BY MIKE MARZOLF
Special to the Tribune
Boy what a win over Oklahoma. Oh, that was a couple of weeks ago for the Kansas men’s basketball team. It was also the last time the Jayhawks played well. There have been a couple of wins since then but it hasn’t been pretty.
Hopefully it is just the basketball flu. A couple weeks of not playing well in the grind of the conference season. Wayne Seldon is back to the Wayne Seldon of last year. Frank Mason, the pit bull himself, is playing more like a Chihuahua.
There is no need to push the panic button – yet. The flu usually last a couple weeks. Hopefully the latest outing – a good ol’ country beating behind the barn by Oklahoma State – is just the medicine the Jayhawks needed going forward.
Prep thoughts
Props to Coach Mike Perry and his Great Bend High bowling teams. The Panthers just come off wins at Garden City Tuesday with the boys winning by the absolute narrowest of margins – 2919-2918 over the defending WAC champions.
That is really quite remarkable. Think about it. Nearly 3000 pins and it comes down to a single pin to determine the winner. Jacob Holden paced the boys with a 600 series, bowling a 623 to win individual honors. Great Bend is 13-9 in the WAC standings after the 6-5 win. Earlier the Panther boys beat Hays, 7-4.
For the girls it was the Allie Brodrick show. The junior was dazzling. How about 216-203-257. That’s right 257 in the final game. A 676 series. The Great Bend girls currently lead the WAC after the 9-2 win over the Buffaloes. Great Bend is a 17-5 in the WAC. Good stuff.
The teams will be at home next week when Liberal and Holcomb visit Great Bend. It will be the first home match of the season and will start at 2:30 p.m. at Walnut Bowl.
Former athlete/coach update
Veronica Campbell-Brown is perhaps the most famous on the list of former Cougars. She is still running competitively and is currently training in an effort to make it to her fifth Olympic Games later this year. That’s right fifth. Her first in 2000 was as a member of the relay team before she ever got to Great Bend. She as ran individually the last three as well as continued to run in relays. She is among the most decorated female sprinters in history.
As her running career is winding to a close, she has turned her attention to some other projects. One of those is the VCB Foundation. Its purpose is to make a difference in the life of young Jamaican girls. The foundation was established in 2011 by her and her husband, another former Cougar, Omar Brown. She gives a portion of her race fees each year to the foundation’s cause.
This year’s fund-raising 5K is set for Jan. 31 in her hometown in Jamaica. Good for you, Veronica.
Around campus
Welding is here. The College has added welding to its curriculum thanks to the desires of industries in the area. The welding field is growing with the expected labor needs to increase by nearly nine percent in the next five years.
The new lab is in place on campus and the Great Bend Chamber will join Barton for a coffee and ribbon cutting next week. The event will take place Jan 28 at 9:30 a.m. in room T-172. Come join the fun and have some coffee and food as well as win door prizes.
And finally
Birthdays. Everyone has them. To stop having them isn’t good. I just recently completed another trip around the sun. That morning I actually forgot it was my birthday until Katelyn told me Happy Birthday.
That is a long ways from my youth when you woke up not just knowing it was your birthday but had plans and was excited.
There are still plans on occasions for my birthday, they just start and end earlier in the day.
I’ve reached that age where they tell you jokes about the candles on the cake. You know, ‘it’s okay to light the candles now, we all have a glass of water in our hands’. Or ‘you know you getting old when the candles cost more than the cake’.
Fortunately, I’m told, age is all in your mind. I just wish someone would tell my body that. It seems to do things a little slower now days.
Some other signs I’m getting old – an all-nighter now is not having to get up and use the restroom at night, conversations with my friend Steve revolve around ailments, I use words like dad gummit and whippersnapper, and I tune in the easy-listening music channel by choice.
They say when you get older three things happen. The first is the memory goes. Hmmm, I can’t remember the other two.
Anyway, I’m getting older. I know that. It’s the better of the two options, though.
