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 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, Cassopolis, Dowagiac, Edwardsburg and Buchanan volleyball teams all start their District play tomorrow.
Niles is hosting the Class B Districts this year and will face St. Joseph at 10 a.m. to open up the tournament.
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 Class B Basketball Districts will be held at Dowagiac Union 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 district is wide open to anyone. If Niles can play the way it has toward the end of the season, the turn out should be good for the Vikings.
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 it lost guard Mike Nagy and center Brett Shoemaker towards the end of the season. Now it is 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.
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.
This was honestly my first year EVER going 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. It's hard to believe we are already entering that season. My how time flies!
Good luck to all teams in districts and thank you for a very intense, fun, frustrating, exciting and memorable season of sports!