NOTES AND QUOTES for a Tuesday in the Napa Valley:

Left tackle Mike Gibson of Napa was named Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 for the UC Berkeley football team, which will play in a fifth straight bowl game for the first time in program history as the Golden Bears will battle Air Force in the 2007 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, on Dec. 31.

Gibson, who has started every game on the offensive line, was also a co-winner of the Ken Cotton Award, which goes to the team’s most courageous player. He was among several players honored during the football program’s annual team banquet at the Oakland Marriott Civic Center.

He played at Napa High School and Solano Community College-Rockville before transferring to Cal. He started last year as a junior.

Gibson played in all 12 games with eight starts last year as Cal beat Texas A&M, 45-10, at the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to cap a 10-3 season. He was an All-Pac-10 Second-Team selection and recorded 24.5 knockdown blocks.

The Armed Forces Bowl will be televised by ESPN from Amon G. Carter Stadium with kickoff scheduled for 9:30 a.m.

Since the arrival of coach Jeff Tedford in 2002, Cal has advanced to the Insight Bowl (2003), the Holiday Bowl (2004 and 2006) and the Las Vegas Bowl (2005). The Bears have posted three victories in those four bowl games.

“We’re looking forward to the opportunity to play in the Armed Forces Bowl,” Tedford said on the Bears’ athletic web site. “I’ve heard great things about the Bowl and we have always had a lot of respect for Air Force. This should be a great experience for our players and our fans.”

Cal has posted a 6-6 overall record this season and with a bowl game victory will achieve a sixth straight winning season.

Senior guard Kate Shipp came off the bench to score 16 points, drilling all four of her 3-point attempts, as the Azusa Pacific women’s basketball team beat Lewis-Clark State Friday in Lewiston, Idaho, 81-73. Shipp, a Napa High graduate, also had two assists for Azusa, the NAIA’s No. 10-ranked team.

Tournament MVP Katie Keilig scored 26 points to lead the Sierra Community College-Rocklin women’s basketball team to a 72-64 win over Solano Community College-Fairfield in the championship game of the Solano Showdown on Sunday. Keilig is a Napa High graduate.

Heather Highshoe, another former Napa High player, scored 10 points and was chosen to the All-Tournament team for Sierra.

Owen Gorsuch placed third in the 8-9 year old division at an NFL Punt, Pass and Kick competition Sunday at the Minnesota Vikings-San Francisco 49ers game at Monster Park.

Blaize Boles, a Justin-Siena graduate and the Player of the Year on the 2006-07 All-Napa County boys basketball team, had a season high 14 points with three 3-point baskets for the William Jessup University men’s basketball team in a 79-77 win over Dominican University of California. It was the California Pacific Conference opener.

Boles was 3-of-5 from 3-point land and had three rebounds for William Jessup, a small, private NAIA school in Rocklin.

Nicki Brown completed her freshman season of volleyball at Cal State Stanislaus by averaging 5.67 assists per game and compiling a .264 hitting percentage as a setter. The Napa High graduate averaged 1.69 digs per game and had 23 service aces.

First-year coach Jon Shaw has the Cascade College men’s basketball team off to a 5-4 start. It’s a small, private NAIA-Division II school in Portland, Ore., which plays in the Cascade Collegiate Conference.

Shaw is a Napa native who played basketball at Vintage, Napa Valley College and The Master’s College.

For the last three years Shaw has been the head boys basketball coach at Highland High School in Gilbert, Ariz.

Prior to that, Shaw worked with one of the top Division I head basketball coaches in the country, former University of Oklahoma and current Indiana University head coach, Kelvin Sampson. While in Norman, Okla., Shaw took part in a national program that combined for a 47-18 record, received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, made an NCAA Elite Eight appearance, earned a Big 12 Tournament title, and was ranked as high as No. 3 nationally by The Associated Press.

Shaw’s first head coaching job was at Grace Academy High School in Marysville, Wash. Hee also has served as an assistant coach at McClintock High in Tempe, Ariz., and The Master’s College in California.

The San Francisco 49ers’ game against visiting Tampa Bay Dec. 23 has been moved to a 1:05 p.m. start on Fox as part of the NFL’s Week No. 16 “flexible scheduling.” It was originally scheduled as a Sunday night game on NBC.

The NFL will utilize “flexible scheduling” on Sundays in Weeks 11-17.

The San Francisco Giants and FSN Bay Area announced Monday an agreement for a long-term extension of their rights agreement and media partnership. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The extension of our partnership will enable us to deliver enhanced and expanded Giants television programming to area sports fans throughout the year,” Giants executive vice president and chief operating officer Larry Baer said in a statement released by the team.

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.