Is there a roofer in the house?

Here's hoping that the leaks that keep springing up and dropping water onto Les Rogers Court get repaired soon.

Not because the basketball games that are being moved over to the middle school aren't as fun. Quite the contrary. Watching the Sandpoint and Moscow students waging a spirit war last week resembled basketball from a bygone era, right down to the elevated bleachers that stand a good 15 feet above the floor. The old gym has much different acoustics and amplifies crowd noise to an ear-ringing decibel level. It gives the games a throwback, old-school feel that a newer gymnasium can't.

An added bonus is that Sandpoint High School Athletic Director Cheryl Klien can keep her sanity.

Each time a varsity game is moved from its original venue, it sets off a chain of events that could best be described as an athletic director's worst nightmare. The JV or freshman games that were supposed to be at the middle school must now be moved somewhere else or rescheduled altogether. Then, transportation has to be arranged for said reschedule, future reschedules have to be fit into both teams' existing schedules (much easier said than done), referees have to be alerted, and also rescheduled. I'm barely scratching the headache surface here, but you get the point.

Nice job making it all work Cheryl, and here's hoping an ace roofer can finally figure this thing out.

Lickety-split

Here's hoping that the North Star League coaches are paying attention and recognizing something other than points when they name their all-league team.

If there is a faster or quicker basketball player in this region than Clark Fork's Rayna Allen I have yet to see her. The Wampus Cat guard has more thefts to her credit than a kleptomaniac's cache. She has had as many as twelve steals in one game this year, and has yet to have less than five. Allen doesn't need to score a point to have a monstrous effect on a game, much the same way that Dennis Rodman did. Make a lazy skip pass and there is Allen streaking the other way for an uncontested lay up. Let your guard down while dribbling around her and you may as well hand her the ball. Oh yeah, once she steals it and takes off down the court, don't bother chasing her, you won't catch her. She could outlast the Energizer Bunny when it comes to energy. If hustle were points she would lead the league in scoring.

Here's hoping something that doesn't show up in the stats, namely defense, will get recognized.

Not an interception?

Here's hoping that Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Joey Porter does not get fined for his accurate and necessary critique of the officials in the Pittsburgh/Indianapolis game this past weekend.

For those who didn't see it, Steelers safety Troy Polamalu intercepted a Peyton Manning pass at a crucial point in the game, possibly sealing the outcome entirely. In a room of 100 officials, players and fans you would not find one person who would think otherwise. The replay was incontrovertible. Yet the only official that matters, the guy with the white hat on, somehow saw it as an incomplete pass. I instantly started screaming almost verbatim what Porter would tell reporters after the game.

For the sake of brevity, here's a paraphrased version of his comments. The NFL loves Peyton Manning and the Colts and wanted to make sure that they made it to the Superbowl. The refs blew the call and had no right to take the game away from the Steelers.

Hearing the head ref's ham-handed explanation of what he thought he saw and why he overturned the ruling on the field only made the whole situation more suspicious. Luckily the NFL admitted the official made a mistake, something they rarely do. Had the Steelers lost the game, which they almost did, it would have been a travesty.

Here's hoping there is no fine levied — an almost certainty when criticizing the officials — for a player who had the guts to say what everyone already knew.