Steve’s Cheers and Jeers

Veteran football coach Ron Davies belongs to an elite fraternity that Homestead's Dave Keel and Arrowhead's Tom Taraska will gain entry to Friday at 4 p.m. in Camp Randall when the pair send their teams out to do battle for the WIAA State Division I championship for the third consecutive year.

Davies knows where the pair are going and what they're going through. He's been working hard these past seven years trying to bring the troubled Shorewood/Messmer program back to respectability, a task that reached a pinnacle this season at 6-3, but long before that, he led the juggernaut that was Kenosha Tremper to three state Division I finals from 1990-1992. His squads lost to Superior in 1990, defeated Appleton West in 1991 and lost to West in a rematch in 1992. Paul Engen's West team would gain entrance to the elite group of three-time finalists the following fall, where ironically enough, it lost to Taraska and Arrowhead in what would be the first of four titles for the vaunted Warhawk program.

Though he will be sitting for his grandchildren on Friday, Davies, who won three state titles all told at Tremper in 18 seasons, will be glued to the television observing the rubber match between Homestead and Arrowhead. He's gotten to know both coaches and has an infinite amount of respect for what they've accomplished.

"Tom (Taraska) and I were assistants at the Shrine Game in 1993 and already then I could see all the things that were going to make him successful," Davies said. 'He's very driven and Dave (Keel) I've known for most of his time at Homestead. He and his staff have been very helpful to us. In fact, last year I brought a group of our kids over to watch them during a (state) playoff practice. We were just awed at how orderly and well-run the practice was. He (Keel) was nice enough to come over and talk to us too. It really gave us a sense of how a top-shelf program was run."

"And like Tom, he goes out of his way to praise his assistants. To me that's always been the sign of a real good coach. The guys know they're valued and that motivates them to work even harder. It also lets them know that the (head) coach doesn't have a big ego and is willing to delegate authority."

In another touch of irony, the first actual meeting between Davies and Taraska was in 1991 when Davies' Trojans beat the Warhawks in a state playoff game.

"And he came up to us afterwards and talked about wanting to bring his program up to our level," Davies said.

Taraska has, as Arrowhead will be making a record ninth appearance in the finals and will be seeking its fifth state championship. Homestead is making its fourth trip to the finals and is seeking its third title.

Davies understands the motivations that are running through both teams' practices this week.

"I remember after we lost to Superior (in 1990) we so wanted to get back at them (in 1991)," he said, "but when Superior lost to West in the semifinals, we had to move on and accept that. There was no letdown. And the year after we beat West, one of our assistants Tom Follis (who went on to have a successful career at Tremper after Davies stepped down) was at an event where it just so happened there were some West players. And they made it very clear to him that they wanted to beat us this time around."

Which they did.

That idea worked last year for Arrowhead after the Highlanders thumped the Warhawks in 2006. Now that motivation serves Homestead this time around.

Davies, who is stepping down at Shorewood/Messmer to spend more time with his family, was at Homestead's semifinal win over Middleton and was impressed by the effort. He has not seen Arrowhead yet this season, but has no doubt that this championship contest will be much closer than the two one-sided affairs that have preceded it.

"What impresses me about both," he said, "is that though they don't always have the greatest student-athletes, their coaching often makes up for that. They instill in the kids the belief that they can overcome any obstacle."

"That's what we have to do with our kids. Though this year was a breakthrough, we're still a long ways from being competitive in a conference (the Greyhounds played an independent schedule after stepping out of the Woodland Conference for competitive reasons), but I believe we're on good footing. The Shorewood administration has been very supportive and I hope what we've done here will help make the (coaching) job more attractive."

Attractive to the kind of people that will be leading Homestead and Arrowhead into battle on Friday.

"I've gotten to know both of them (Taraska and Keel) and other members of their staff have helped us too over the years," Davies said. "Talk about class people."

Homestead football coach Dave Keel said recently that he was "absolutely pleased to be playing another game for a conference title" in regards to his team's Wednesday 7 p.m. showdown that will pit his home-bound 8-0 Highlanders against the 7-1 Cedarburg Bulldogs with a share of the North Shore title on the line.

He knows what he's talking about as his eight-time league champion Highlanders, Cedarburg and Germantown have been in this situation before several times over the last decade.

The best time was arguably six years ago, but 2002 might as well have been yesterday as the North Shore gridiron blazed white-hot in terms of intensity and skill as everyone in the league it seemed had a chance at grabbing the crown.

At one point, five teams were tied for the league lead and by the end of the campaign, there was a three-way tie for the title with extremely talented Homestead, Cedraburg and Germantown squads all deservedly locked in union. Both Homestead and Germantown would make deep runs into the WIAA state playoffs, both ending just a game away from the finals.

How the the trio got there involved two of the greatest back-to-back games in modern league history with two of the more astonishing finishes anyone ever saw. Cedarburg defeated Homestead, 21-17, on the Highlanders home turf as Bulldog quarterback Joe Patek led his team an a painstaking 16-play, fourth-quarter drive that saw the lanky 6-6 signal-caller complete critical fourth and six and fourth and seven passes for first downs. He finally hit tight end Mike Drifka with just seconds to go on a six-yard TD pass to secure the win.

"We just didn't finish this one today,"  Keel said at the time.

Ironically, both Patek (seven of 11 passing for 120 yards and two TDs) and Homestead fullback Andy Moriarty (28 carries for 97 yards and a TD) would later become teammates and go on to have record-setting careers at UW-Oshkosh.

Then a week later, Germantown visited Cedarburg with the Bulldogs staring down an opportunity to clinch the league crown outright. Patek (12 of 18 for 188 yards) led Cedarburg to a 15-6 lead early in the fourth quarter, but Warhawk four-sport star and quarterback David Pietrowiak willed Germantown back, scoring on a dazzling 63-yard option play to make it 15-12.

Then a couple of series later, Pietrowiak hit back Willie Albiero on a deep out pattern. Albiero, a star and All-Suburban selection for the 2003 state champion Warhawks, broke several tackles and tumbled into the end zone to complete a 39-yard TD play.

But with the Cedarburg crowd bellowing in the background and with just seconds remaining, Patek almost led the Bulldogs back. Enter, however, Germantown defensive back Jeff Treslley, who put the words "brilliant mistake" into the mouth of his coach Phil Datka as he let Cedarburg halfback Derek Moore get behind him on a post pattern down the middle of the field. Patek threw a pretty, deep-arcing ball which hit Moore perfectly in the hands.

The Bulldog fans were delerious as Moore went flying down the field for what looked like the game and conference-winning TD, but Treslley, a state place-winning hurdler in track and later quarterback of the 2003 Germantown champions, caught up to Moore at about the three-yard line and in one swift move punched the ball out of his hands and sent it sailing out the back of the Warhawk end zone for a touchback.

It took everyone, even the officials, a few seconds to realize what had happened and how Treslley had saved the game and Germantown's share of the league title.

"I just said 'oh no, I have to do something,'" Treslley said.

Datka, always the humble humorist, was grateful to have great athletes save the team this day.

"I was just very impressed at the way we came back," he said. "I did a horrible job of play calling in the first half. I was confused and when I'm confused, everyone's confused."

But there should be no confusion with Wednesday night's latest showdown. The two offenses are potent with the Bulldogs, behind another talented quarterback in Chip Rank, average 37 points per game out of their always dangerous run-oriented double-wing offense. Logan Lauters, in just his sophomore year, has developed into of the area's most effective running backs.

The Bulldogs have struggled on defense as of late, however, as illness diminished their linebacking corps for a series of games. Those players are expected to be back at full strength Wednesday night to fortify a unit that gives up 15 points a contest.

Homestead's offense is a story of tenacity and patience, as the Highlanders had to rebuild their entire offensive line and find new go-to players. But behind veteran quarterback Casey Barnes, and a trio of fleet and strong backs in Aric Daniels, Avery Walker and Bryan Bronaugh they find themselves outdoing the Bulldogs offensively, averaging close to 39 points a contest.

The difference, it seems may come with the high-level Homestead defense, which at times has drawn comparisons to the stout unit that led the Highlanders to a state title in 2006. All-state lineman and Wisconsin-recruit Shelby Harris lines up wherever defensive coordinator Fritz Rauch needs him and the double-and-triple teams he draws opens lanes for a seemingly endless wave of fleet defenders to make plays and wreak havoc. The Highlanders give up less than eight points a game.

Still, the history of this rivalry is a good one, and don't go to the game expecting a blowout. Too much is at stake and look for the Bulldogs to try and end the Highlanders six-year league winning streak and grab a share of the crown with an emotional and intense effort.

For you see, that 2002 epic was the last time Homestead lost a North Shore tilt.

Get there early.

There were good, comforting and familiar stories all across the board when Homestead High School inducted its second class into its Athletic Hall of Fame, Sept. 28.

Athletic director, coach and all-around servant to the school Phil Puerling; legendary baseball coach and ground zero for a large family of successful Homestead athletes Don Rennicke; basketball scoring machine Larry Hisle Jr.,and all-around stars Dallas Kroll and Dennis Quinlan.

But the most interesting person to be inducted was the man who wasn't there, the late Bruce Bahlman, who may have been as gifted an all-around athlete as has ever graced the school.

"All I know about his is what I learned the last few months," Homestead boys track coach Dan Benson said. "Everyone I talked to said 'Oh my God what a tremendous natural athlete.' He could pick up anything and do it well. I talked to Andy Friesch and Jim Klug (former Homestead stalwarts in their own right) and they went on and on about what he did in the one year he went out for track (set a Braveland Conference record in the high jump at 6-6), and then I talked to the Rennickes about his exploits in baseball (he was a shortstop and pitcher, who once struck out 17 in a game for the 1974 state champions)."

"Just amazing."

Athletic Director Charlie Gross said Bahlman was an easy choice, but finding recent information about him was difficult at best. There are few or no relatives remaining in the Mequon/Thiensville area, and Gross had to track down a brother using an old obituary.

A relative was on hand to collect the plaque for Bahlman, who also led the 1974 basketball team to an 11-8 record while leading the team in scoring and rebounding and who also played football.

Benson grew more and more astonished each time he discussed Bahlman with coaches, competitors and classmates.

"You look around at the other schools who are doing this (Halls of Fame) and you try to find people who pop out at you," Benson said. "You find your one-sport wonders and then you look around some more and find people like him."

That was also the case for Quinlan and Kroll. Kroll, famous for his horn-rimmed glasses and red and white striped knee socks when he led the boys basketball team to a share of the Braveland Conference Northern Division title in 1963 (he's still the school's fifth all-time leading scorer with 1,085 points and still holds school records for games played and career free throws made), was also an all-around star in his own right.

He earned 11 letters in four sports including football, track and baseball. He looked as natty and prim as ever when he was introduced with the others on the track at halftime of the Highlander football team's victory over Port Washington on Sept. 27.

Quinlan cut an even more amazing figure. One of two state champion wrestlers in school history (2007 inductee Vince Farina is the other), he came out to the track in his 1970 letter jacket, looking like he could still get down on the mat and hit someone with a headlock.

He went 30-0 in 1970 and was 96-13 overall in his career, but that was part of his story. He was also a member of the 1967 state cross country championship team and he still holds the school record in the 800 meters in track (1:56.5). He was team captain for cross country, wrestling and track.

And the others in the class were just happy to smile and wave to the overflow homecoming night crowd and to be acknowledged and remembered. Hisle Jr., who averaged 28 points a game his senior year in earning the AP's state player of the year honor in 1989 (he is the school's all-time leading scorer) tousled his small son's hair and laughed when his name was called.

While Rennicke and Puerling could also stand tall. Rennicke has 321 career baseball wins to his credit as well as state titles in 1974 and 1978, not to mention that little storied field with his name on it on the border of Mequon and Thiensville.

While Puerling, whose honor came under the well-earned title of distinquished service, well, describing all the things he did in 31 years and still continues to do in retirement would take more space than reasonably allowed. Suffice it to say that his 14-year career as athletic director was a productive one and included vast renovations to the athletic plant, new standards for athletes to aspire to (and not just athletically) and just a few moments of success.

Such as 14 state team titles and 94 conference championships for the school.

It's like Benson said about Bahlman, you look for people who pop out at you. 

Award-winning sportswriter Frank Deford keeps only one work-related picture on his desk.

And it's not him at a Super Bowl, or a Final Four or a World Series. Heck, it's not even with his dear departed (and still badly missed friend) Al McGuire sitting at some fine Milwaukee-area greasy spoon enjoying a lunch.

No, it's of him dancing in a bar during the 1999 soccer World Cup.

Deford takes up the story thusly while making his incisive and occasionally sentimental speech at Marquette University the afternoon of Sept. 17. He had gone to Cameroon, home of the fabled "Indomitable Lions", during the World Cup to see if he could juxtapose the reality of the poverty and despair the people of the country face against the sheer joy they express in watching their team play in such a prestigious event

"And they score the first goal of the game," Deford said, "and this short, little fat lady who was standing next me just grabs me and starts dancing with me. My photographer was with me at the time and was able to catch the image. ..It was such a picture of unbridled joy. .. and I was so sad when they later lost knowing that they may never have a chance like that again, while we here in the states can always look forward to next year for our team."

"It was at that moment that I fully understood the power that sport has."

And with that Deford deftly linked Cameroon's obsession with one sport and one team with America's multiple allegiances and multiple obsessions and how it affects education and this country's future. He was speaking as part of the Axthelm series of lectures that Marquette sponsors annually. 

He effectively mixed drama with humorous asides such as when he pointed out that such is America's emotional entanglement with sports that: "It is reported that 81 percent of golfers would rather shoot par than spend a night with the most beautiful woman in the world. ..what a sad commentary."

Among other issues that he addressed were:

*An open concern about the boys of America, as more and more they are pushed into sports earlier and earlier ("By adults who should know better"), much to the detriment of their schooling.

He reported that at some point in the near future that nearly 67 percent of all college students will be women, a trend he viewed with horror.

*He also lamented and linked the declining state of serious journalism with the rapid downfall of newspapers. He talked about who will be out there to do the "gumshoe" investigative reporting that is needed to keep the powers that be that run our world honest.

"Sure, blogging is great, it's the return of the diary," he said, "but who's going to do the hard stuff (journalism) that gives the bloggers something to write about? I couldn't do what I do without them (investigative reporters). What's going to happen when they're gone?"

 *And the hypocrisy of college athletics.

"It (the tremendous emphasis colleges put on their sports teams) has grave and negative effects," he said. "Coaches and alumni lobby so hard on the behalf of their recruits. You don't see them do that for music majors."

And as added emphasis to that point he noted the Alabama football coach Nick Saban makes more in a year than all the scholarship money the state gives out in a year.

"Sports has two great myths," Deford said "The first is that of 'next year', there's always 'next year' and the second is that university presidents will finally clean up the mess that is college athletics... We're (the fans) all unindicted co-conspirators."

*And he also noted that the emphasis America gives to sports reaches all levels, including the White House, where on one occasion in the 1990s, he and his wife were at a reception where they were to meet President and Mrs.Clinton, but in a curious turn of events, it was First Lady Hillary Clinton who said "I'd know that voice anywhere."

But as Deford noted to great laughter: "The President didn't know me for jack".

His speech was not all doom and gloom. He ingratiated himself easily with the near-capacity crowd at Weasler Auditorium. Erudite and natty as expected in a black suit with a lavender tie, Deford acted every bit the Princeton man that he is but wasn't afraid to let out the slovenly sportswriter in him on occasion.

"I'm always intimidated to be in the bosom of academia," said the man who has been honored by close to a 100 universities for his award-winning commentaries, books and detailed reporting, "As one legendary coach who has been exiled to the wilds of West Texas said: "The best time in any sportwriter's life is the three years he spends in second grade.'"

He was of course referring to the well-known "friend" of media, national-championship winning basketball coach and noted chair-thrower Bobby Knight.

Deford also recalled loving details of his favorite interview McGuire, noting that Al always got interested in a story "like a car slowly coming to rest" and that no coach ever had a better exit (the national title in 1977) than he did.

And he linked this obsession to the rise and fall of sportswriting in this country. How it's been looked down upon by "serious" journalists as nothing but "play", but noting that that scorn was filled with envy because sportswriters can do away with some basic journalistic morays and develop their own strong narrative voice.

He spoke of the stereotypes that fill our minds when it comes to sportswriters and points out that some of them are dreadfully true.

"We are horrible dressers," he said. "You see us en masse and you are looking at the 'anti GQ'".

But sportswriters do serve a purpose, he said, as he sees the members of his profession helping make sense of the vast continuum that is the field itself.

"It's fun," he said. "People want to read it. It has competition, a denouement and a climax. Someone wins, someone loses. It's done by the young and the strong and because they are young they often say things that are the dreams of every journalist. ..It (sportswiritng) has even begun to affect political and entertainment writing."

And because sports is so universal, everyone in this country knows who you're talking about when you refer to Yogi (Berra: who famously responded to a friend he was driving with one time who said they were lost "Oh that's too bad, we were really making good time too.").

Or Ali (As in Muhummad, the world's most famous athlete) who Deford was with as part of a photo shoot of the champ a few years ago at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. Acknowledging that Ali was such a lightning rod during the Vietnam War, Deford was unsure of the response Ali would get from all those visiting the site with its long, striking black wall covered with the names of the fallen.

"But women ran to him and embraced him," Deford said. "They asked me to take their picture with him. I knew at that point that the war was finally over."

Moments like that Deford noted make sports "A unifying agent." Something that people can cling to when all else is going wrong.

 "For all its abuses," he said. "It is the ring that holds us together."

Give Wisconsin prep football coaches credit for something.

They may be slow to change sometimes, but when they see something work they copy it faster than Kinko's on an express delivery.

And if what we witnessed on opening weekend Aug. 28-29 was any sign of a trend, prepare for more passes, more strange formations, more wide receivers and more high-scoring games this fall than in the last five seasons combined, because the spread formation and all its wildly combustible variants have come to southeastern Wisconsin.

It was on the cover of Sports Illustrated a few weeks ago in its college preview issue.

"If it's good enough for Sports Illustrated, it's good enough for us," quipped 40-year veteran Germantown coach Phil Datka whose team is trying it out for the first time this fall. Datka, who started out in the run-based wishbone all those years ago, has adapted more than a few times in his illustrous career and it appears more than a few of his coaching comrades in southeastern Wisconsin have joined him in taking on some form of the high-speed confusion and entertainment that is the spread.

We got the first warning signs of this on Aug. 28, when Greendale and Milwaukee Lutheran, no strangers to the concept of the forward pass, filled the skies with 53 attempts. The Panthers' Chris Ridgway was almost crazy efficient as he hit 16 of 19 passes for three TDs and 214 yards as the Panthers pulled away for a 57-21 win.

But Community Newspapers-area aerialists were just getting started. In a high-powered non-conference match-up the next night that wasn't decided until almost the last play, New Berlin Eisenhower senior Niko Koshak completed only 13 of 36 passes, but they went for 258 yards and four TDs in a 38-35 defeat at the hands of the more ground-based D.C. Everest.

Then there was the latest quarterback du jour at Franklin, a team that has been pass-happy for years, and which showed the state an offense that is not "three-yards and a cloud of dust" can succeed when it beat Brookfield Central two years ago for a state division 2 title in what is now commonly referred to as the best championship game in the 32 years Wisconsin has been sponsoring football playoffs.

Saber triggerman Lance Baretz debuted with 349 yards and four TDs in Franklin's 58-26 rout of Burlington.

And there were others. Cudahy's James Hellmich completed 15 of 20 for 264 yards and a TD, while St. Francis' Cory Knapp was only eight of 11, but went for 185 yards and three scores and Whitefish Bay's Jimmy Sherburne completed 24 of 35 for 300 yards and two TDs. West Allis Central's Ryan Barwick also lit up Watertown for 267 yards and four TDs in a 40-6 rout for the Bulldogs.

Even traditionally ground-based powers as returning state runner-up Homestead have adopted some bits and pieces of the attack, as veteran quarterback Casey Barnes hit 10 attempts in 14 tries for 212 yards and two scores, including a 99-yarder to Mike Collins on the Highlanders first series of the season.

Then there was the tumult you heard out in Kettle Moraine as Cedarburg, which has made a very high living this past decade torturing the opposition with the "now you see it, now you don't" run-based double-wing attack went all pass-crazy. Quarterback Chip Rank threw three count-'em three TD passes as reciever Joey Fazio caught two of the scores and seven passes all told for 132 yards in a 45-38 free-for-all Bulldog victory.

Times were in the recent past, where the Bulldogs wouldn't throw for 132 yards in a season.

In short, if the ground is shifting in Cedarburg, then chances are there are going to be a lot more skyscrapers in football around here this season than earthmovers.

Prepare for some fun.

Many, many years ago, early into my first season working with state Hall of Fame football coach Jim Jeskewitz and his fine Menomonee Falls gridders, I wandered over to the high school cafeteria for a little event that he and assistant coach, business partner and old friend Bob Hessler were putting on.

They quaintly (and not without a substantial boulder of truth behind it) called it the "Mother's Football Clinic" and they told me they'd been doing it for years.

In short, it would help the parents of their players understand the basics of the fine manly art of knocking the other guy on his butt. From formations to positions, to why helmets are the way they are, to the nuances of the jockstrap (that alone could take hours) and right up to the arcane jargon and outright nonsense that sometimes goes into the quarterback's signals, Jeskewitz and Hessler went through it all.

Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and even some fathers and uncles who wanted to fine-tune their gridiron knowledge attended the affairs. Jeskewitz and Hessler would patiently explain things and no question was too basic or too silly to not be greeted with a polite and thoughtful answer.

In short, the programs were big hits.

Now more than 10 years into his retirement, village trustee, county supervisor and now "Grandpa" Jeskewitz has hauled out the old playbook and dusted off his charm to come up with a new set of "Mother's Football Clinics". Version 2.0 "hut-hut" of it will be held Monday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. in the high school cafeteria and all are welcome.

"We're going to try and keep it very basic," Jeskewitz said. "We did it for about 15 years until I stopped coaching and I've had a number of requests to bring it back. Mothers heard I did it and now a new generation of Moms want some help."

Jeskewitz will get help from former player and now current Falls assistant coach Erich Rutsch. Part of the incentive for Jeskewitz to do this again is that he's now helping out coaching with the fifth grade Junior Indians for whom his grandson is playing.

He's looking forward to the session in a big way.

"They're wiping off all the cobwebs," he said with a laugh, "and bringing back the old guy!"

This last Olympic blog of mine was going to focus largely on the inadequacies of the US track team (What, is the 400 meter length the only thing anyone can do correctly over here?) in comparison to the brilliance of the swim and even the fencing and target shooting squads (Davy Crockett would be jealous of the latter!), but the veteran, jaundice-eyed reporter in me called out to do something more important, more urgent than that.

I wanted to send an open letter to the world's fastest human: Usain Bolt of Jamaica.

So here goes:

Dear Mr. Bolt,

Please be clean, please be real.

And please don't view that opening line as a criticism, as a smack-faced, cynical, contemptuous slap in the face of your brilliance.

Just hear me out.

To say I was astonished, amazed, astounded and simply overwhelmed by your feats in the 100 and 200 and then again as part of an almost letter-perfect record-smashing 400 relay team was to say something like Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" is a nice painting. It just doesn't do any justice to you or your unparalleled talent. As a track junkie and a sprint relay disciple (Too many years being spoiled by Germantown, Nicolet, Homestead, Brookfield Central, Franklin and Menomonee Falls units at the WIAA state track meet made me thus) I was in seventh-heaven at your sheer, unbridled ability, which included casting aside rock-solid records like they were so many candy wrappers.

I, like many, didn't like your showboating at the end of the 100, but that was all right, you were just showing off to the world, but when you hammered your way through the finish line in the 200, taking down what my friend Homestead boys track coach Dan Benson said "was the one record he was certain would still be around when he died" (He was at the Atlanta Olympics when Michael Johnson set that coveted mark in 1996), all I could do was stand and clap quietly in front of my television in amazement.

Truly, you made yourself one for the ages.

Then you took several steps beyond even the historic, into the "once-in-a-lifetime" category. You deigned to run the third leg on Jamaica's 400 relay, not taking the coveted anchor spot, which was your right and the world's expectation. Instead, you gave it over to former world record holder in the 100 and your elder, Asafa Powell, whose history in big meets was not special, not very big at all.

You gave the stick to Powell with a huge lead and Powell exorcised a series of perplexing demons by carrying you and your teammates home, taking with him a strong 16-year old world record by an impressive .3 of a second. You chased Powell down the straightaway, your youthful exuberence combining with great national pride as your bounding, joyful steps fully confirmed what you had done.

Three races, three world records, three pieces of history that anyone who witnessed them could hardly ever forget.

Then in a final piece of simply perfect serendipity, you showed your heart to be even larger, by donating $50,000 to the victims of this spring's devastating Chinese eathquakes, which killed many 10s of thousands of people. You told everyone that you had had such a good time in China that you wanted to give back a little.

Amazing and utterly sublime!

So, Mr. Bolt with all this good will and grand endeavor firmly in hand and with many pocketfuls of money surely coming your way, I ask you again, please be clean. No steroids, no EPO, no human growth hormones. Remain unspoiled and break as many records as you can for as long as you can. Do many more good deeds and spread the good word about track, reminding people of its elegance, its simplicity and its sheer transformative powers when done at a fever pitch in the cauldron of marvelous competition.

Because the sport needs it.

Track, particularly in the US, has done everything it can to shoot itself in the foot in recent years. I remembered ruefully my astonishment at the grace and determination that a very young Marion Jones demonstrated in the 1992 US Trials in New Orleans. I thought she was for real: Smart, pretty and talented, only she was exposed this past spring as a fraud. She was found to be craven, small-minded and greedy as hell as her Olympic medals were stripped from her for rampant drug use. With disdain from the track world, hissing disgust from former teammates (who also lost medals as a result) and bankruptcy and jail staring her squarely in the face, many of us who once cheered her were forced to squirm through our own "Say it ain't so, Marion" moments.

So please Usain, I know it's a lot to ask, especially as you get older and the inevitable injuries come. Pressure from faster and younger people will force you to make hard decisions, but stay strong, be righteous. Not for me, not for the sport itself, but for the legions of fans you created in this fortnight of uncontained excellence. Do it for all the little kids who will have Usain "Lightning" Bolt posters on their walls in the coming next few years.

For them, be good, for them, be strong because they will follow your example.

For your current feats make you an icon of your age at the present moment, but you could be one for the history books if you are truly as grand, as true, as real as you appear to be.

Sincerely and with many thanks for a grand performance,

Steven L. Tietz

Track fan and student of history

Give NBC credit for its comprehensive coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

It used an array of satellite networks (Anyone for soccer on Telemundo? Cycling on MSNBC?), an army of technicians and almost everyone who's ever held a microphone in their hand and stood in front of a camera to cover the events as well as they could.

And they pulled it off largely without a hitch. Yes, there were limitations both subtle and overt placed on them by by the Chinese government and the IOC but the peacock network still gave us great stories, great material, and by gosh, if you wanted to see the fencers in their biological lab/spacesuit get-ups, well you were able to find them (love the red and green beeping lights on the helmets indicating a hit!).

We also got to know everything about Michael Phelps, his eating habits, his mom and his dog. Yes, he is the All-American superstar who lived up to all his hype and deserved every last sentence, paragraph or in the case of the wonderfully prepared and exuberent swimming colorman Rowdy Gaines, every marvelously hysterical exclamation. I tell you, because of Rowdy's enthusiasm and energy, no one will ever forget what it was like to watch the thrilling 400 freestyle relay or 100 butterfly races that were the most dramatic parts of Phelps' record gold medal sweep.

In fact, the swimming coverage was excellent from beginning to end, letting us in on the nuances and difficulties of being a swimmer from war-torn Zimbabwe, or the complicated love lives of swimmers from France and Italy, all without being smarmy or overly intrusive. We saw the wonderful Chinese reactions as they won their first gold medals in the sport, we saw every astounding nook and cranny of the amazing Water Cube itself. Excellent work indeed!

Not so the case in the hopelessly overexposed women's gymnastics programming. Yes, I know it's a ratings winner for NBC each and every time but did we really have to see endless minutes of faux warm-ups or gold medalist Shawn Johnson repeatedly wiping her hands with chalk? And please, please will NBC fire analyst Tim Daggett or stuff him in a sack or at least just get him to tone down his jingoistic paranoia that had everyone in the viewing audience thinking that there was a conspiracy theory out to deny the overprivileged Americans their rightfully and tearfully earned gold medals.

Look, I commend the gymnastics coverage team for its constant questioning of whether the Chinese gymnasts were indeed old enough to compete (honestly, some of those girls looked to be no more than 12 years old) and NBC central, led by the steady hand of lead broadcaster without peer Bob Costas, was right on top of things when breaking news was being relayed late in the second week highlighting possible discrepencies in the passports of those athletes supplied by the Chinese government.

But when it was all said and done, it was all just overkill, downgraded further by Daggett's endlessly shrill declarations. We would see what looked to be a perfectly executed stunt only to have him exclaim "Oh, that's a huge deduction!" without explaining what it was the person did wrong, or by getting an explanation that was hopelessly jargon-laden and confused.

Call me biased, but I found the disciplined and intense work of the Chinese men's gymnastics team endlessly fascinating and far more interesting. Fortunately, in this regard, the NBC crew did give them neccesary and well-deserved credit. Let's face it, with their coach saying he'd all but throw himself off the Great Wall if they didn't claim every medal in sight (and they nearly did!), the pressure was on those guys and they came through!

Oh and one more thing in the gymnastics arena. I still continue to find rhythmic gymnastics utterly and completely ridiculous. Ribbons? hoops? Uh-uh, no sir! An art-form it may be, but this ludicrous demonstration by girls wearing more hairspray and makeup than Joan Rivers has used in her life is nothing resembling a sport.

If the IOC can dump softball and baseball, then it can dump this too!

Onto more pluses. Kudos and big hurrays to the track coverage team. Though they were constantly bumped around, delayed and truncated by NBC's endless attempts to wring every last second of ratings victory out its gymnastics coverage long after that competition had ceased, the track coverage team, paced by the brilliance of analyst and former medal-winning sprinter Ato Boldon, was superb in its determination to provide us with the broadest possible array of events.

Boldon was spot-on time and again, both praising and berating record-setting sprinter Usain Bolt after his zephyr-swift 100 meters triumph. Boldon was then dead-on enthusiastic about Bolt's ecstatic 200 showing saying "That the record I thought would be there when I die has now been broken!" And it was skill, blended with personal experience that allowed Boldon to make such incisive and precise comments.

Because Boldon was in that historic 200 race back in the 1996 Atlanta Games when Michael Johnson and everyone in the track world thought Johnson had buried the record in the event for all-time. I'll never forget Boldon, walking off that track in disgust after the race, thinking that he had run so poorly, only to glance at the reader-board sign announcing Johnson's Herculean feat of a new world record. Boldon just stared and stared at the sign. It was then that he realized that he had not run so badly, but that Johnson had run so well.

That kind of insight is worth its weight in gold and Boldon used it to frame historic moments in a manner both impassioned and artful.

It was another good catch by NBC officials to cut over to Johnson, who was doing some broadcast work of his own for another agency, and get his astonished but almost laughing in disbelief response to Bolt's feat in the 200.

Boldon and the team also did very good work in detailing the sub-par efforts of the US track squad, including its twin debacles of having both the men's and women's 400 relay teams dropping the batons in the preliminaries.

Some quibbles in the track arena, however, included the endless teasing of the finals of the 1,600 relay races on Saturday night. NBC kept saying they were coming up soon from about 6 p.m. on only to run them at close to 10 p.m. If I really wanted that kind of teasing I'd relive my childhood memories. And I know the decathlon was delayed by weather problems but we could have given more than just snippets of Bryan Clay's workmanlike excellence in claiming the gold in that event. He deserved better than just an exhausted rendering of his last race 1,500-meter efforts.

Onto the studio itself. Bob Costas just continues, with every eloquent utterance, to prove himself the rightful heir to the late Jim McKay, as the only man who should be allowed to head up an Olympics broadcast. He is class personified, with a wit and a sense of gravitas befitting someone who got far more sleep and rest than he probably did. He could slide from sharing laughs and indignities with Bela Karoyli to talking with compassion and grace with the coach of the US men's volleyball team, whose father-in-law was killed in a random and senseless act of violence at the start of the games. 

Costas makes doing the hard things look as easy as us pouring a cup of coffee in the morning. Don't ever get old Bob!

Also, Costas' late-night replacement Mary Carillo should get points from everyone who stayed up with her. She didn't get the glamour events but she had a dignity and a sense of humor about her that was a welcome breath of fresh air. Besides, no one should ever question her courage again after watching her try to eat the scorpion on a stick that she got from a street vendor. Gnarly heavyweight wrestlers would have fainted at the prospect!

And one last final round of applause for any number of the small, funny, lovely things that NBC did well over the 17 days of coverage.

From the touching but unsentimental story of the South African free-water swimmer with only one leg, to the heartbreaking tale of the winning German weightlifter, who touchingly displayed the picture of his late wife on the medal stand, there were far more many things done right than wrong in the 17 days of broadcasting.

No more so than the mention of the hilarious television watching escapades of everyone in Iceland come that country's participation in the team handball final. Every television in the country was apparently glued to that last match with France (and NBC had the statistics to prove it).

Alas, the men of ice and volcanoes lost to the men of fine cuisine and transportation strikes.

Better luck next time gentlemen, and see you in Vancouver!

After the amazingly dramatic Beijing Olympics, the one of Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Shawn Johnson and the wonderful polyglot, record-setting number of nations and cultures that won medals (87), it's time to take stock and reflect on the cultural and political impact of these astonishing games.

Plus maybe discuss a little sports too.

Over the next few days, I want to put together a series of postings listing my hoorays, my concerns and flat-out astonishment at some of what went on over those remarkable 17 days. First of all, I'd like to take a look at the cultural, economic and political impact of what a large chunk of what the world bore witness to.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate the Chinese people themselves for the expansive range of energy and emotion that they put into these games. On top of the $43 billion that was invested, the displacement of people left, right and center that made possible the creation of astounding venues like the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest, and the virtual army of translators, volunteers and vendors who put their life and their hopes on hold, there was a nation collectively holding its breath in anticipation.

For how would the world, sitting in front of televisions, computers and cell phones from Australia to Iceland view them? Would it be the traditionally narrow and closed society that we would see or would we see the energy, the vision and the potential only a nation of 1.3 billion people can provide? It was decidedly the latter, as area and national and international media reported the people they encountered on the street were only helpful, enthusiastic and eager to show the pride they have in their nation and to make their visit more expansive than it was expensive (a neat trick indeed).

Well, hooray for them. China is truly the engine that will drive the world in this century and from the resplendent and imaginative opening and closing ceremonies, it is clear that this vast turbocharger of a country will only continue to push the edge of the envelope in so many ways in terms of science, economics and culture. It is so much more of a nation than just cheap, leaded toys, pollution and a repressive government.

The world can only benefit from an inclusive and visionary view of China. It needs to be embraced, to be treated as an equal among nations and be given a seat at the table, to show that it can truly be a leader in a century where the world will have to urgently deal with the extremely difficult problems of global warming, over-population and religious and ethnic intolerance.

And these games were the formal opening of the door, the proper first salutations in that process. The possibilities are endless.

But only if certain things start to happen. First, the Chinese government and the global system of business have to start acting like responsible grown-ups. For all its so-called "flexibility" the Chinese government showed far too much of the tight-fisted, narrow-minded zenophobia it has been known for over the past 60 years. Press freedom was reduced as websites concerning Darfur and Tibet were shut off. An "offical protest" area was set up (well away from any public venues) but none of the 77 requests for protest permits were granted. And anyone caught trying to enlighten people on the streets about concerns ranging from religious freedom to political prisoners was promptly arrested and deported.

Promises were made by the Chinese government - only to be broken.

And the worst thing about it was, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) largely looked the other way. It took the money, the great ratings and the amazing athletes and ran like hell. It did not hold the government's feet to the fire and force it to try and do better, to rise above the paranoia and need for control.

That lost opportunity is almost a tragedy.

The door was open, but all we saw of China's house was the foyer. And the business community was a complicit watchman. Yes, corporate responsibility is first to the shareholder and to the profit motive. Our own nation would not be the great place it is without that idea firmly in place. And don't even mention the exorbitant fees the companies had to pay to the Chinese government for the right to operate during the games.

Yes, they had money to recoup.

But that being said, powerful international sponsors and advertisers like Visa, Coca-Cola and McDonald's (among many) could have helped force our way into China's house a little more. They could have used their significant economic clout to wedge the door open a little wider to let us have a more inclusive look: fading paint, cracks in the ceiling, squeaky floors and all. They could have showed that they got the message that Bill Gates and other titans of industry are trying to promote: that capitalism can truly be compassionate and visionary.

Instead, all we got was a high-powered official from McDonald's on the ABC Evening News on the eve of the games saying nothing more than they're out there to applaud the sportsmanship and of course "promote their brand". In short, don't ask us to think too hard or risk our economic necks.

It was a few more "Happy Meals" sold and one great big opportunity at vision and creativity lost. One can only hope that the Chinese government will see beyond its own small-mindedness and with or without international prodding, come to address the great problems it does face, like economic inequality, pollution and general environmental degradation.

We probably won't have these kinds of problems at the upcoming winter games in Vancouver or the 2012 summer games in London. Those will be held in  democratically-elected regimes and it will be relatively easy for media and protest groups to spread their wings and be creative.

But it probably won't be long again before a questionable government with doubtful tactics and policies gets ahold of an Olympic Games. The lure of exposure, national pride and rejuvenation is just too strong and even notably secretive regimes (Russia anyone?) will find the chance of people opening some of their dusty closets a small price to pay for an opportunity to soar with the eagles of the world for a few weeks.

Before that happens, however, it would be nice to see the IOC and world business show a little imagination and backbone and give those governments marching orders about what is expected from them in terms of freedom, opportunity and access before they even think about being awarded a Games.

Because as these recent Olympics show, it's much too late in the world game for business as usual.

****Wednesday****

-The highs and lows of the coverage itself.

To find the memorial honoring the life of the late track official, coach and well-known state meet announcer William H. "Bill" Cross on July 9 at St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, all one had to do was follow the laughter.

And that came as no surprise to anyone who knew Cross, who passed away on July 1 at the age of 84, because from listening to the people who were in attendance and looking at the photo montages honoring all that he was, he took joy in everything he did.

Cross spent many years as a teacher, coach and administrator in various Wisconsin high schools but is best known for his work at Whitefish Bay and Oostburg (he also spent some time at Menomonee Falls North in the late 1970s). It was during this time that the Milwaukee Washington High School graduate (his letters for basketball, football and track were put on prominent display) developed his reputation as a man who would do anything to promote the sport of track.

From leading the Whitefish Bay boys team to the state Class A title in 1962 to his founding of the now ubiquitous state honor roll where fans can see how their local heroes rank with the rest of Wisconsin's best, he was easy to find and a welcome face in the track world.

He also served as an official, making sure that meets were fairly and efficiently run, but it was his many years time serving as public address announcer at the WIAA State meets each June that most will remember him by. His careful pronunciations in a smooth baritone voice were always welcoming and reassuring grace notes. This was the case even when he was asking people to squeeze in a little tighter in the grandstand because seating was getting scarse or when he kindly requested fans not to open up their umbrellas in the rain because it would block the view of those behind them.

His love affair with track started in high school when he was a tall, strapping athlete at Washington, where he was a key member of the Purgolders quick sprint relay teams. In his memorial, a fabulous and very large newspaper photo of the day shows him as part of a 220 race coming around the turn, determination and effort written all over his face.

But there was much more to Bill Cross than his love for track. His memorial board was littered with photos of he with his late wife Ginny as well as their children Nancy (Daniel) Herrell, William R. Cross and Jill (Duane) Du Mez and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Friends said he and Ginny always enjoyed the scarier rides at the state fair midway each summer.

There was also a carefully folded American flag and a citation honoring his service in the Army Air Force during World War II. He was also a man who liked to stay current and so a July 9 Journal-Sentinel paper and a recent Sports Illustrated magazine were also on display.

But to the end, he was a man of the track, sometimes running in circles, but always making it to the finish line. A small, but telling photo in the memorial telegraphed that point clearly. It was taken in his front yard by the mailbox, obviously well into his retirement. A home-made wooden sign near the driveway said "The Last Lap".

Even in his passing, Cross is still giving to the sport. Memorials to the Zilber Family Hospice or the Oostburg High School Track Boosters are welcome.

Together Brown Deer sprinters Justin Austin and Kaya Senaya have 12 WIAA state Division 2 track titles and four division records.

Senaya has also posted the fastest 100-meter time ever by a Wisconsin girl when she turned in an 11.78 second-clocking at a Junior Olympics meet last summer.

Both have secured high-profile NCAA Division I scholarship offers, Austin to Kentucky and Senaya to Wisconsin.

So what are the motivations of these two once-in-a-lifetime athletes as they approach their final WIAA State Meet in La Crosse on Friday and Saturday, May 30 and 31?

To be known as the best in the division anyone has ever known.

"I still want the records," Austin said. "That's what I'm praying for. That's what I've been working for. Man, I can't believe I'm already a senior. It's all gone by so fast I can hardly remember that trip four years ago (when he was part of a record-setting 400 relay team)."

Both Austin and Senaya will defend their titles in the 100 and 200 dashes and anchor their respective 400 relay teams (the girls are defending champions). They will also compete in the long jump. Austin will enter healthy after an injury-plagued junior campaign, while Senaya is running her best times of the year after battling illness and back problems.

"I'm the defending champ and I would like to finish my career as a champion," Senaya said. "Other people's opinions don't really concern me all that much at this point, so I'm going to do what I need to make myself and the team successful."

And success is on the minds of a lot of North Shore, Menomonee Falls and Germantown area athletes as they enter the annual test.

Among the most compelling, is three-time state runner-up Kate Lydy in Germantown. the senior earned silver medals in the state 1,600 last spring and then book-ended that with a similar finish in state cross country last fall. She, like last year is doing a heady triple with the 1,600 and 3,200 open races and the 3,200 relay on her docket. The school-record relay will be the seventh-fastest going into state and she has the fourth-fastest 3,200 time, but like last year, she'll have to sneak a top slot in the 1,600 coming out of the slow heat. Warhawk assistant coach Andy Bavlnka is known for training his athletes very hard in the regular season and bringing them down for a fast taper like Lydy's exceptional 1,600 time last season. Competitors would be unwise to look past her.

A similar story is coming out of Whitefish Bay. A year ago, Megan Palmer took the state by storm with a great cross country season and a solid track campaign. Last fall, she helped lead the Blue Dukes cross country team to a heart-breakingly close runner-up finish at state but the end of her campaign was marked by fatigue and slightly sub-par (only by her extremely high standards) performances in the sectional and state runs

She has come back in track with a vengeance  this spring, looking fresh as a daisy, using a devastating kick to dominant opponents in the 800 and 1,600 races. She will look to lead the school-record (and that's saying something) Blue Duke 3,200 relay to a medal as well as earning a medallion herself in the 800, where she has the second-fastest time going in.

"We're going to taper a little and then get ready to finish strong," said the mature-beyond-her-years sophomore. "We're ready to go."

Also ready to go and breathing a sign of relief is the boys 800 relay team at Menomonee Falls. The Indians have had an amazing record of success in the event since 2003. They've posted superior sub-1:30 times in five of the six seasons (four of which have landed in the state's all-time top 50) and have earned three state meet medals for their efforts, but going into last week's sectional meet at Germantown, the Indian relay has also had disconcertingly bad luck at sectionals in even numbered years, not being able to finish races due to bad hand-offs.

But the Falls team anchored by three-event state qualifier and two-time medalist Washington Farrington broke the jinx last week at sectional by using safe but aggressive passes to finish with the state's second-best time (only behind peerless Milwaukee Vincent). Both Farrington and Indian relay ace Mark Van Alstyne noted that coaches never told them of the bad karma surrounding the even-numbered years but still grinned at their good fortune.

Falls coach Mike Burling said he's debating whether to try and stretch the passes further in an effort to pass Vincent. He's unsure whether it would be worth the effort, losing out on a chance at any kind of medal with a mistake.

Meanwhile, Indian girls hurdler Cally Burrows is hoping to improve on last year's state runner-up finish in the 300 lows. But to do that she'll have to beat her old friend and barrier-busting equal Lindsay Schwartz of Watertown, who beat her in both the highs and the lows at the sectional meet last week. Burrows has a 2-1 advantage in 300 hurdle races against Schwartz this season, but the tall and motivated Schwartz is making a heavy play for state female athlete of the year after posting the best times in the state in both hurdle races and anchoring the Goslings' 1,600 relay to the top seed going into Friday's heats. Just for fun, she's also advanced in the high jump.

One fun story to watch include watching siblings Lauren and Justin Barber of Homestead compete in the weights this weekend. Big sister Lauren is a multi-time state qualifier and has the third-best effort in the shot put going into Friday's festivities. But little brother (in age only) Justin surprised everyone by coming up with a runner-up sectional toss in the discus to earn his own state berth.

There was no open discussion of sibling rivalry, but later Justin was heard to say something to the effect of "Hey, I'm just trying to keep up with her!" 

On a more serious note, injuries are part of life at state-qualifying time, crushing many dreams, making many re-assess their goals. To that end, the swift Nicolet girls sprint squad is being forced to put all its eggs in one very quick and pretty basket. The third-seeded 800 relay team anchored by Roni Thompson was to have been joined by the equally quick 400 crew, but at sectional, a faulty hand-off at the end led to its demise. That's a real disappointment for Thompson, who was having a sensational season before a recent groin pull slowed her down. Coach Mike McKenna said that Thompson has been fighting gamely through the injury, but noted that accomodations have had to be made.

The Knights under McKenna, have earned at least one medal in the last eight state meets. A ninth straight year, especially with a relay team crowding the awards stand, would be a welcome sight to him.

A feel-good story was how exuberent Germantown boys track coach Todd Brawner was after his senior-laden squad saw not one, not two, but three relay teams reel in state berths under the qualifying gun thanks in part to determined anchor runs by Kyle Sich. The Warhawks had been the 800-pound gorilla of the North Shore for the better part of this decade before being supplanted by Homestead and Port Washington this year. But they flew under the radar at the sectional and earned six state berths, including a stunning third by Dexter Schleis in the 300 intermediate hurdles. Dexter is the younger brother of former state high hurdle champ Adam Schleis and when he surged across the line in third, Brawner bounced across the infield as fast as he could hugging everyone in sight.

It was a rare display of raw emotional release that few people had ever seen out of the veteran coach, whose grin was as wide as the setting sun that evening.

It's a feeling that no doubt many in La Crosse this weekend will try to bottle and unleash at just the right moment.

Reporters have a love/hate relationship with the long-term success of any athletic program on any level.

On first glance, you love the consistency, the standard of excellence that is set and the glowing historical references to teams past and present it elicits.

But on the other hand, it can get boring after a time, with the luster of repeated success straining and dulling the vocabulary and the imagination of even the most literate of my lot.

And not that I have even the vaguest of ill-wishes against the Germantown boys track team, the Homestead boys golf squad or the Homestead or Whitefish Bay girls soccer teams, but the fact that those long-term success stories did not walk away with league titles this spring, as they have grown accustomed to, is a marker of the growth of other programs in the area.

Of progress.

That's because the other teams have seen these legendary programs' dominance as a tool to fuel their own fire, and as a result they were able to blow some fresh air into potentially stagnant situations. And what was even more refreshing was the sense of perspective and history that came from the mouths of those replaced at the top.

In boys track, first Homestead and Port Washington tied at the league relays meet to end Germantown's five-plus year lock on North Shore Conference events and then Port edged Homestead to officially crown a new king in the league outdoor two weeks ago.

 "We actually had an OK meet," Germantown coach Todd Brawner said of the league outdoor. "It's just that over the years, we always had so much depth, it was like a chorus line. I know we're a little bit on the back-end of all that, but I still love these kids. It's a little disappointing of course, but I've had more fun personally than I've had in a long time and the kids have had fun too."

About the same time, Whitefish Bay ended Homestead's decade-plus lock on the league golf crown, though the inexperienced Highlanders did prevent the Blue Dukes from recording a perfect sweep of league meets this season by stealing away with their 16th straight North Shore 18-hole finale title.

"We actually have an incredible team," Highlander coach Steve O'Brien said. "Our team GPA could wipe out almost anybody elses and they've just been a coaches' dream. But we never compare one team to the next. The history itself is nice to look at but that's all it is, history. We don't try to add onto the pressure the kids are already feeling themselves. We just try to improve and get better."

And getting better is something that the Germantown girls soccer team has been doing for quite some time now, as with a recent 1-0 victory over defending state champion Homestead, the Germantown girls soccer team made history for the school as it earned the first-ever league title in the sport for either a boys or girls squad.

In this particular instance, the grateful attitude of winning co-coach Steve Sperl is instructive. The win over Homestead clinched a tie for the title for the Warhawks. An inspired rout of Grafton a week later gave Germantown a perfect run through the league race and sent the nine-person senior class out as ultimate winners. Gave them the chance to feel the same joy that had previously belonged only to a select few.

"We worked to make sure we finished what we started," Sperl said. "Homestead is still Homestead and they haven't dropped a level. And this game (over Grafton) was very neat. The kids understood what it meant to go 7-0 (in conference) to be outright champs for the first time. They wanted to start something completely new."

And with the shine of their titles still bright in the spring sun, you won't hear talk of empire from these newly-minted title holders, because they know how tough it is to win just one of these things. They know how good the competition is in the North Shore.

"We want to win it, no doubt about that," Bay golf coach Dave Johnson said, "but we want it to be competitive. ..We've always had a lot of good, strong players in this league and we don't root against other players. We want to win against good competition, because no one wins if other teams (in the league) are floundering." 

When I was about nine or 10, I watched my first Kentucky Derby on a grainy color television in my parents family room in Menomonee Falls.

The mud, the dirt, the announcer's increasing intensity as the horses wheeled their way around the track ("and down the stretch they come!"), it was pretty heady stuff for a kid who was just on the edge of figuring out his professional sports allegiances (and they're not what you think they might be) and who was still open to everything that was new and interesting.

Besides, my awareness reached full bright light during that last truly great period (1968-78) of horse-racing's Triple Crown (including the Preakness and the Belmont). Mighty handsome beasts like Forward Pass, Majestic Prince, Seattle Slew, the inseparable Affirmed and Alydar, and the king of them, all the incomparable Secretariat, were all filtered through my increasingly distracted and complex sports library. Having top-notch writers like William Nack and Frank Deford chronicle these pieces in the at-the-time still dominant print media never got old either 

In short, I was spoiled rotten. But as that golden age passed and my interests became more varied and life more complex (college, work, women) horse-racing passed from being one of the items front and center to a piece of trivia (Q: Who rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973? A: Ron Turcotte).

But every spring, I would casually listen for results of the major prep races (the Arkansas and Santa Anita Derbys) and I would cast about for a name and a horse I would like. I had no rhyme or reason behind this but one thing was certain, I almost never picked a long-shot. I would also never get as involved as I was as a kid, but I would still watch the races with more than passing interest.

Literature and movies like the great "Sea Biscuit" book of a few years ago helped keep me within shouting distance too.

And then came Barbaro, the 2006 golden boy, the slayer of the finest Kentucky Derby field in 40 years by the widest margin in 60 years. The tragic hero who galvanized a nation with his brave fight for survival after breaking down in the first few strides in the Preakness.

That event made me as sick and sad about any sporting event in my 26-year career. Such promise, such energy, such personality all gone. All a big "What-if?"

But what made him truly great were the nine months that followed, where he bucked impossible odds to try and survive his devastating injury. Thousands of letters, notes, boxes full of goodies landed on his stable's doorstep. Whole schools would gather together to send out mammoth get-well cards. Kids by the hundreds created hopeful, happy pictures in his honor.

That the injuries and subsequent surgeries proved to be too much for him and resulted in his being put down created a lake-full of tears (including a few of my own). The story was well-told in a cable documentary a year ago and is touched upon again in Brad and John Hennegan's brilliant and touching documentary about the 2006 Derby called "The First Saturday in May".

Here the Hennegans, in a taut, seamless 95-minutes, detail the passion, the gritty, noisesome detail, the ups, the downs, the hopes and dreams of six trainers and their horses as they try to qualify for that race-to-end-all-races. For you see, getting to the Derby is like finding a needle in a haystack no matter how talented the horse, no matter how resourceful the trainer.

Simply put, there are 40,000 thoroughbred colts born each year and about 23,000 of them make it to a track, but only 20 of them can qualify for the Derby.

So you watch with fascination and awe as underdog Frank Amonte, with basically his one-man band in New York and his striking grey "Achilles of Troy", try and succeed at getting noticed. On the other end of the spectrum, you have American trainer Kiaran McLaughlin work with the oil-rich rulers of Dubai on getting the friendly and gentle Jazil ready for a run for the roses. Life isn't all flowers and easy resources for McLaughlin as he battles a diagnosis of MS.

You also see long-time Arkansas trainer Bob Holthus, now in his 70s, get his "Dream Horse" in Lawyer Ron and observe as the courageous Dan Hendricks, limited physically to life in a motorized wheelchair as a result of a dirt-bike accident several years ago, but not limited in his outlook or presepctive, take Brother Derek on a clear path to Kentucky. You also have golf-playing, tocacco-chewing dry wit Dale Romans drive Sharp Rumor on a rough-edged ride to Louisville.

But it's Mike Matz and the storied Barbaro you're drawn to everytime they grace the screen. From Barbaro's stunning early victories, to his occasionally high-strung antics, to the remarkable small, quiet scene where Matz bucks up the courage of his small son to gently stroke the just-awakening Barbaro before a chilly morning of training. It's sequences like that latter episode that made people fall in love with this horse. The child slowly gains confidence as Barbaro warms up and gently looks over his shoulder appreciatively at the child's sincere ministrations.

The Hennegans shot almost 500 hours of footage and followed these horses all over the world. We see the trainer's families and support networks and get a hint of their own doubts and fears. They voice the uniform salute of "You don't know how hard he's worked to get here"  for each trainer. And strangely enough, you suspend your disbelief and take it in as the God's-Honest-Truth.

For to be perfectly honest, would any of us like to muck out hundreds of pounds of dung-strewn straw before dawn every morning or risk getting kicked in the face re-shoeing an occasionally petulant 1,000-pound animal?

I don't think so.

Especially for such an ephemeral and hard to reach reward, because as we see, months and years of work can dissolve to tears of despair in the space of two minutes. That's what the Derby will do to people,

For every smiling face we see on the Matz family, there are 10 dejected and stunned looks from the supporters of the others. People in all their Derby finery and attitude (the hat here is truly an artform) simply can't believe that its come to all this: a double-digit finish, a dismayed and mud-streaked jockey trying to explain to a grim trainer what happened and then that terrifying v