Following tournament play, Golden Belt basketball teams are now in the “sprint to the finish” with the “finish” being Sub-State and State Championship play. Area teams returned to league action this week. Sub-State play for all teams is only 30 days away.  
For most ball clubs in the area it is Alpha and Omega. In most locales you’ll seldom find where both the boys and girls are winning. The exception being Central Plains where both the guys and gals are flirting with all-winning seasons. What’s in the water at Central Plains? The food? The coaching? Perhaps just coincidence, perhaps not.
In Great Bend the ladies are having an excellent season while the boys struggle with only 3 wins. Ditto for the Larned Indians. The ladies have three wins going into the start of this week while the boys are 9-4. Hoisington’s boys are sub .500 while the Lady Cardinals have compiled a solid 9-4.  Also in Ellinwood there is a huge gap in wins between the guys and gals as the Eagles’ boys have raced out to a 10-4 start while the Ladies have struggled with only 2 wins.
It is not uncommon for a school, a city, to have unbalanced success between boys and girls’ teams but, gee, it seems out of kilter this year!  That old saying, “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” tells us that, hey, things are different between the sexes. “Vive le difference” we might add, but wouldn’t it be fun if more of our schools had winning boys AND girls teams?
Okay Mars. Okay Venus. Put the dang ball in the basket!
Missouri is losing the St.Louis Rams football team. They are moving to Los Angeles. They played in Los Angeles before they played in St. Louis. They played in Cleveland before they moved to Los Angeles. If you look up the word GYPSY in the dictionary you might find a picture of this NFL team. Then again, you might find the entire National Football League roster of teams there!
The NFL has told the San Diego Chargers that they too can move to Los Angeles and live in/play in the same stadium. That’s kind of like buying a new house for your new bride and telling her that some other woman would also be living with you there! Kinky! Showing a new-found amount of intelligence, the ownership of the Chargers has now stated that they will stay in San Diego and try to “work things out” for a new stadium and a better deal.
All of this, of course, is about money. The NFL teams try to strong arm these cities for more money, new stadiums, better concessions and to make the taxpayers foot the bill while they rake in millions. I am glad St. Louis said no to the Rams and let them go. California deserves them and they deserve California! San Diego deserves better than they’ve received from the ownership of the Chargers. They’ve teased and whined for years that they would move unless the local taxpayers filled the candy bag to overflowing!
This could be/should be a great opportunity for the Kansas City Chiefs to spread their footprint into a bigger, more populous area. Eastern Missouri has not been a stronghold for the Chiefs. Now, perhaps, they can gain some new fans in that part of the world. By adding the St. Louis market to their television market the Chiefs become bigger and better.
Speaking of the NFL, this is Super Duper Bowl week. Sunday the Carolina Panthers take on the Old Man from the mountains. Peyton Manning vs. Cam Newton. Youth vs. Wisdom. Hype it how you want, defense usually wins these games and that tips the needle to the Broncos. Denver 30, Carolina 27.