Kosmo sincerely wishes everyone out there a Happy Holiday season, and hopes the New Year brings out bigger and better things for people. Speaking of the new year, Kosmo won't post another blog on this space until then so he can clean up the Krystal ball and wash the paper bag over his head.
However, even though many schools are taking the holiday break off from games, there are still some nice holiday tournaments going on.
Birmingham Detroit Country Day is hosting the Motor City Roundball Classic next week, which will feature some of the top girls and boys basketball teams around the state, and even some out-of-state teams.
Check out the Oakland Press and www.miprepzone for coverage of that.
Other schools, such as Rochester and Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, are also hosting holiday tournaments, so be on the look out for those results as well.
Until 2010 though, Kosmo says farewell and Happy Holidays!

Kosmo certainly wasn't surprised to see Troy battle Clarkston down to the wire in a boys basketball game on Friday, and he also wasn't surprised that Clarkston senior Matt Kamieniecki played such an outstanding game.
However, the K-Man admits he was surprised by the play of Troy's James Young, who had23 points and was a go-to player all game long for Troy.
By the way, Young is only a freshman.
One of the more underrated coaches in the county, Kosmo can't be happier to see that Troy coach Gary Fralick has such a promising talent in his program for the next four years.
He's already garnering interest from Division 1 college programs and should be a player to watch for years to come.

Birmingham Seaholm's boys basketball team might have moved up a division from the OAA Blue to the OAA White this year, but the Maples this season have already proven they can make a successful jump to a higher division.
There is one main reason why this is the case, and his name is Richaud Pack.
In case you didn't know, Pack can play.
Really, really play.
Just ask West Bloomfield, which saw Pack go off on it for 45 points in a 77-74 overtime win for Seaholm over the Lakers on Thursday.
Pack, one of the first recruits for Isiah Thomas at Florida International, is small forward/guard who can score anywhere on the court.
With him and Shawn Conway, a No. 2 scorer who would be a the top-scoring options on most teams, Seaholm without question can win the OAA White and make life miserable for bigger schools in the state playoffs.

Kosmo admits he normally doesn't pay too much attention to high school sporting events that take place in that particular sport's offseason, whether its club or youth games or invitationals.
However, Kosmo found himself captivated by the Foot Locker National Cross Country championships in San Diego last weekend.
Rochester senior Megan Goethals, clearly the best in the state over the last two years, established herself as the best in the nation by rallying in the final meters to overtake a runner from Texas to win the title.
It's believed to be the first time a girls runner from Michigan won the event, so it was truly an incredible accomplishment.
Given that, Kosmo has to believe that Goethals might be one of the best high school athletes to ever come through Oakland County.
Yes, there have been Olympians and professional athletes who have played in the area, but Goethals has to rank right up there with them with what she's accomplished already.
Her legend might continue to grow from here as well, since the sky is the limit for her in future running endeavors.
— The Kosmo jinx strikes again. In a blog on Monday, the K-Man praised the start of the Lake Orion girls basketball team. So what did the Dragons go out and do? They lost their first game of the season on Tuesday at Rochester. Sorry, Dragons. Didn't think the power of the jinx was that strong

If there's a pleasant surprise so far to the girls basketball season, it's that Lake Orion is off to a 4-0 start entering a key OAA Red game against Rochester on Tuesday night.
For the last three years, especially last year, the Dragons pretty much were a two-person show with Bethany Watterworth and Courtney Zott leading the way.
Watterworth is now at Oakland University playing well as a freshman.
Despite the losses of those two and other important seniors, Lake Orion looks as if it will contend for another league title this year.
Alexis Haan scored 20 points a game during the first three games of the year, but Lake Orion has others to step up as well, given the Dragons beat Stoney Creek by 10 points the other day even though Haan didn't score.
There's still a ways to go, but it looks like there might not be much of a letdown at Lake Orion after all this year.

There are few things Kosmo enjoys more than players who get the most out of their ability, and that definitely has been the case with Bloomfield Hills Andover girls basketball player Lena Thomas the last four years.
Thomas may not be the tallest player around at 5-foot-3, but she plays like someone who is 7-3.
On Friday against Redford Thurston, Thomas scored 20 points to become the all-time career scoring leader at Andover. She now has 792 points and could get near 1,000 by the time the season ends.
Opponents certainly know what a force she is, and hopefully college scouts will take some notice as well by giving her a chance to play at the next level.
Hopefully the college coaches will measure the size of her heart, not her size in general since she plays so much bigger than she is.

As Kosmo writes this blurb from his cave on Tuesday afternoon, he realized this probably won't be the funnest of weeks for area basketball coaches. The first week of the season are never easy for boys basketball coaches because Kosmo's spies have to input all the team's rosters into our system so we can run our box scores. That might mean spending a little longer on the phone than usual, especially since there will be girls basketball coaches also calling in. All Kosmo can convey to coaches is that they be patient, and after the first week, things should be easier the rest of the year in terms of calling in scores.

Even with a paper bag over his head, Kosmo can see winter has officially revived with the snow flurries and the chill coming through his cave. Not the mention the Krystal ball is fogging up as well, but whatever.
Winter is also officially here because each fall sports season has ended, which might have been as good a fall as there has ever been on the Oakland County preps sports scene.
There was a team state champion from the county in seven of the eight fall sports.
The only one which didn't, girls cross country, had the best individual runner hail from the county, Megan Goethals of Rochester, who might be the best runner in the ENTIRE NATION.
It was certainly a banner few months that set a precedent that might be nearly impossible for the winter and spring sports to equal.
As for the winter sports, the Oakland Press will come out with its annual boys basketball preview on Tuesday, so keep a look out for that.

As Kosmo sits in his northern Oakland County cave, he almost forgot that there's another winter sport that gets started tonight. Believe it or not, tonight is the first night of wrestling matches around the state.
The last Kosmo heard of anything going on with wrestling, Oxford was representing the county at the Division 2 state final.
Even though the Wildcats fell to Lowell, they did themselves and the area proud. Hopefully more good things will come from the Wildcats and every other wrestling team in the area.
No doubt, legendary Oakland Press writer Marvin Goodwin is hard at work on his wrestling preview, which will run shortly.
It's good to have wrestling back, especially the real kind where there's no iron chairs or phony production stunts.
There might not be a more physically demanding sport, so good luck to all wrestlers this season.