It happens every year, and you’d think that after all this time I’d be prepared for it. But again, the end to the high school sports schedule caught me napping.

That should have come as no surprise to me, as napping is something I now do almost every day. But no season is as busy as spring and there I was covering at least a dozen games and matches a week with girls and boys soccer, girls and boys tennis, softball, boys and girls track and field and baseball deliciously filling… Read more...

The older one gets the more one clings to the security of a routine: out of bed at 6 a.m., pour the first cup of coffee, 15 minutes of local news and weather (channel 12), kiss the wife goodbye as she heads out to the corporate world, then a mood-softening 30 minutes of Robin Mead and HLN (pour second cup of coffee during commercial) and one round of ESPN – normally 30 minutes but up to an hour on big sports days – while drinking the third and final cup of coffee and downing a large… Read more...

Primarily it was because I was bored, but all of the hype – the event was getting almost 24-hour coverage on both ESPN networks – convinced me to tune in to the USA versus Slovenia FIFA soccer match last week. I was doing something more important (flossing my teeth or clipping the dog’s nails) so I missed most of the first half and tuned in to find the USA squad down 1-nil, soon to be a supposedly insurmountable 2-nil, against a team from a country with a population equaling… Read more...

The Powhatan High School softball team’s loss in the state semifinals closed a phenomenally successful spring sports schedule at PHS.

Six of the Indians’ teams –softball, baseball, girls soccer, boys soccer, girls tennis and boy’s tennis – captured Southside District titles and the softball and baseball teams made deep runs into the post-season.

While these are commendable achievements by the teams and their coaches, I’m hopeful that they did… Read more...

There is one very positive aspect of our Spring sports schedules winding down; the recognition of our high school athletes for their outstanding achievements, not only on the fields and courts but, more importantly, in the classroom. The Richmond Times Dispatch/Richmond Sports Backers Scholar Athletes Program got a two page color spread in the Sunday June 6 paper, highlighting 90 of the Greater Richmond area’s best and brightest. Under this program, ten girls and ten boys, will receive college… Read more...