The good news: Colton High School had three of its alumni selected in the NFL draft last month: Allen Bradford, Shareece Wright and James Smith, something no other high school managed this year.

The bad news: In the fall of 2005 all three of those elite players were on the same team … which lost three times and went out in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.

Hmmm.Here is the AP story, sent to me by a former colleague, which notes that Colton had more guys in the 2011 draft than any other high school in the U.S.:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Colton High School in California led the NFL draft with three players chosen, according to USA Football.

The sport’s national governing body in the United States found that 243 high schools were involved in the 254 picks made by NFL teams last month.

The Colton players were Colorado cornerback Jimmy Smith, who went in the first round to Baltimore, USC running back Allen Bradford (sixth round to Tampa Bay), and USC safety Shareece Wright (third round to San Diego).

Colton is located one hour east of Los Angeles.

“Our staff is very proud,” said Colton coach Richard Bray. “It is great for the school, the city of Colton, and our program.We are happy for their chance to keep playing a sport that all three young have men have played since childhood. This starts a new tradition for Colton football, one that others will try to carry on.”

Ten schools had at least two players selected. Six of those schools, along with Colton, produced at least one first-round choice: Aliquippa (Pa.) with Pittsburgh wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin, chosen by Kansas City; Blanche Ely (Pompano Beach, Fla.) with LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson, taken by Arizona; Fort Dorchester (Charleston, S.C.) with North Carolina defensive end Robert Quinn, picked by St. Louis; Gwynn Park Senior (Brandywine, Md.) with Baylor defensive tackle Phil Taylor, taken by Cleveland; Lakeland (Fla.) with Florida center Mike Pouncey, selected by Miami; and Rancho Verde (Moreno Valley, Calif.) with USC tackle Tyron Smith, picked by Dallas.

Forty states and the District of Columbia had at least one player selected. One draftee, Baylor guard Danny Watkins, who went in the first round to Philadelphia, attended high school in Canada.

States without a player drafted were Vermont, West Virginia, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, New Mexico and Delaware.

California high schools had the most draftees, 42, followed by Florida with 36.

Back to the bad news. Harold Strauss, a really good guy and a clever football man, was the coach of that Colton team, and having three guys taken in the NFL draft would seem to indicate that maybe the 2005 team those guys all played on should have done better than 9-3.

I saw two of their defeats — 43-26 at L.A. Crenshaw, and the 41-40 last-second defeat at Redlands East Valley, the televised game that ranks as one of the handful of greatest games in Inland Empire history. Before that game, which came in Week 10 when both teams were 6-0 in the Citrus Belt League, Bradford and Wright came on the field wearing championship belts, which was not a good idea but probably had nothing to do with the outcome of the game, which basically was won by REV’s backup quarterback, Mike Stadler, who replaced the injured Ronnie Fouch in the final minutes and threw a touchdown pass and a two-point conversion pass with one second to play.

That Colton team would eventually be eliminated by Mater Dei, official nightmare of Inland Empire football, 42-27, and off went the Big Three to USC (Bradford and Wright) and Colorado (Smith).

It wasn’t as if the 2005 Yellowjackets had no one else of quality. The Sorenson brothers, Bradley and Daniel; the linemen/linebackers Kyle Hanna and Ruben Briones, the tight end Thomas Land …

Going back to look at their games, however, we see major mistakes in all three defeats (three interceptions of Bradley Sorenson in the Mater Dei game) and what perhaps may have been a lack of team speed.

And perhaps it demonstrates that for the purposes of prep football, you’re better off with 20 really good high school players than you are with three superstars and mediocre prep players. Consider that the Fontana team that won a 1987 national title did not have a single guy who played in the NFL.

Anyway, maybe it was good that Colton had those three blue-chippers, because we’re still talking about that Colton team, even from 11,000 miles away.