By Staff
Before I start my column, I want to send best wishes to Leigh Tyler of the Niles varsity girls basketball team on a speedy recovery! Tyler is recovering from a concussion she received during Thursday's evenings game.
It's already the end of the 2005 football season as Niles, Brandywine and Buchanan will be playing its final games tonight.
Although none of our area teams will be making playoff appearances this year, there are still plenty of high lights that captured the spotlight this season.
Lets start with the most improved Bobcat Football team.
Last year, as we all know, Brandywine had a pretty bad season. The ‘Cats went 2-7 under first year head coach Terry Borr and only had three members on the team with varsity experience.
What a difference a year makes.
Though they didn't post a perfect record this season, most would agree that Brandywine is a much improved football team.
The Bobcats come into tonight's game against Berrien Springs with a 4-4 record. It will be tough to beat the No. 1 team in the Lakeland Conference, but nothing is impossible.
The Vikings' football team also has a 4-4 record heading into tonight's contest with Lakeshore, the No. 1 ranked team in the Big 16 West Division and No. 2 team in Division 2.
A win would be great for the Vikings, but unfortunately wouldn't grant them a playoff ticket.
Though players, coaches and fans would liked to have seen Niles in the playoffs, the Vikes still had a better season than last.
Now on to Buchanan….the team that went 8-1 last year and made the first ever playoff appearnace didn't have the luck of the draw this season as head coach Joe Austin started with an almost new batch of young players.
The Bucks enter their final game tonight with a 3-5 record against Coloma. Buchanan should walk away with a win to end the season, but anything's possible, so you never know.
I want to wish Dowagiac's football team good luck entering tonight's game against St. Joe. If the Chieftains pull off a win, they willl have a spot in the playoffs.
Dowagiac is 5-3 heading into the game, while St. Joseph is 0-8.
Please be supportive of your teams tonight. Let them go out with pride, even though they may not have had the perfect season. There were many of highlights this year and many of memories for years to come that make the 2005 season a success.
I am in the process of gathering information for a furture column on some of the biggest plays of the year, players that really shined and so on.
In the meantime, I want to thank all of the football players for a great season. Even though I did get clobbered by one certain team on the field, I had a great time covering those all of Friday night games and look forward to seeing a lot of athletes in the up and coming winter sports season.
Just play. Have fun. And enjoy every game like it was your last.
– Michael Jordan