When it comes to opening weeks, it doesn't get much better from a spectator standpoint than what the Douglas High athletic program put forth last week.
The Tiger boys' basketball team kicked things off with an opener against a highly-talented Reed squad that went right down to the wire.
The Raiders were riding a big run heading into the fourth quarter before Douglas put the clamps on and allowed just one field goal and one free throw over the final eight minutes.
What we learned from that game was that 6-7 post Jeff Nady will be a force inside this season " stepping in fairly well for 6-10 graduate Keith Olson " and the Tiger defense can really turn things on when it wants to.
They will be, if nothing else, extremely physical this season. Six of the Tigers' first 10 off the bench were starters on the football team and four of those saw extensive time on defense. Four of them also played in the trenches on either the offense or defensive lines.
Look for a lot of hustle and sacrifice of the body from this set as the season rolls along.
The wrestling team got going the following night against league rival and region power Carson High.
It came down to a 39-36 disappointment, but there were plenty of highlights along the way.
What we learned is that Douglas will be next to impenetrable from 130 pounds to 145 pounds with Nico Barker, CJ Wynar, Cody Spates and Ryan Olsen looking like the fiercest four-man stretch in the Northern 4A early on. 189-pounder Tony Ferris is going to be a beast and will likely end up as one of the top upper weights in the state this year.
There is a lot of young talent that with some seasoning and extra work, could fill in to make the entire lineup pretty tough to face, as evidenced by Douglas' spotless 4-0 run through the Capital City Duals Saturday, including two wins over regional powerhouse Fallon High School.
The girls' basketball team made perhaps the quietest entrance into the winter sports season, putting together three solid wins at the Lowry Invitational.
Sure, those were against smaller schools (Lowry, Spring Creek and Battle Mountain) but the 3-0 start marks the Tigers' best since 2004, when Douglas went on to take second in the Sierra League and beat Galena in the first round of the regional playoffs.
If you would've given me 10 guesses as to who would be playing in the BCS championship game in January, LSU wouldn't have been on the list.
How did that happen?
The prevailing argument seems to be that the Tigers didn't lose to anyone in regulation this year (both of their losses came in multiple-overtime games against Kentucky and Arkansas).
On the other side of that though, they didn't beat those two teams in regulation either. Flatly, they didn't beat those two teams at all.
If an overtime loss comes in the national championship game, it will still be a loss.
I'm a broken record of just about what everyone else is saying out there, but the current bowl system is flawed.
As has been said plenty of other places, this year out of all the others had made perhaps the best argument for some sort of playoff system. There simply was no clear-cut No. 1 or No. 2 this season.
That being said, LSU and Ohio State does make for a pretty good matchup. Whether I believe the right teams are there or not, the game itself will be plenty worth watching.
