Congratulations to GISH’s Jake Gdowski for signing a national letter of intent to play football at Colorado State in beautiful Fort Collins. My nickel says Jake will play plenty for the Rams, who virtually owned Colorado for several years and always play them tough. That game will have even more meaning for Central Nebraska fans. He has talent on both sides of the ball and is a smart kid and player. It will be interesting to see where he ends up on the line.

Jake’s middle school buddy, Joe Partington, now a standout at Grand Island Central Catholic, also signed Wednesday. The Crusader wide receiver/safety will be a UNO Maverick in the fall. First he and cousin Jake Johnson (look for his basketball signing later) are aiming for a C-1 hoops crown to break in that new gym on Ruby Street.

Just in case Jake and Joe don’t make it in football, they can always take up the high jump. That’s what another gifted Grand Island athlete has done. GISH three-sport standout Johnna Jeffries is a freshman golfer at the University of Wyoming, playing on scholarship for the Cowboys. After a mess hall conversation with the track coach, Johnna decided to high jump a little. That was her track event in high school.

Several medals later, she is the team’s best jumper and scoring points at indoor meets. When golf weather shows up in Laramie, a couple of coach’s may be discussing who gets to tap in on Johnna’s talent.

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Another sign that we have lost our way in the sports reporting world: From AP “The Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on their Web sites, as did ESPN.com and NFL.com, that (Wade) Phillips had been selected as the next coach. All cited unidentified sources.”

OK, so the Dallas Cowboys need a coach (and babysitter for Terrell Owens), but I could cite an unidentified source (how about my cousin in Utah) that says Dick Butkus will be selected or how about Mel Kuiper or a digitized (ala Orville Redenbacher) version of George Halas. Being first on this pales in comparison to the real story is whether or not the new coach will be able to hold the hand of owner Jerry Jones and Owens at the same time. Dallas needs a football coach and a drama instructor, and we in the media are having a difficult time distinguishing between the two.