Prep Sports

With Nick Birdsong back in his home state for a couple of days, Yours truly is stepping in — back in my old chair to fill in the gap. We'll call it notes … retro style.

• LAST OF THE CHAMPS: Talk about a big sports week. It's huge.

It kicked off with the NCAA men's basketball title game, it ends with the Masters. And in the middle, you've got Alabama's A-Day. (Will 92,000 show up again?)

Calhoun County isn't short on big events, either.

This week — weather permitting — we'll crown the final two county champions. The softball tournament starts on Thursday at Woodland Park and will run through Saturday. On the links, the golf champions will start their two-day tournament on Friday.

Stay tuned, we'll tell you who won. (And lots of other stuff, too).

• STREAMLINING: The Alabama High School Athletic Association announced it has signed a three-year deal with the Alabama Sports Foundation to provide management and consulting services to the AHSAA for events such as the Super Six and the state basketball tournament.

"We interviewed several sports marketing companies and felt that their experience and resources would provide the most benefit to our events and student-athletes," AHSAA Executive Director Steve Savarese said in a release. "Additionally, utilizing the Foundation will allow us to have consistency in our sponsor and event management."

While it likely won't be felt — directly — by most fans, this is a huge sigh of relief from at least one sports writer in Alabama.

Some of the championship events are run well. Others, not so much.

But now that all will be run by the same group of folks, maybe it will make it easier on us to get you, the fan, the information you want in a better and more timely fashion.

• SAVARESE, AGAIN: The AHSAA's top dog will be in our neck of the woods today. Savarese is coming to Spring Garden for a pretty special ceremony.

He'll present the Lady Panthers' volleyball and basketball teams with their state championship trophies in front of their hometown fans. The celebration starts at 9 a.m. in the new gym.

I shouldn't have to tell you that winning two blue maps in one academic year is a big deal. But for coach Ricky Austin, it's a really big deal. Austin is only the second girls' coach to be at the helm for two the championships and the first since the AHSAA went to six classifications.

• IN OTHER NEWS: Not really local, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, George Pugh was recently approved by the school board as the new football coach at Sidney Lanier. Not real big news.

The big news you ask? Last Friday, Pugh said he wasn't sure he was going to take the job.

And you thought every time a board voted to approve a head coaching hire, it was just a technicality.