The start of the spring sports season has been filled with postponements and cancellations over the past week due to the chilly weather.
Kosmo's big question is why many of these games have been scheduled in the first place.
Now, that statement doesn't apply to soccer and lacrosse teams who can play in bad weather and need to get their season going.
But why were there so many baseball and softball games scheduled, particularly before Spring Break next week?
The AD's and coaches have to know that even late March is just an extension of winter, and even though spring is the shortest of the three high school seasons, what's wrong with backlogging a schedule and playing more games in late April and May when the weather is nicer?
What's the big hurry to start the season after March 21?
Waiting until April or May certainly beats hoping and praying that the weather will be nice in late March and then being forced to reschedule when winter still ends up rearing its ugly head.
— Look in the Oakland Press in the next week for a bunch of all-county teams from winter sports. It'll be a nice way to wrap up the winter season by honoring kids who deserve such recognition.

Throughout the past 10 years, Kosmo has been filled with anticipation once the boys basketball semifinals arrive, because there's usually been an Oakland County team capable of fulfilling their dreams of winning a state championship.
Then just as fast, there's been a big letdown once the Class A semifinals end. With Southfield falling just short against Kalamazoo Central in Friday's semifinals, Oakland County is now on a six-game losing streak as it relates area Class A teams in the semifinals.
Since Pontiac Northern won it all in Class A in 2002, West Bloomfield in 2003, Pontiac Northern in 2004, Orchard Lake St. Mary's in 2006, Clarkston in 2009 and Southfield the last two years have been unable to advance to the Class A state championship game.
Not that these teams haven't tried, but it's an unfortunate streak that hopefully will end next year.
Kosmo sure is sick of tuning in to the Class A state championship game and seeing non-Oakland County teams competing for the ultimate prize, as former analyst Bill Walton always loved to say.
— Mother Nature sure has wreaked havoc on the spring sports season. With the ice storm and below freezing temperatures last week, numerous soccer and lacrosse games had to be postponed, and those teams usually play in just about any type of weather.

All season long, Kosmo has been wondering which college would be lucky enough to get the services of Novi's Samer Ozeir, one of the top players in the county all season who averaged just under 20 points and 12.6 rebounds per game.
The K-Man and everyone else doesn't have to wonder anymore because Novi has accepted an offer to play college basketball at Columbia University.
It's no doubt a great reward for a great career, and Kosmo is glad to hear that Ozeir will be playing Division I college basketball.
- Believe it or not, there were some baseball and softball teams that had scheduled to open their seasons later this week and over the weekend, but those games likely won't happen now because of the winter storm that hit the area on Wednesday. However, girls soccer and lacrosse teams around the state will play in anything that's not a hurricane, so those teams will officially kick off the spring sports season this week.

Birmingham Detroit Country Day center Amir Williams and Southfield guard Carlton Brundidge are two of the best high school players in the state and nation, and that was validated by the fact Williams finished third and Brundige took fourth in the voting for the Mr. Basketball Award on Monday.
The winner of the award was Dwaun Anderson of Suttons Bay, while Detroit Southeastern guard Brandon Kearney finished second.
Even though they didn't win, it was stil nice recognition for Williams and Brundidge and Kosmo salutes. Both are still alive in the state basketball tournament as well, so while not winning the Mr. Basketball trophy, each could win state championship trophies.
- It's hard to believe there won't be no more Lauren Robak to follow at Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes, but that's the case now after Robak played her final high school game on Saturday in a 53-35 win over Bark River-Harris in the Class D final.
It was the second straight title for the Lakers, who might not see a player like Robak for quite a while.
She was the team's best player as a freshman and helped lead WOLL to three straight Catholic League title. The good news is that she'll be playing college at Oakland University, so it'll be more opportunity to follow a special player.

Allen Robinson might go down as the best non-basketball player to ever play basketball at Orchard Lake St. Mary's.
Confused?
Well, evidently Robinson's athletic future lies in football. He's going to play in college at Penn State and that'll be his primary focus in a couple of weeks.
But until then, there's the little matter of leading St. Mary's basketball team to Breslin Center and still showcasing why he could be a Division I hoops player if he wanted.
Robinson has been incredible the last two games, scoring 33 points against Hartland and then adding 34 in a one-point win over Novi Detroit Catholic Central to help lead St. Mary's to a Class A state quarterfinal, where the Eaglets will face Bay City Western at Davison on Tuesday.
It's a compliment to him that he's still taking basketball so seriously even though he isn't going to continue playing the sport in organized fashion come the end of next week.
Hopefully St. Mary's can get to East Lansing and the whole state can see just how special a talent he is in basketball and see why he figures to be a great college football player.
- In a way, it's a good thing that Clarkston lost to Bay City Western in a regional final on Thursday. If the Wolves would've won, they would've played St. Mary's in a state quarterfinal, which might have created an uncomfortable situation. Clarkston head coach Dan Fife and St. Mary's head coach George Porritt are great friends, and Porritt is both a Clarkston resident and alumn of the high school. When Fife and Clarkston had trouble advancing past the quarterfinals in the last decade, Porritt was one who wanted to see Fife breakthrough badly, rooting for the Wolves like he would for his own team. Seeing the two meet in a quarterfinal certainly would've been awkward.

Just when Kosmo thinks he has it all figured out with the state boys basketball tournament, along comes a night like Monday that makes Kosmo look downright foolish.
OK, I can hear you all laughing now since Kosmo often sounds foolish anyway, but there were outcomes that Kosmo and others around the state certainly didn't expect during Monday's regional semifinals.
First, just as Kosmo is getting ready for a Pontiac-Southfield regional final on Wednesday, Rochester Adams comes along and spoils that by recording an overtime win over Pontiac.
That was one money shot to send the game into overtime, Nick Zekaj. Great job.
But the surprises didn't stop there.
Kosmo didn't think there was anybody that could stop Ann Arbor Huron in a regional at Ann Arbor Pioneer, but Novi Detroit Catholic Central did exactly that, knocking the defending state runner-up out of the tournament with a 67-54 win to set up an all-county and all-Catholic League regional final on Wednesday against Orchard Lake St. Mary's.
Finally, two other teams Kosmo thought could be at Breslin, Saginaw and Warren De La Salle, were upset. Bay City Western beat Saginaw, and will play Clarkston in a regional final on Wednesday, while De La Salle was beat by Eastpointe East Detroit.
The path to a state title certainly got wide open for those who survived upset Tuesday.

It's a wonderful time of year right now with the girls basketball season winding into its final week, boys basketball regionals coming up and an exciting and successful season for area hockey teams wrapping up this weekend at Compuware in Plymouth.
But another reason to get excited is that Monday will be a sign that warmer times are for sure ahead.
Monday is the first official day of practice for spring sports teams around the state, with baseball, softball, girls soccer, girls tennis, boys golf, boys and girls track and field and boys and girls lacrosse all officially beginning their seasons.
Who cares if many of those practices will have to be held indoors because of all the snow outside?
Even the sight of those teams having to get underway indoors means that soon there will be green grass and more sunshine outside shortly.
How sweet it will be.
- Kosmo is definitely not surprised that Birmingham Detroit Country Day and Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes are the only girls basketball teams from the county still left in the state tournament.
Both made the state finals last year (WOLL won Class D, Country Day lost in the Class B championship), and both were the clear best bets to get to East Lansing this year.
Looks like things are playing out to form.

A lot has been made this season about the incredible coaching job Dan Fife has done with the Clarkston boys basketball team, and rightfully so.
Despite having to replace star center Matt Kamieniecki and having just two starters back from last year, the Wolves improbably won the OAA Red title and are on an 11-game winning streak going into Wednesday night's district semifinal game with Holly.
But while this might be Fife's best coaching job ever, there's been an equally amazing coaching job done with the Clarkston girls team by coach Tim Wasilk.
The Wolves started the year 1-4 and are definitely a team without many college prospects.
Yet, Clarkston is advanced to a regional showdown on Thursday with Midland at Fenton.
No matter what happens what's a very good Midland team, the Clarkston girls have exceeded expectations and had a great season.
The Wolves have won 17 of their last 18 games and are the true definition of a team that plays well together.
The credit for that has to go to Wasilk, who has done just as good of a coaching job this season as his mentor Fife.

It's the last week of the boys hockey season this week with the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of the state tournament taking place, and there's only one conclusion Kosmo can make as he glances at the quarterfinal pairings: Oakland County is the center of the high school hockey world this year.
It's remarkable how many teams from the area are still playing.
There are four in Division 1, two of which are playing each other in Novi and Clarkston. If Lake Orion and Orchard Lake St. Mary's win their quarterfinal games, then three of the four semifinal teams on Friday will be Oakland County squads.
Wow.
In Division 2, Birmingham Brother Rice and Waterford Mott are playing each other in a quarterfinal, and the winner has a great chance of going all the way.
Of course, the team that seemingly wins the state title in Division 3 every year, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, is still alive and the favorite to win yet again.
Great job by all these teams and it could be a glorious weekend at Compuware Arena in Plymouth for area hockey teams.
- Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes will face its toughest test in its quest to defend its Class D state girls basketball title when it faces Marine City Cardinal Mooney in a regional semifinal on Tuesday at Auburn Hills Oakland Christian. Each team is among the state's best, but WOLL did win 2 out of the 3 previous meetings this season.

Since the season switch that moved girls basketball alongside boys basketball in the winter a few years ago, there have been some unwritten rules regarding scheduling of girls and boys games, particularly during the week that girls district game are held and the last week of the boys regular season is held.
The MHSAA specifically designed all girls district games to take place on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week so the boys can play Tuesday at Thursday.
All of which makes what Clarkston and Southfield-Lathrup have done downright shameful. The OAA set aside Thursday to be the last night of the regular season for boys teams, but instead of following that and letting the girls play their district finals without any fan competition, Clarkston and Lathrup scheduled their boys regular-season finale for Friday.
That is a terrible decision and administration at both schools should be ripped to shreds.
Pontiac and North Farmington are doing the same thing, but Kosmo can somewhat excuse that because the girls teams were eliminated from the state tournament this week, which takes the competition element out of it. Those two might have re-scheduled based on that.
The same can't be said for Clarkston and Lathrup. Both of the girls teams at the school are playing for district titles on Friday. But instead of honoring that, the two decide to play their boys game on Friday and make some fans at each school choose which game to go to.
The boys players and their parents might have been their for support, but they can't now because they have to play a game.
Not only that, but instead of maybe playing a 4 p.m. JV game and a 5:30 varsity game to give enough time to go check out the final half of the girls playoff game, Lathrup and Clarkston decide to play a 7 p.m. game.
It's wrong on so many levels and those who planned and OK'd this fiasco should be ashamed of themselves.

Kosmo and probably the rest of those who love high school wrestling in this state are still probably talking about the classic state final between Oxford and Novi Detroit Catholic Central on Saturday in Battle Creek.
Oxford rallied in dramatic fashion to win its first state title in school history, 26-25.
The Wildcats trailed 25-15, but won the last three matches to stun the Shamrocks. The final win came courtesy of senior Dylan Smith, who beat CC freshman Evan Toth in the 103-pound weight class.
With all the publicity about that match, there should be lots of attention on both of the wrestlers once again on Thursday when they meet each other in the first round of the individual state finals at The Palace.
Of all the matches that'll take place, this will be the ones media members and others might flock to most given the incredible atmosphere created by their final match at the team finals.
It should be a lot of fun for all.

Kosmo is always happy to give credit where its due, and he's going to do so for three sources right now, two that are at the same school.
Both Pontiac Notre Dame Prep girls basketball coach Pat Battani and boys basketball coach Brandon Jezdimir have been named Catholic League Coach of the Year within their respective division.
It's been a successful year for the Fighting Irish both in boys and girls basketball, so they are well-deserved honors.
More kudos go out to the Oxford hockey team even though the Wildcats were eliminated from the state tournament with a 3-2 loss to Milford on Monday.
Competing in the OAA for the first time after moving from the Flint Metro Conference, Oxford won the OAA White title, which was a significant accomplishment in its first year in the league.
- Monday's Troy victory over Waterford Kettering in a girls basketball Class A district opener offered proof of how much better a league the OAA Red is than the KLAA North. While Kettering went unbeaten in the KLAA North and Troy finished the regular season 12-8, the Colts controlled the game from start to finish.