Taylor hired to coach flag football at PG
Jan 20, 2024 12:45PM ● By John Hull, Citizen Sports Editor
Elk Grove (MPG) – Pleasant Grove High School announced last week that Jeremiah Taylor will be the inaugural head coach for the girl’s flag football team starting in the 2024-2025 school year. Taylor is in his 15th year as a teacher at Pleasant Grove and brings with him over 20 years of coaching experience. Most notably, Jeremiah was part of many winning programs at PG including a Section championship football team in 2012, and a State champion basketball team in 2013.
“I am honored to be back coaching at PG and am looking forward to a fantastic inaugural season of girls flag football,” Taylor said.
Girl’s flag football will be a fall sport and will host games at the artificial turf field on the Pleasant Grove campus.
The only other EGUSD school to name its flag football coach is at Cosumnes Oaks. The school athletic director, George Smith, selected himself as the flag football coach. Smith has been an assistant under current boys football coach Martin Billings.
Local baseball signing large contracts
Major League Baseball players won’t head to spring training for about a month, but this is generally the time of the year when the players start signing contracts or re-negotiating their deals with the clubs. Our Elk Grove-are alumni are preparing to play for more money this season than they have in their careers, most of them:
J.D. Davis – will likely go to arbitration seeking $6.9 million. The Giants offered Davis $6.55 million for the 2024 season. Davis led San Francisco by playing in 144 games in 2023.
Dylan Carlson - signed a one-year, $2.35 million contract with the Cardinals on Jan. 12. Last season he earned $742, 400 with St. Louis.
Nick Madrigal – under contract for $1.81 million for the 2024 season with the Cubs.
Rowdy Tellez – on Dec. 12 signed a one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates for $3.2 million, with incentives that could be as high as $8 million. In 2023 Tellez earned $4.95 million playing for Milwaukee.
Matt Manning – not signed for 2024 as of now with the Detroit Tigers. Last season he earned $729,200.
Derek Hill – signed a minor league/non-roster invitee contract with the Rangers, Dec. 27. Was released by the Washington Nationals Oct. 6 after spending a year with the club.
Dom Nunez – last season was in Triple-A with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Has not signed any contract for 2024.
David Freitas – nothing is for certain for Freitas in 2024. Last year he played at Triple-A Oklahoma City in the Dodger organization. In 2022, Freitas was in the Yankee organization for about half the season. He and his family are in the pork business in Wilton. It’s called K&D Meats. Order some today!
Scott signs NLI with Jessup
One of the area’s top midfielders, Jalen Scott of Pleasant Grove, signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer at William Jessup University, now a NCAA Division II college which competes in the Pac West Conference alongside colleges such as Pt. Loma, Biola, Azuza Pacific, Westmont, Concordia, and Dominican.
Scott will play for Coach Greg Lazaga, now in his eighth season at Jessup.

Photo by John Hull
Jalen Scott, a soccer player at Pleasant Grove, celebrates with family and friends as he signs his National Letter of Intent with William Jessup University.
“We were looking an attacking middie with a super-aggressive play style,” Lazaga said. “We saw (Scott) in late summer and he checked a lot of boxes.”
Scott leads a 8-2 Eagles squad that has been very competitive this season in the Delta League. He said Lazaga’s early interest in him was a big reason for signing to play at Jessup.
“They’ve been interested since the start,” Scott said. “Mr.(Chris) MacPhail and Mr. Lazaga have been staying in touch with me almost every week. They took me up to the campus and I like the campus (in Rocklin). They took me to a basketball game and they made me feel welcomed.”