By now, probably half the athletes in Oakland County are on their way to a tropical destination for Spring Break, if they haven't gotten there already. However, there is one big event going on next week during Spring Break, and that is the Oakland County Spring Break Baseball tournament at four sites around the area. Here is the schedule for Monday and Wednesday and pool of teams. Championship and consolation brackets will be held at pre-determined sites on Saturday, with the championship game taking place at 2 p.m. on that day.

Pool A - Rochester, Madison Heights Lamphere, Southfield, Stoney Creek, Bloomfield Hills Andover, Lowell
Pool B - Royal Oak, Almont, Ortonville Brandon, Madison Heights Bishop Foley, Lake Orion

Monday's games: Madison Heights Lamphere at Rochester, 10 a.m.; Lamphere vs. Southfield at Rochester, noon; Southfield at Rochester, 3 p.m.; Bloomfield Hills Andover at Stoney Creek, 10 a.m.; Andover vs. Lowell at Stoney Creek, noon; Lowell at Stoney Creek, 2 p.m.; Ortonville Brandon at Royal Oak, 10 a.m.; Almont vs. Ortonville Brandon at Royal Oak, 1 p.m.; Lake Orion vs. Almont at Madison Heights Bishop Foley; Lake Orion at Madison Heights Bishop Foley, noon; Royal Oak at Bishop Foley, 2 p.m.

Wednesday's games: Andover at Rochester, 10 a.m.; Southfield at Stoney Creek, 10 a.m.; Almont at Royal Oak, 10 a.m.; Ortonville Brandon at Bishop Foley, 10 a.m.; Lowell at Rochester, noon; Lamphere at Stoney Creek, noon; Lake Orion at Royal Oak, noon; Almont at Bishop Foley, 1 p.m.; Lowell vs. Southfield at Rochester, 2 p.m.; Andover vs. Lamphere at Stoney Creek, 2 p.m.; Lake Orion vs. Ortonville Brandon at Royal Oak, 2 p.m.;

Saturday's championship bracket (site TBD): Pool A No. 1 vs. Pool B No. 2, 10 a.m.; Pool B No. 1 vs. Pool A No. 2, noon. Final: 2 p.m.

This is a little bit of a slow period for prep sports, with winter sports over and many spring sports teams waiting until after spring break next week to get going. However, track and field season did start on Tuesday, and this morning Kosmo received a special request from spies to try and deliver a message to track coaches about reporting scores.
It's OK to fax scores to (248) 332-8885, but please, please, please, make sure the faxes are legible.
Too many times handwritten faxes come in and the spies can barely make out the writing.
When that happens, we're simply not going to put the results in the paper or online.
Period, end of story. We're not going to badly misspell a kids name and thus make parents everywhere understandably angry, so it's up to the coaches to make sure they either send in faxes with typed results or incredibly clear and legible handwriting.
If need be, coaches can also e-mail results by 10 p.m. to prepsports@oakpress.com or call our prep line at (248) 745-4775.
This is a heartfelt plea for those who decide to fax that if you want to make sure names are spelled right and listed, please make sure to send in legible faxes.

Another boys basketball season has come and gone, but a few observations from your seer regarding what took place at Breslin this past weekend.
- This might be the start of something special at Southfield Christian. A monster Class D program might be forming over at the corner of 12 Mile and Lahser. The Eagles may graduate their three leading scorers in Chris Dewberry, Lindsey Hunter III and Gavin Toma, but sophomore Lindsey Hunter IV and freshman Bakari Evelyn lead a talented group of young players already in the program. Kosmo has a feeling more talent will be coming in as well, but we'll see if that's for sure the case.
- Country Day head coach Kurt Keener is an underrated coach. People give him slack because they say he always has premier talent, but 1) You still need to mold that talent and egos that come with it and 2) It's not like he has the best talent every year. The Yellowjackets only had a couple of borderline Division I seniors in Robert Puleikis and Jodan Price, but still managed to get to Breslin and in Kosmo's opinion were the second-best team. That doesn't happen without quality coaching.
- The only reason Country Day was the second-best team in Class B was because state champion Lansing Sexton was in another world. That might have been the best team this state has seen in a long time. Class A champion Saginaw was lucky Sexton was in Class B.

Kosmo was thrilled to see and read about Southfield Christian's 78-74 win over Muskegon Catholic Central in a Class D state semifinal on Thursday, which sets up a state-title game on Saturday morning against Climax-Scotts at Breslin Center.
The win also brought up quite a historical piece of information, one Kosmo didn't know about.
The Eagles became the first Oakland County team in, get this, 34 years, to advance to the Class D state final.
Thirty-four years!
That's quite remarkable that it's been that long. The last team was Orchard Lake St. Mary's, which won the Class D state title in 1978.
At that point, Kosmo not only didn't have a Krystal ball, but he was probably in the Krystal ball of someone up above forecasting a great life as a seer.
It's a great job by Southfield Christian and hopefully it will finish the job and take care of business on Saturday morning.
More to the point, Kosmo hopes the Eagles will be an inspiration for other Class D schools in the area.
The K-Man certainly hopes it's not 2046 before another Class D team from the area makes it to the state boys basketball championship game.

If there were ever a chance that a high school state basketball semifinal was going to be sold out (like it was in 2004 when Drew Neitzel's Wyoming Park team played Malik Hairston, Joe Crawford and Detroit Renaissance), this Friday could be it.
That's because for the third straight season, Birmingham Detroit Country Day and Lansing Sexton will meet at the state's final four in a game that'll feature some of the best talent in the state.
Country Day won the first meeting two years ago in the Class B state final, while Sexton upset Country Day in last year's semifinals.
While Sexton enters as a favorite, Kosmo can't help but think Country Day is in a good position.
For one, Country Day should have less pressure on it as the underdog. Two, Country Day will have plenty of motivation after last year's loss. Three, the Yellowjackets are a talented team playing their best basketball of the year.
Country Day is scoring points at will and is deep, so despite the fact Sexton has three all-state players on its squad, don't be surprised if Country Day not only gives Sexton a run for its money on Friday, but actually wins.

With all this sunbathing Kosmo has done in this record March heat, Kosmo has been thinking about what a luxury it must be for spring sports teams to already be having summer weather during their initial days of practices. Often times, teams don't get outside until April and thus don't really get into a groove until May due to chilly weather.
Well, not this year, which has created some heightened expectations this springs far as Kosmo is concerned.
No excuses for not performing great this spring. Teams and athletes already have had the best spring weather they'll see in the next 100 years, so they should be ready to rock from the start and have fantastic seasons.
Kosmo can't wait to see the box scores when they start getting reported in the next couple weeks.
- Southfield Christian should've been ranked higher than No. 7 in the final boys basketball poll of the season. How many teams can almost score 100 points in a state quarterfinal, let alone in Class D? The Eagles should've gotten more love without question. But no matter, the Eagles can simply prove on the court that they're No. 1 in Class D by winning 2 games in East Lansing this weekend, which Kosmo feels they can easily do.

Kosmo couldn't be happier for the Lake Orion boys basketball team and the community that the Dragons are one step away from the state's final four.
It's a place Kosmo never thought he'd see the Dragons, so he's pulling for them to beat Macomb L'Anse Creuse North in a Class A state quarterfinal on Tuesday.
However, this does bring one issue to mind for Kosmo in light of the fact that Lake Orion made the state's final four in girls basketball three years ago.
As you recall, Kosmo wrote back then ripping the Lake Orion students for not supporting the team on its road to the semifinals. Crowds were sparse to say the least in the regional and quarterfinal games.
The school ended up not giving students that Friday afternoon off to go up to Ypsilanti and support the team.
Students lined up at the attendance office the morning of the game with notes excusing them to go to the game, and thus did show up for the semifinal loss to Benton Harbor. But it seemed too late and just a way to get out of class on that Friday afternoon.
However, while saying the students didn't deserve to have the day off, Kosmo did wonder if the situation would be different if the boys ever made the state semifinals.
Would the school give students that Friday afternoon off? Would buses be provided to transport students to the games to avoid lawsuits?
Would they do something for the boys that they didn't do for the girls, thus sending the message that boys sports are more important?
As far as Kosmo is concerned, anytime a boys or girls basketball team makes the semifinals and play on a Friday afternoon, schools should shut down and let students go support their classmates.
But it'll be interesting if Lake Orion wins on Tuesday. Since Lake Orion didn't shut down school for the girls three years ago and provide transportation, it could end up sending a message that boys sports are more important if they allow the students to go up to Breslin on Friday.
— Another thing about the game between Lake Orion and Macomb L'Anse Creuse North. Many feel the winner won't get much of a reward since they'll just get destroyed in the semifinals anyway.
That's hogwash. No matter what happens in the semifinals, just the experience of getting to the final four will be one the players will never forget. Thus, that's why the game is so important despite how much people are laughing at the matchup between two Cinderella stories.

Before this season, Kosmo was skeptical that Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes would win a third straight Class D state title,, given the Lakers lost all-state player Lauren Robak to graduation. But Kosmo couldn't have been happier to see the Lakers once again raise the state title trophy at Breslin Center.
The Lakers obviously proved they were still the state's best, which brings to mind one question for Kosmo. Can the Lakers four-peat?
It will be difficult since the Lakers graduate Carly Cottrell and Tori Duffey, but the K-Man sure wouldn't be surprised.
After all, the Lakers backcourt of Ava Doetsch and Lexie Robak, who haven't known what it's like to lose their last game of the season their whole high school career (not bad, huh?), are back for their senior seasons. If guard play is the key to long tournament runs, than who else in the state will have a starting backcourt with a combined 6 state titles? Add gritty front court player Jessica Parry to the mix, and there's no doubt the Lakers will be a major threat to be back raising the title trophy again come March 2013

The boys basketball regional finals have come and gone, and Kosmo is glancing at the state quarterfinal pairings with a little curiosity right now.
Your seer sees what they do for the team wrestling finals when the state seeds teams 1-8before the quarterfinals. Kosmo has one question as a result.
Should they do the same for boys basketball?
For starters, Romulus vs. Detroit Pershing should be a game that takes place at Breslin Center in either the semifinals or finals, not the quarterfinals. It's a showcase game that won't be played on the showcase stage.
Kosmo is happy to see the feel-good stories of Lake Orion and Macomb L'Anse Creuse North, who will play in a quarterfinal on Tuesday. One will make an improbable appearance in the semifinals, but that creates a problem. Barring an upset by Orchard Lake St. Mary's, the winner of Lake Orion-L'Anse Creuse North will face No. 1 Saginaw in the semifinals. Sorry, but that might be the most lopsided semifinal in state history.
It's a humiliation that shouldn't take place in the final four.
That's why seeding after the quarterfinals like they do in wrestling might help.
What does everyone else out there think?
- Kosmo does find it ironic that Southfield Christian benefitted from a forfeit by Detroit Westside Christian before Wednesday's Class D regional final, which gave the Eagles their first regional title in school history. After all, Southfield Christian has had some transfers come in as well over the last couple of years, including Chris Dewberry. But the Eagles don't have anyone ineligible like Westside Christian. Best of luck to the Eagles in their first ever quarterfinal on Tuesday and there's a good chance we'll see them in East Lansing next week.

Last night was not the night for the Bloomfield Hills Lahser Knights, but Kosmo sees a lot of nights that will be great for Lahser over the next couple of years. Lahser blew an 18-0 lead and ended up losing to Lake Orion in a Class A regional semifinal on Monday, which sounded like it was largely a byproduct of their youth and inexperience.
But as spy Keith D. pointed out in his game article, the Knights should be loaded the next couple of years because of that youth.
Lahser's three best players are sophomores, with Yante Maten, Armand Cartwright and Khalil Gracey among the best young players in the state.
Rumor has it that Detroit Mercy and Oakland University are already hot on the trail of Maten, a long-armed rebounding machine in the paint.
Even though Lahser won't be in a regional final on Wednesday, look for deeper runs in the state tournament over the next couple of years.
- There's a new home for former Birmingham Brother Rice standout and 2007 Mr. Baseball winner D.J. LeMahieu. On Monday, LeMahieu signed a contract with the Colorado Rockies. He played last season for the Chicago Cubs.

We're down to three area teams in the girls basketball quarterfinals, and Kosmo wishes the best for Birmingham Detroit Country Day, Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes and Waterford Kettering as they try and reach the state's final four in East Lansing.
As far as Kosmo is concerned, it'll be a Waterford festival at Breslin Center.
While Country Day will likely fall to Goodrich, Kosmo sees Kettering and WOLL making it to the final four.
This would be a great thing for the Waterford community, which has taken a bit of a beating athletics-wise over the years. The football teams at Mott and Kettering have each won one game in two years, and that was against each other. The basketball teams haven't gotten past districts either in both boys and girls, while the traditionally strong softball teams have also regressed a bit (but could come back soon).
But with the Kettering girls getting past districts this year, the Mott boys still very much alive for a long run in the state tournament and the WOLL girls two-time defending state champions in Class D, this is a nice time for a supportive community that has been yearning for something to brag about in athletics.
Enjoy it, Waterford, This should be a fun couple of weeks.

Reading up on spy Keith D's boys basketball regional preview, Kosmo admits he was another who thought there was no way possible there would be a regional comprising Lake Orion, Lahser, Southfield and Waterford Mott, but that's exactly the case. Kosmo thought for sure as of Wednesday it was going to eventually be a Troy-Rochester regional final, but both those teams were upset on Friday. If you would've told Kosmo at the beginning of the playoffs that one of the four teams in this regional would make the quarterfinals and have a decent shot of playing in the semifinal since it would be a winnable quarterfinal, Kosmo would've said to fly yourself to Mars because you're too insane for this planet. But that's the case and it's doubtful these teams will ever have a better shot to get to Breslin. The door is open there, Dragons, Knights, Bluejays and Corsairs. Try and walk through it.
-Congrats to the Brother Rice hockey team for winning the Division 2 state championship and proving the obvious that it was the best team in the state regardless of division. There was so douby in Kosmo's mind with how dominant they were. They almost looked like a junior team out there

Kosmo already knew this was a special season over at Rochester, one the boys basketball program might not enjoy for quite a while.
But Kosmo came to appreciate just how special of a season this has been and could still be for the Falcons on Wednesday.
Rochester played an anticipated district semifinal against Rochester Adams, which was as fired up as everyone figured it would be. Adams had lost to Rochester twice during the regular season, but was playing on its home court and for its coach John Hall, who was wrongly suspended for the state tournament for making minor contact with an official.
If you would've told Kosmo before the game that Rochester leading scorers Paris Pereira and Taylor Perry would combine for four points total, Kosmo would've said it was a great season for Rochester and who does Adams play in Friday's district final.
But as it turns out, Rochester amazingly won even without production from their two stars.
Thanks to 20 points from Arben Camaj and 14 from Mike Klotz, the Falcons survived their rivals in double-overtime. If Rochester goes far, it could turn out that Camaj and Klotz are just as big of heroes as Perry and Pereira for what they did on Wednesday.
- Kosmo is absolutely stunned that Southfield-Lathrup lost to Oak Park in what was easily the upset of the night on Wednesday. Evidently, Lathrup had a huge letdown following Monday's heartstopping win over Detroit Henry Ford. The Chargers must have basked in the press clippings, because there's no way they should've lost to Oak Park, which struggled in the OAA White while Lathrup was second in the OAA Red.
But give credit to Oak Park and it shows anything can truly happen during March Madness.

One of the most anticipated district games as far as Kosmo is concerned is finally upon us.
All season Kosmo has been pointing to March 7 at Troy Athens, where Troy and Pontiac will meet in a huge Class A district semifinal. The winner has a good chance of making a deep run in the state tournament.
Usually, district play is all Pontiac's to lose since the Phoenix seem to rise up come playoff time (cool pun, isn't it?).
However, Pontiac was given a big run for its money last year by Troy, which will have the best player on the court in James Young.
If there ever were a time where Pontiac would not win a district, this would be it with the way Young and the Colts have been playing.
Kosmo can't wait to see what happens.
- It sounded like quite a scene at Southfield with the finish between Southfield-Lathrup and Detroit Henry Ford on Monday. Congrats to Lathrup and senior Ben Benford for his heroics. If that game goes to overtime, Henry Ford likely wins because Lathrup leading scorer Jonathan Williams was fouled out of the game. That made Henry Ford's decision to throw that long inbounds pass from underneath Lathrup's basket with 1.8 seconds left even more costly. If Henry Ford just throws a pass to half court and doesn't get off a good shot, the worst it could've done was go to overtime against Lathrup without Williams on the floor. Instead, Henry Ford got greedy and threw the inbounds out of bounds, which allowed Lathrup to get the ball back underneath its basket with 1.8 seconds remaining. We all know what happened after that.

Kosmo is absolutely thrilled that there is an all-Oakland County girls basketball regional at Lake Orion, which means there's guaranteed to be one team from the area in a Class A state quarterfinal next Tuesday.
But of all the teams Kosmo says to watch out for in that regional, it might not be the one you expect.
While Southfield-Lathrup, Waterford Kettering and Stoney Creek are all good teams who enjoyed successful regular seasons, it was a down season by Birmingham Marian's standards.
But the Mustangs were battle-tested by a tough schedule and routed Bloomfield Hills Andover in a Class A district final last Friday.
That's not to say Marian is the favorite and won't have a tough time of it against Stoney Creek in the second semifinal at Lake Orion on Tuesday (Lathrup and Kettering will meet in the first).
However, don't count the Mustangs out, especially with the state's best coach on the sidelines in Mary Cicerone.
Just sayin'.
- Looks like Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes is a good bet to get to the state's final four again. After surviving Marine City Cardinal Mooney in a district final, the Lakers have a nice road in a regional they'll host and would have a winnable quarterfinal game. Looks like the blue and white will head back to the land of green and white.

The state boys basketball tournament opens on Monday and as what typically happens, there will be upsets early. The earlier the round, the more likely the upset. Two teams that need to be on upset alert for Monday's games are Clarkston and North Farmington.
Heavy favorites in the Swartz Creek district, the Wolves will face a 14-win Grand Blanc team on Monday. Clarkston should win, but Grand Blanc had a solid year in the KLAA and has had heartbreaking losses in the past to the Wolves. They should be ready to play.
In the Orchard Lake St. Mary's district, North Farmington will play a Walled Lake Western team that has underachieved this season, but is still talented and capable of winning if the Raiders aren't careful.
As is always the case in districts, someone will go down, ans Clarkston and North Farmington are two teams that should beware

Sitting back on his cave and exploring Twitter last night, Kosmo was happy to see a tweet via the MIPrepZone link from spy Keith D. that Lake Orion junior hockey player Kurt Latshaw was walking and recovering after a scary injury last week.
In the OAA title game against Clarkston, Latshaw was checked from behind into the boards and laid motionless on the ice for 20 minutes before being taken off on a stretcher by paramedics.
Talking further with Keith D., Koz discovered that Latshaw had temporary paralysis, but thank goodness that didn't last long.
He's still in some pain, but he's at least walking and was with the team on the bench for Thursday's pre-regional win over Clarkston.
That's obviously the best news possible, given Latshaw was in such dire straits on the ice last Saturday.
- The Southfield boys basketball team may not be dead after all. After making the state semifinals the past two years, the Bluejays were decimated by the graduation of their core group of players, and hence struggled most of the season. But Southfield is peaking at the right time, having won at North Farmington on Thursday. Don't count the Bluejays out in a district they'll host even though Lathrup and Detroit Henry Ford are the two favorites.

Kosmo hates to admit he's wrong, but sometimes it's a necessary evil.
Your seer needs to extend his deepest apologies to the Novi hockey team, which pulled off a feat on Wednesday that not even Kosmo saw in his Krystal ball.
Novi beat Novi Detroit Catholic Central in three overtimes en route to the Division 1 state championship last year, but graduated a ton and there was no way Kosmo thought the Wildcats could do it again when the teams had a rematch on Wednesday.
Lo and behold, Kosmo was wrong.
The Wildcats stunned those who follow high school hockey by eliminating the No. 1 team in the state, Catholic Central, 3-2 in overtime.
Wow.
That really makes the Division 1 state tournament up for grabs now.
Great job by the Wildcats who proved to once again be the Kryptonite to the Superman that is Catholic Central.
- That was one gutsy effort by Waterford Kettering senior guard Allison Bicknell on Wednesday. Bicknell has been in pain with a foot injury, but gutted her way through a lot of minutes when her team needed her in a narrow win over Pontiac on Wednesday.
Kosmo can't wait to hear about her toughness again in Friday's regional final against Auburn Hills Avondale.