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In the old days, high school football filled Memorial Stadium three times a week. Teams would play there Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
On the opening week of the 2009 high school football season, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools should bring back that tradition. Right now, some high-profile games scheduled for Aug.21 present fans with a quandary: where to go?
Richmond Senior will be at Providence; Mount Tabor at Butler; South Mecklenburg at Catholic; East Mecklenburg at West Charlotte; and Independence at Mallard Creek.
Those are matchups you'd expect to see in the third or fourth round of the playoffs. So here's a chance for CMS to do a good thing, and maybe make a little money, too.
How about South Meck-Catholic on Thursday, Mount Tabor-Butler on Friday and Independence-Mallard Creek on Saturday, all at Memorial Stadium.
You could even have 5 and 7:30p.m. doubleheaders Friday and Saturday to get all five games at the stadium. That way, CMS could sell a multi-admission ticket. I think this package of games would draw well and give high school fans a rare treat: a chance to see many of the state's best teams in one place over three days.
Those new Nike commercials with the Kobe and LeBron puppets are laugh-out-loud funny, but they aren't as good as the conference final series. The NBA hasn't been this good since Chris Webber's Sacramento Kings were pushing the Lakers to an exhilarating seven-game Western Conference finals during 2002.
Speaking of the NBA, here's my all-time starting five: Point guard, Magic Johnson; shooting guard, Michael Jordan; small forward, Larry Bird; power forward, Tim Duncan; center, Shaquille O'Neal; sixth man, LeBron James.
Two final NBA thoughts: James – who must be staying in Cleveland long term for a Chinese investment group to buy a stake of the team – will surpass Jordan as the best player ever if he continues to develop. … And when is the league going to replace Jerry West with Jordan as its logo?
Butler High girls' basketball star Cierra Burdick, one of the nation's top recruits, reports for U.S. Under 16 Junior National tryout this week. Burdick, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, is one of 27 rising sophomores and juniors invited to Colorado Springs for the tryout, Thursday through Monday.
Wingate women's coach Barbara Nelson will lead the team to the first FIBA Americas U16 Championship this summer. Winston-Salem Bishop McGuinness star Whitney Knight also will participate.
Four members of the J.C. Smith women's track team were named All-Americans after last week's NCAA Division II outdoor championships in San Antonio: Shermaine Williams, Rosemarie Carty, Nikki Boston and Lakaevia Tyler. Men's star Leford Green was also named All-American.
