole.’’ Added Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who finished third in the bal- loting with eight votes and won the award two years ago: ‘‘Troy brings this defense from a ’C’ defense to an ’A’ defense. He’s someone that you have to account for in the secondary.’’ So much so that one opponent called the eighth-year pro the NFL’s top player, regardless of position. ‘‘With all due respect, I honestly think Troy Polamalu is probably the greatest player I’ve ever played with or even seen play in person,’’ gushed Jets receiver Santonio Holmes, who was the MVP of Pittsburgh’s 2009 Super Bowl win over Arizona. ‘‘Everybody has their one person they think is the greatest player. In my eyes, I think he’s the greatest player I’ve ever played with.’’ Polamalu has had better statistical years than 2010, including the 2008 championship season and in 2005, when he had a career-high 91 tackles and three sacks as the Steelers won the title. He hasn’t had any season where he made more big plays than in 2010. That fit perfectly with defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau’s claim that Polamalu is the most versatile defen- sive back he’s ever worked with. And LeBeau has been involved with the NFL for about a half-century and is in the Hall of Fame. ‘‘I know Troy is going to do the right things,’’ LeBeau said. Matthews did plenty of things cor- rectly in only his second pro season, enough to make the All-Pro team SAN JOSE (AP) — The last time the San Jose Sharks returned from a break, they endured one of their worst stretches in years with eight losses in 10 games. Another dismal run like that as the Sharks return from four days off from the All-Star break could just about end any hopes San Jose has of making the playoffs. ‘‘We have to learn from our last one,’’ coach Todd McLellan said Monday. ‘‘Obviously the Christmas break didn’t do anything for us. We took the 48 hours off and then came back and decided we needed a few extra days. It got us into trouble. We have to learn from that. ... We don’t have any time to find our way. We have to be pro- ducing off the bat.’’ McLellan tweaked things a little bit at practice Mon- day from what he did when the team came back from Christmas, spending extra time talking, looking at video and working on the mental part of the game. This is an unfamiliar position for this time of the sea- son. After posting the second best regular-season record in the NHL over the previous five seasons, San Jose finds itself in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Western Conference after an up-and-down first 50 games this season. With only the top eight teams qualifying for the play- offs, the Sharks need to worry about just making the postseason instead of things like playoff positioning and staying fresh. ‘‘In the past we’ve been comfortably in first or at least comfortably in the playoffs and we were worrying about different things at that point, the fatigue factor in the team, the injuries, the placing, whether you have home ice or not. That’s not the case right now. We can’t worry about any of that. It’s about competing for 32 games. Whatever position we’re in when it’s all over and what- ever fatigue factor we’ll have, we’ll have to deal with that.’’ The Sharks begin their stretch drive with a home game Tuesday against the Phoenix Coyotes, who are three points ahead of the Sharks in sixth place in the con- ference. Then San Jose plays another team its chasing on the road Wednesday with a visit to Anaheim that starts a stretch of seven road games in 14 days while the SAP Open tennis tournament takes over HP Pavilion. ‘‘This is our push here,’’ defenseman Dan Boyle said. ‘‘It starts a little earlier this year, 30-some games left. They’re all going to be important from here on out. This is a very long road trip. It can kill you or it can make you. We’ll be together quite a bit off the ice so hopefully we can come together as a team off the ice and on the ice and put a good string of wins together.’’ After making it all the way to the Western Conference MCT file photo Troy Polamalu strips Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco. thanks to 60 tackles, 13 1/2 sacks (fourth in league), an interception return for a touchdown and, like Pola- malu, a penchant for delivering deci- sive plays. ‘‘Game-changing plays,’’ Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley said with emphasis. ‘‘I mean, you look at all the plays Troy’s made — game-changing plays. ... So many game-changing plays to go out there and help win foot- ball games. Things that he (does), not only in the secondary — coming up, tackling backs in the backfield. Troy does it all.’’ Matthews said it would have been a ‘‘unique honor’’ to win in his second year. His goal, he said, is to become ‘‘world champions.’’ Added Matthews: ‘‘Despite defen- sive player of the year, I get the chance to play Sunday for the world champi- onship.’’ Considered the lesser of three line- backers drafted in the first round in 2009 from Southern California, Matthews has had the biggest impact of that trio. Yes, Brian Cushing was the league’s top defensive rookie in ’09, but he tailed off in 2010 while Matthews was surging. Matthews’ sensational season came while facing consistent double-team- ing. ‘‘You really just attack it,’’ said Matthews, whose father and grandfa- ther played in the league and whose uncle, Bruce, is a Hall of Fame offen- sive lineman. ‘‘I think last year, obvi- ously, was about winning the one-on- one battles. Towards the playoffs, that’s when I saw the increase and it’s kind of continued. ... So you deal with it, you try and beat one, then another, and get to the quarterback.’’ Polamalu and Matthews take their competition to Dallas Cowboys Stadi- um on Sunday. They already are con- sidered marketing adversaries, with Polamalu’s jersey the top seller in the league, and both vying for hirsute superiority. ‘‘Well, I can guarantee you my hair’s more expensive,’’ Polamalu said. Also receiving votes for AP Defen- sive Player of the Year were Chicago end Julius Peppers with six and line- backer Brian Urlacher with two; and Baltimore safety Ed Reed and nose tackle Haloti Ngata, one each. final a year ago before being swept by eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago, the Sharks were looking to go at least one step further this year and play in the Stanley Cup for the first time in team history. Instead they’ve endured an inconsistent season that started in Sweden and has featured only a few stretches reminiscent of past years. San Jose appeared to have turned the corner by winning four straight games head- ing into the Christmas break. San Jose is 16 points behind their pace from a year ago and have their worst record entering February since 2006, the last time they had to fight for a playoff spot late in a season. The Sharks’ scoring is down from 3.13 goals per game to 2.72 — their second-lowest total since Joe Thornton arrived in the 2005-06 season. The defense has slipped with the retirement of captain Rob Blake and the departure of goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and the Sharks have had a tough time holding onto leads, losing six games that they led after two periods — the third-worst record in the league. While rookie Logan Couture has provided a boost with a team-leading 22 goals and Ryane Clowe has played well with 38 points, the gold medal trio of Thorn- ton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley haven’t had near- ly the success they had a year ago. The three have combined for a -34 rating — with Marleau tied for the fifth worst mark in the league at -19 — and their goal scoring has dropped more than 25 per- cent per game and their points have fallen by more than 20 percent. But the Sharks lost their first two games back, won two in a row after that before losing six straight in their longest stretch without earning a point since 1995-96. San Jose won four straight after that before losing its final game before the break in a shootout at Los Ange- les. ‘‘We started our playoffs five or six games ago,’’ Thornton said. ‘‘Every game is so important to us. Every game is like a Game 7 to us because points mean so much. We feel like we have to win every game now.’’