Spring has sprung

This is the busiest time of the year and for good reason. The schools will be having more sports than any other time of the year and each one of them will be covered. Baseball and softball will kick it off with girls' and boys' track following a near second. There will be girl's tennis, boys' golf and girls' soccer. Lacrosse for both boys' and girls' and even some rowing for those school that have crew.
What does it all mean?
A big dash to the finish of the year. Senior are almost graduated and most will be out of school before they finish their sports.
Colleges will be looking for players and sometimes they find them during the senior season and in the spring.
I can't wait to get to my first baseball game (as long as it is above 60 degrees). The first game is always the coldest and I can remember a few that seem more like a football game in late November than a baseball game in April.
I love this time of year but I will admit that email and faxes help out in the spring. If coaches can send me their info to dmerchant@heritage.com or fax it that would be awesome. I also want people to give me ideas for things other a than game stories.
Features on players, coaches, events or anything of interest is always welcome.
I want to make this spring special since it is my 11th one with Heritage and it was the first season I ever covered. I was covering Monroe and Downriver back then. Since that I have covered Downriver, Dearborn and now for the last few years Heritage West. That includes but doesn't limit me to Belleville, Lincoln, Ypsilanti, Manchester and Willow Run.
So everyone be safe, have fun and let's do this up right!

Bracketology is child's play

It's that time of year again. Today is the deadline. It's time to fill out your NCAA tournament bracket and hope for the best.
Then you can print it off and take it out to the bar with you and mark off all the wins and losses in front your friends and basically make sure you annoy everyone within a jump shot's range of you.
I'm not judging. In fact, in my formative college years, I think I was probably a bit of an annoying bracket guy myself, however, as I've grown up (well, at least gotten older anyway), I've learned not to take the bracket game so seriously.
Nope, not this year.
This year I decided to take a different approach.
Yeah, I did fill one out, it took me about five minutes. I really didn't even put that much thought in it.
But this year I took a different approach to filling out a tournament bracket. This year I got my son involved.
My son Teigan filled out his first ever tournament bracket this year. Now, because he is eight months old and has just recently mastered clapping, he needed a little help from dad. I was more than happy to oblige.
I wrote down every single team in the tournament and presented him the match ups, whichever one he grabbed and tried to eat was the winner and got to move on to the next round.
We did this for every game.
And there were some interesting results.
-Teigan picked every single No. 1 seed to win its first game.
-He decided that he isn't a huge fan of basketball in the state of Michigan, choosing, UCLA over Michigan State and Tennessee over Michigan.
-His Final Four included Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas State.
-He picked Kansas to take down Kentucky in the final game.
While I'm not ruling out one day booking a campus visit to Lawrence, I have to say I was especially disappointed when my son failed to pick my alma mater, Oakland University. He has them losing in the first round to Texas.
Oh well, it could be worse I guess.
He could have picked Ohio State to win.

Ypsi team is young

I admit it. I did not expect the Ypsilanti Phoenix basketball team to have much of a problem with Taylor Kennedy on Monday night. But as Coach Steve Brooks said after the game his team had nine guys who had not played varsity until this season. That is over half the team and they still managed a season record of 22-2. Records aside Kennedy was in this position last year and had the experience to go further in the tournament. I watched this Ypsi team play several games this season and saw a lot of Phoenix wins. I missed the Huron game which makes it only fitting that both teams were eliminated on the same night. Ypsi by Kennedy and Huron by Detroit Catholic Central.
This pretty much clears the way for Romulus who has to take care of business on Wednesday against Kennedy to make it to the quarterfinals. I like the Eagles of Romulus and I watched the early game on Monday as Romulus rolled what some people have said maybe the best Lincoln Park team ever.
So good luck to the Kennedy Eagles but don't expect too much because Romulus coach Nate Oats and company is a very good team this time of year.
Let the madness continue boys! Spring sports are officially here.

The Phoenix are rising

Okay, that may sound a bit cliche. I admit I am kind of old school when it comes to the playoffs but I want to tip my hat to the Ypsilanti Phoenix and to coach Steve Brooks and the rest of his staff.
These kids are very good this year and he has kept them focused and on track. You don't get to be 22-1 without being a good basketball team. I watched them three times last week play in the district in Monroe. They came away with a district championship and some pretty convincing wins.
The championship against Monroe was interesting considering in the first quarter Tristan Simmons once against showed his basketball skill as he scored 16 points in the first quarter. The team had a bit of a lull after that but I guess it was a good thing that Monroe scored 0 points in the second quarter and Ypsi had eight.
Now comes the test. The regional semis are at Saline on Monday against Taylor Kennedy. That winner will most certainly get Romulus (who like Ypsi) has only one loss on the season. I have seen Romulus beat Belleville this season but I have not watched the Kennedy Eagles. This will be a good challenge and like senior Aaerion Allen told me after the win on Friday it will be his biggest game of his life.
Oh, March Madness you have to love it!

Blowing a gasket for college basketball

Earlier this week I wrote a column about how much I enjoy this time of year and how much I love watching college basketball.
I even included a part that said, "This is your time to take a day or two off of work, move the basement TV and the bedroom TV into your living room and set up shop on the couch."
So, is it really any surprise that at 1:48 p.m. on Friday afternoon, I'm sitting in my living room, on my couch watching Northwestern take Ohio State into overtime?
Well, it's a surprise to me.
You see, I would love to be at work. I'd love to be in the office, standing around the water cooler talking about the latest episode of Glee. But, unfortunately I'm stuck at home.
I couldn't even go to work if I wanted to.
You see, on Wednesday night, while driving home from Brighton after watching Skyline take down Dexter and Huron squeak past Pioneer, I had a bit of car trouble.
OK, I had a lot of car trouble.
My car, 1997 Ford Taurus I purchased in January of this year from some guy on Craigslist, overheated and left me stranded on the side of I-696.
Long story short, the head gasket blew and the Taurus, which I lovingly dubbed the Millennium Falcon, is headed for the scrap yard.
I learned two things from this experience:
1.) Don't buy automobiles from guys on craigslist who look like this.
2.) Being stranded at home during conference tournament time really isn't that bad.

Ypsi is a strong team

The Phoenix wasted no time and I do mean no time on Wednesday as they made easy work of Bedford in the second round of Class A district action at Monroe 85-40. Tristan Simmons and Aaerion Allen looked like they were in top form.
Now, the test is on Friday night when they play the host Monroe Trojans for a chance at a district championship and the right to play next Tuesday.
I have watched Monroe a few times this year and I really admire their coach Dave Arnold. He was my track coach in high school at Anderson and I have covered him from Romulus, to Anderson to Riverview Gabriel Richard and I am sure a few other places.
I like Ypsi's shot and I like the way they are playing. The intensity is up, they are playing like a team and they look good. A team doesn't make 21-1 without some talent.
Phoenix coach Steve Brooks has that talent and he is an excellent coach.
See you on Friday night for some hoop!

Wrestling state finals

There cannot be much more pressure in a high school athletes life than waiting to wrestle for a state championship as an individual. I am at the Palace of Auburn Hills waiting to watch a few area wrestlers who have made it through this grueling and I mean grueling three-day state tournament.
I have watched the state finals in baseball, softball and basketball but I don't think anything quite compares to the shear magnitude of these games. Four divisions going at once and all for six minutes of wrestling. They train all year for this one moment. No pressure. Just kidding I think they will never face this kind of pressure again.
Good luck wrestlers and may the best wrestler win.