After three years of rebuilding, Redlands High girls' basketball coach Roger Tate is finally seeing some bright lights.

In his first three years, Tate's Terriers were left in the dark, going 12-12, 4-21 and 8-18 and winning only three Citrus Belt League games combined the past two years.

Redlands last won a CBL title in the 1989-90 season and has not made the playoffs since the 1996-97 season, when it was only 9-13. That may change in the coming weeks.

Heading into this week's action, Redlands is 5-1 in the CBL and 16-6 overall, and despite Friday's setback to preseason favorite Rialto Eisenhower, the Terriers control their own destiny toward at least a share of the league championship.

"I think we surprised a lot of people because the Redlands program has been down for such a long time," Tate said. "The girls realize everybody's looking at knocking them off. I'm real proud of the way the girls are playing."

The last time Redlands was this competitive was before the opening of sister school Redlands East Valley in 1997. Tate started four freshmen in the 1997-98 season. The following year, Redlands had two players return to the program.

If the 11-5 non-league record wasn't evidence enough, the Terriers proved their worth in the CBL opener Jan. 9 by defeating Eisenhower, 53-51.

"The win over Eisenhower was a tremendous boost to the program," Tate said. "The girls believed they could do it, but that just solidified their feeling."

Redlands likely boasts the CBL's best center in 6-foot-2 junior Mica DeHoog, the team's second-leading scorer and leading rebounder. Redlands East Valley sophomore transfers Nyara Hardy and Shannon Estrada form the Terriers' starting backcourt and have been productive. Hardy is the team's leading scorer at 14 points per game.

Tate has only three seniors, including starter Tiffany Sneed. The Terriers are still young, but the talent is better now.

"I had five players return from last year's team and I have seven new players on the team, and all have contributed to the success of the program," Tate said.

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Continuing to suffer fallout from the Rialto-Fontana boys' soccer brawl on Jan. 17, Fontana coach Francisco Salcedo was put on leave from his team by the Fontana administration on Thursday as the Fontana Unified School District conducts its own investigation into the matter.

Salcedo is banned from coaching or interacting with his team until instructed otherwise and is not commenting on the situation, as instructed by school administration. He is allowed to continue teaching at the school.

In the interim, junior varsity coach Cristobal Bohorquez has assumed control of the Steelers (2-3-1 CBL, 8-7-4 overall).

The fight resulted in the suspensions of six players -- three for one game and three others for two games and three days from school. All the players have been reinstated to the team.

In nine years with the Steelers, Salcedo is 100-70-38.

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Fontana High received word that its power will not be cut off by Southern California Edison this week, so the boys' basketball team will play this week's three games in the campus gym rather than Fontana Kaiser High, the Steelers' alternative home site.

Fontana played Fontana Miller on Monday, makes up its Jan. 9 CBL game with Rialto (originally postponed because of a power outage) on Wednesday and plays host to Redlands on Friday. All game times are 6:30 p.m.

"We definitely want to play at home," Fontana coach John McNally said. "It's the comfort factor that the kids have been playing in that gym; they're used to that gym."

Fontana's power status for next week has not been officially determined.

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Fontana junior point guard Aaron Gipson sprained his ankle in the Steelers' lone CBL loss, to Eisenhower a week ago. He missed Friday's 65-59 win at Rialto and is doubtful for three CBL games this week. Gipson's floor presence is vital to the Steelers in terms of ball-handling and creating off the dribble.

"Hopefully we'll get him back next week," McNally said. "We're not going to rush him. He's gingerly walking around on it. He'll return at some point. It depends how he'll respond to therapy. The swelling is not as bad as it was last week."

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San Bernardino athletic director Dolores Dudek, who has taught at the school since 1973 and has served as the Cardinals' AD since 1982 said she will begin her new job as Arroyo Valley athletic director about April, when school offices are in place.

Dudek will get started on arranging sports schedules, equipment, hiring coaching staff and dealing with other miscellaneous paperwork.

"It's going to be hard," she said. "My car will probably go here (to San Bernardino) so I better be conscious of where I'm going. I'll always have a Cardinal feeling. I wouldn't have considered it if it wasn't one of our sister schools. I like the district. I know a lot of people."

According to Dudek, Arroyo Valley's boys' and girls' golf will be the only team sport to have varsity status next year. The teams will compete in the San Andreas League.