One of the most important days for high school athletes and college programs is on the horizon, as national signing day is Wednesday.
It's the first day football players (also soccer and other sports) around the country can officially sign letters-of-intent to play in college.
There will be signing-day ceremonies all across the country.
Well, at least for possibly the lower half of the country and west coast.
Signing day ceremonies on Wednesday could be in serious jeopardy in Michigan and other states because of the massive snowstorm that's supposed to arrive Tuesday night and Wednesday.
It's supposed to dump about a foot of snow at the very least in Oakland County.
If that turns out to be true, then school will for sure be called off. If school is called off, then there will be no signing day ceremonies.
They might not even take place on Thursday either since there's a chance the storm will do such severe damage that there won't be school on Thursday.
By then, the letters of intent will already be faxed anyway and the novelty will wear off.
It's kind of like opening presents on Christmas on Dec. 27 or 28. Sure, it's still fun, but it doesn't match excitement of Christmas Day.
Sadly, it appears as if Mother Nature will rob us this year the excitement of signing day.

Kosmo has never professed to be an expert on the subject of boys swimming, but he was in intrigued by a box score he saw in the paper on Friday morning.
Birmingham Seaholm and Birmingham Groves, two annual powerhouses not only in the county, but in the entire state, had a classic dual meet on Thursday night.
The meet came down to the wire and eventually was won narrowly by Seaholm, 94-92.
Congrats certainly go out to the Maples for beating their rivals, although this will likely be the beginning of the battles between the two.
Next Saturday is the annual county meet at Lake Orion, and it's a good possibility the teams will be the favorites there.
Then comes the Division 2 state meet in March. Hopefully the battles are just as good as the one waged on Thursday.
Sounded like a lot of fun for all.
- Kosmo would like to extend an apology to the fine folks at Milford. Evidently, the basketball games for the Mavs haven't been listed in the newspaper, and thus Kosmo hasn't forecasted any games. Our bad, and we'll be sure to fix it and start predicting games for the Mavericks.

"You can't out-fox the Fox."
That expression was heard often around Milford high school earlier last decade, and will be heard yet again now.
After resigning as head football coach at Milford three years ago, former coach Pat Fox is back as the head man for the Mavericks.
Fox took a break from coaching to spend more time with his young children, but has decided to get back on the sidelines at Milford, taking the job after the man who replaced him, Jeff Hill, decided to take the job at Royal Oak.
Hill lives in Royal Oak and coaching there will mean he's closer to home and his family.
Fox worked miracles at Milford during his first tenure at the school, helping lead the program to heights it never had previously attained.
Milford made the playoffs for the first time in school history in 2002, beat Catholic Central in a district final in 2005 before advancing to a regional final in 2006, where the Mavs lost a close game to state power Rockford.
Kosmo loves Coach Fox and feels he's one of the best coaches in the state who'll do wonders again at Milford.
Welcome back, coach. Kosmo certainly knows it's not a wise idea to try and out-fox the Fox.
- Kosmo would like to point out an error in his blog the other day. He mentioned that the West Bloomfield boys basketball team is unbeaten in OAA Red play. Actually, the Lakers have one loss, that being at home to North Farmington. Still, the Lakers have been a great story so far this season.

It's almost February, and just like Kosmo predicted at the beginning of the season, West Bloomfield is on top of the OAA Red boys basketball standings.
OK, not exactly.
No, Kosmo isn't saying "not exactly" to the fact West Bloomfield is in first place in the OAA Red.
The Lakers indeed are with a 4-0 record.
Rather, Kosmo admits he didn't think West Bloomfield would be anywhere near the top of the league standings by this point of the season, let alone in first place.
Last week, the Lakers proved that they are a team to be reckoned with by upsetting state-ranked Southfield at home.
Kosmo figured the Lakers couldn't pull off two upsets in a row, but that's exactly what they did on Friday, recording a 72-63 overtime win at Pontiac.
That certainly got Kosmo's attention, and likely everyone else's around the county.
Kudos need to go out to West Bloomfield coach Jeremy Denha and senior guard Spencer Parker, who is averaging 27 points a game so far this season.
We'll see if the Lakers can keep up their pace from here on out. But without question, they've been the most pleasant surprise in the county thus far.
— It's been a strange season for the Southfield-Lathrup girls basketball team. The Chargers haven't lost in OAA Red play, but have lost three games outside of the league, including one to a much smaller Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett school in the Martin Luther King Classic at Pontiac. Oh well. First place in the league is still first place in the league, so the Chargers still have a lot to feel good about.

In Kosmo's opinion, the first significant events of the winter sports season will take place this weekend.
The annual Oakland County Bowling tournaments will be held, with the boys taking place on Saturday at Wonderland Lanes in Commerce Twp. and the girls at Thunderbird Lanes in Troy.
For those who are snickering as to why Kosmo is so excited for these tournaments, then hush up.
First of all, how many people out there actually hate bowling? How can you not like going to an alley on a weekend with the family?
Not only that, but bowling has become a incredibly popular sport on the high school level.
You don't have to be a certain size or have a physical attribute to succeed, so it's no wonder that so many schools not only have teams, but have lots of participants on those teams.
From what Kosmo hears as well, people get pretty into these events, especially during the final match.
Family members and teammates go nuts when the ball is rolled down the lane, and a strike every time brings a reaction like the Tigers won the World Series.
Yes, it should be a fun two days for area bowlers.
Since it's going to be bitterly cold this weekend, what better place to be than the bowling alley?

Apparently, the KLAA North boys basketball title is not going to won easily by Waterford Mott, as some have believed.
The Corsairs appeared to the heavy league favorite, but they were derailed on Tuesday night at home by Walled Lake Central, 58-48.
The Vikings are now 4-0 in league play, while Mott is 3-1.
And yes, this is the same Central team that was decimated by graduation losses, so early kudos have to go to Central head coach Denny Butcher, his staff and the players.
Kosmo shouldn't be surprised because Central is usually a solid team year and year out that's well-coached, but even he was a little surprised by the win over Mott on Tuesday and the start for Ike the Vike.
There still is a long way to go, but as of right now, it looks like the new favorite in the KLAA North is Walled Lake Central, not Mott.
- One of Kosmo's favorite coaches will get a nice honor very soon. Rochester Adams girls basketball coach and softball coach Fran Scislowicz on Feb. 4 will be inducted into the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. It's another nice honor for a tremendous gentlemen and mentor of young people everywhere.
It's well-deserved and glad the coaches association picked Scislowicz for such an honor.

Excuse Kosmo for not being too motivated to get out of his cave right now. Don't worry, there isn't a depression setting in, but your seer does admit to feeling a bit weary right now.
The reason is that this isn't a time of year the K-Man looks forward to, mainly because the Dog Days of not only winter, but the winter high school sports season, are here.
The excitement of a new season has worn off and we're about halfway through the year. There still is a month or so to go before the playoffs, so it just seems like everything is stuck in a rut right now.
Oh, this week will bring some excitement though. The county's best basketball rivalry resumes on Tuesday when Clarkston visits Pontiac. There will also be some important league games this week, particularly for the boys in the OAA White.
Unfortunately, it still seems like survival right now for the K-Man. Hopefully the next month goes by quick and then the excitement of the upcoming playoffs will end the winter dog days.
- It was announced on Monday that three Oakland County football teams will compete in the annual Big Day Prep Showdown at Eastern Michigan in August. Novi will meet Chelsea on Aug. 26 at 8 p.m., Birmingham Brother Rice will play Detroit Martin Luther King on Aug. 27 at 5 p.m. while Farmington Hills Harrison will play Detroit Cass Tech after the Brother Rice/King game at 8 p.m.

It's the offseason for football, which means there are the usual shifts as it relates to coaching positions in the county.
Over at Royal Oak, the Ravens have hired Jeff Hill to be their new head man. Hill spent the last three seasons at Milford, where he was a two-point conversion that was converted by Lakeland in overtime in the season finale away from leading the Mavericks to the playoffs last season.
Hill has a lot of work to do at Royal Oak, which has suffered through three consecutive winless seasons.
Another school with a new head coach is Birmingham Seaholm, which has replaced former coach Chris Fahr with Nick Deane, who was Seaholm's offensive coordinator the last two seasons.
Seaholm hasn't made the playoffs in four years, so Deane obviously will hope to end that drought.
- Another negative to the court-ordered season change a few years ago that moved girls basketball from fall to winter is that with facilities being cramped as they are, it makes it a major hassle to reschedule games. That actually can lead to some danger when bad weather hits.
On Tuesday, about 4-5 inches fell around the Detroit area. It wasn't a huge storm, but enough to make roads a mess and make driving a risky proposition. But since athletic directors know the difficulties of rescheduling games, they went ahead and decided not to cancel the games.
Kosmo actually applauds the AD's for their decision, especially since 4 to 5 inches of snow never used to be cause for cancellations, but is a bit now because of the politically correct nature of school districts who fear lawsuits.
Knowing that, it makes the jobs of AD's even harder when snow hits during the winter because of the season change.

There are a lot of great places to be during the winter, but there might not be a better place than the Sy Green gymnasium at Pontiac HS.
It might simply be the mecca of basketball in Oakland County with all the great games that have been held in that gym, and another one is on the horizon.
Thursday will be a huge one when Southfield visits Pontiac for the first of two meetings this year between two of the county's best teams.
Southfield beat the Phoenix in all three meetings last year, including in a Class A regional semifinal at Lake Orion, so Pontiac no doubt will be fired up for this one.
So will Kosmo and everyone else around the county, because for regular season matchups in January, it won't get much better than this.
- Former Novi Detroit Catholic Central boys soccer standout Josh Gatt continues to thrive playing professionally over in Europe. After playing well in a second division league in Austria, Gatt has been promoted to play for a first division team in Norway called Molde FK.
Seems hard to believe that just over a year ago Gatt was tearing it up on high school soccer fields in the Detroit area. Now, others around the world are finding out how good he is.

Over the weekend, Kosmo read another report on the Internet of what happens when school administrators let a few whiny parents have their way, even if it's at the expense of so many.
While not a story involving an Oakland County team, Kosmo was still interested to read up that Grosse Pointe South football coach Tim Brandon was temporarily fired from his job.
This after he led South to the Division 2 state semifinals, has doubled the number of players in his program and is well-liked in the community.
So why was he fired in the first place? Because of a few parents who happen to be wealthy and have some influence.
These parents are obviously out for themselves and have no consideration for other kids or parents within the program, and they obviously didn't like how their kids were being coached (aka weren't given playing time).
They complained to the principal, who supported Brandon. They then went over the AD's head to the assistant superintendent, who fired Brandon.
Fortunately, Brandon had his job quickly restored back to him after the principal, assistant principal, athletic director and other community members backed Brandon.
A similar parent uprising occurred over the summer at Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, and as a result, longtime coach Ed Mehlberg resigned and the Lancers don't have a varsity girls basketball team this year.
It's amazing to Kosmo that administrators can act like this. They try to teach kids morals and values and how to be a good citizen, then reward parents who feel the best way to get better or what they want is not to work for it, but to complain like a little toddler until they get their way.
Instead of promoting an atmosphere of hard work, honesty, integrity and unselfishness, they're promoting corruption, greed and every person for themselves.
Educators like this should not be called educators.

Football season may have ended over a month ago, but that still hasn't prevented Madison Heights Madison senior Valdez Showers from receiving a nice honor. The senior defensive back/running back for the Eagles who has committed to Florida has been named the state's Gatorade Player of the Year.
Showers soon will be presented the award in an official ceremony at the school.
- In other high school football news, the annual high school all-star game this summer has been moved from Michigan State to Central Michigan. The big reason is that U2 will be having a concert at Spartan Stadium, which will result in new sod being put in at Spartan Stadium. The sod needs time to take shape, so nobody can play on it until MSU's season begins in the fall. The players participating in the game are supposed to be announced on Sunday.
- The way its going right now, Kosmo wouldn't be terribly surprised to see the Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes girls basketball team go unbeaten this season. It's not out of the realm of possibility. The Lakers have destroyed traditional Class D power Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart and Royal Oak Shrine this season and have three of the state's best guards in Class D right now in senior Lauren Robak and sophomores Ava Doetsch and Lexie Robak. The Lakers will be even more dangerous when Oakland Christian transfer Carlee Cottrell is eligibile and if senior guard Meghan Topolewski comes back from injury. In fact, WOLL might be able to win the state title if it were in Class C. That's how good the Lakers are right now.

Tuesday was the first big night from the holiday break for boys and girls basketball teams around the state, and there were several performances that caught Kosmo's eyes. But the two that stood out the most were by the Troy boys team and the Farmington Hills Mercy squad, both of which recorded statement road victories.
Troy went to previously unbeaten Ferndale and recorded a 60-53 win. The biggest reason for Troy's win was the same reason why the Colts have gotten off to a good start: The all-state play of sophomore James Young.
There might not be a hotter player in the county right now than Young, who poured in 32 points to go along with 11 rebounds and four steals for the Colts.
If Young keeps working and improving, he could wind up being the best player longtime head coach Gary Fralick has ever had at Troy before he graduates.
It's also time to take notice of Farmington Hills Mercy, which notched a huge feather in its cap by recording a road win at Catholic League nemesis Birmingham Marian.
Mercy didn't receive any votes in the first Class A girls state poll this week, but that should change next week given the Marlins won at Marian and are off to a 6-1 start.

Happy New Year to everyone, and if Tuesday night's basketball action is any indication, then it should be a great way to start 2011 for anyone who likes following high school sports in the area.
Several great matchups will take place on the first big night of the year, with the most notable one being a boys game taking place at Southfield when the host Bluejays take on Clarkston in a HUGE OAA Red battle.
The Wolves have struggled to start the season, losing to Flint Carman-Ainsworth and Troy Athens, but Kosmo has to believe they'll be ready to go on Tuesday. Dan Fife has had two weeks to kick his team's butt in practice and Clarkston is rarely embarrassed, although if any team is capable of a blowout, it's a loaded Southfield squad.
Another big boys game is an OAA White contest between Berkley and Rochester Adams at Adams. The Bears recorded a huge win at Auburn Hills Avondale before Christmas, and have a chance to really stamp themselves as a team to watch with games this week against Adams and unbeaten Ferndale.
Adams suffered a close loss at home to Ferndale before the holiday break, but is a solid team that plays well at home.
There will also be an important girls game that takes place in the Catholic League Central when Farmington Hills Mercy takes on Birmingham Marian at Marian. The Marlins are off to a great start, but Marian is a traditional power for a reason.
- Kosmo read in an online report that former Orchard Lake St. Mary's quarterback Robert Bolden is going to transfer from Penn State, despite starting the first few games as a freshman. The K-Man doesn't fully know what's going on behind the scenes, but he hopes it's not a matter of sour grapes or Bolden thinking things are going to be fully catered to him elsewhere. He's a great kid that comes from a great family, and hopefully if he's deciding to transfer, he does it for the right reasons.