By Staff
I'm sure most of you have noticed the little schedule box at the bottom of the paper getting smaller and smaller everyday. If you haven't noticed, take a look. We are coming to the end of the 2004-05 winter sports season.
Most teams in the area wrapped up their regular season play this week and boys basketball will tonight. Some have one more game left next week. Whatever the case one thing is for sure, it's the beginning of March Magic in Michigan.
The Niles, Brandywine and Buchanan volleyball teams all start their District play tomorrow and boy's basketball will start next week.
Niles is hosting the Class B Districts this year for volleyball and will face St. Jospeh at 10 a.m. to open up the tournament. The Vikings have improved towards the end of the season and I think they can do pretty well against the Bears.
The Class C Districts are held in Watervliet. Buchanan will play River Valley at 10 a.m. and Brandywine will play Eau Claire at 12 p.m.
The Bobcats have had some bad luck towards the end of the season, but I think they can pull it together and do very well this weekend.
The Class B Basketball Districts will be held at Dowagiac High School starting Monday. Niles will play Lakeshore at 7 p.m. The Vikings pulled off a win against the Lancers last week and will have another tough game on their hands on Monday.
Class C Districts will be held in Bridgman starting Monday as well. Buchanan and Brandywine will face of at 7:30 p.m.
The winners in both Classes will play Wednesday night.
I am excited about districts starting and will be even more excited to see which teams advance.
Class B districts are wide open to anyone. If Niles can play the way they have towards the end of this season, the turn out should be good for the Vikings. Their team should be healthy and recovered after some injuries and illnesses throughout the entire season.
On the other hand Brandywine has had an extremely tough season in the Class C division. Alex Newman was out for quite a few games due to an ankle injury and they lost guard Mike Nagy and center Brett Shoemaker towards the end of the season. Now they are one more player short. D.J. Elrod was involved in a car accident this week and remains in the hospital with pelvic injuries. My wishes on a speedy recovery and the best of luck.
All this added to the Bobcats' 1-18 record is enough to frustrate any team.
As much as I would like to see the Bobcat's do well, I think Buchanan has an excellent chance of winning districts and moving on. They just need to play smarter and play their game, especially if they happen to face Bridgman again. I had to agree with coach Reid McBeth when he said there is alot of basketball left to played for Buchanan.
This was honestly my first year EVER being to a wrestling match. The only thing I knew about the sport was that there were always some really funny pictures in the paper and I could not understand why two guys would want to wrestle like that. I now understand why. Within one match I understood completely how the sport worked and enjoy it a lot. It's actually one of the easiest and most fun of all sports to take pictures of. It's also one of the easiest to understand.
Whether it was on the wrestling mat, beside the volleyball net or on the basketball court, this winter season has been a memorable one for everyone in some way. I'm sad to see it end, but look forward to what the Spring sports have to offer. Baseball, softball, tennis, track and soccer, whichever sport you prefer, will all bring another exciting season in sports. It's hard to believe we are already entering that season. My how time flies!
All in all I can say this has been a very exciting winter season and I have enjoyed covering all of the sports I have.
Good luck to all teams in districts and thank you for a very intense, fun, frustrating, exciting and memorable season of sports!