There is an old saying in NASCAR that it’s not where you start, but where you finish.

Some of our area high school teams may need to take that to heart.

There is a lot of games left to be played for our area sports teams, so just because they haven’t gotten off to the kind of start they expected to, doesn’t mean that the season will wind up a disappointment.

In baseball, Dowagiac and Edwardsburg are both at .500 after the first couple of weeks of the season, but I don’t expect either of them to wind up there by the end of the year.

Dowagiac and Edwardsburg are both defending co-champions of their respective leagues.

Both are expected to contend for the league title again this season.

It’s often tough to get a good idea of where a team stands early in the season.

For many schools spring break puts a damper on participation after a couple of games have been played.

But once teams get back from break and start getting into the routine of playing and practicing, real development begins.

I expect to see that over the next couple of weeks as teams really begin to get into the groove of competition.

But baseball isn’t the only sport that has teams struggling out of the gate.

The Brandywine soccer team got off to a bit of a slow start, but a 1-0 win over upstart Cassopolis might be just the match to light the fire of the Bobcats.

Brandywine is one of the teams chasing after a Lakeland Conference championship.

The Bobcats have a solid group of returning players and are loaded with talent.

A couple of early losses had fans scratching their heads, but I can already see improvement in this team and I think they are ready to explode.

I know there were a lot of eyes on the Niles softball team to see what the team would be like in 2010.

Niles of course captured the Division 2 state title last June in Battle Creek, but lost a handful of talented players to graduation.

Gone are Jenna Ignowski, Nellie Coquillard, Demi Schrader, Maggie Ernsberger and Erica Gordon, all starters who played a key roll in leading the Vikings to the title.

Niles is off to a 0-3 start, but with all the new faces, it doesn’t surprise me.

But there is still talent left there and I can see this team getting better as the year goes on.

Even several of the returning players from last year’s squad are in new positions and it’s going to take some time for those players to get used to their new roles.

I am glad that spring break is behind us and we can not get into the heart of spring sports.
We have a lot of teams that are going to have very successful campaigns this year and I look forward to following their progress.

This is a big weekend of sports with many of our area teams hosting tournament. Check out the story to the left and get out and see what our high school teams have to offer.

It may be a bit on the cool and windy side on Saturday, but with temperatures expected in the lower to mid 50s, I think it will be plenty comfortable for fans.

I know I can’t wait for Saturday because this is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com