Add a couple more Grand Island high school teams to your state championship watch list. Both of them wear black and gold and call North Road home. Northwest’s boys track and soccer teams are right in thick of excellence, a good spot to be this time of year. The soccer kids are 10th in points and flying below the radar. That puts them in a good position to go about their business and keep getting better. Don’t be surprised to see the Vikings boys right there at the end.

Dave Gee’s Northwest track team is smooth, strong, and fast. Paced by triple jumper and hurdler Tyler Wright (CNTC Outstanding Male Athlete) and sprinter Devon Johnson, the Vikings can put a bunch of points up on the board. With some warm weather and a few breaks, black and gold may be a dominant color among Class B hopefuls at Burke Stadium at the end of May.

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This just in from the Evil Empire: We have no pitching. Yankee fans everywhere surely share my concern (and BoSox fans everywhere are cheering) when the starting rotation for Joe Torre’s Bronx Bombers — a team hated in every corner of the earth save of few pockets of the Big Apple — looks like something out of an American Legion all star game. Props to A-Rod who is making baseball history (and on a pace to hit 126 home runs), but the Pinstripes may have to score a dozen a game if they expect to win before they gets their real rotation back from the DL. Meanwhile Boston is cruising behind a tremendous staff, purchased — if I may be so bold — in very Evil Empire fashion. Dice-K with his 19 different pitches is exhibit A, the Sox paying $50 million for the right to talk to him. Makes a George Steinbrenner proud.

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Did you catch the video of the four-year old on the sideline of the Colorado State spring game. He was leveled by a receiver catching a pass in the end zone. Check it out at http://deadspin.com/sports/college-football/ok-get-up-walk-it-off-254799.php

I have been on the sidelines of high school games for seven years. My son was a first grader when he stared ball boy duties. I was always leery and probably hyper-vigilant when the action came our way. He took a glancing blow once, but survived his ball boy career. Perhaps I was overly protective after taking a linebacker to the chest as a member of a chain gang myself. I was about 15 at the time and not paying attention, no surprise given my age. The surprise of the collision may have hurt more than the hit, but I was knocked into next week. I was lucky, too. Nothing broken and no stitches. The little Coloradoan wasn’t so lucky. He needed 30 stitches to close his melon.

Dads (moms would never take their kids to a football sideline), here’s a hint. If you are going to drag Junior or Sissy downstairs to see the game up close, make sure you pay attention. Always be between them and the strong young men hurtling toward them (It’s easier to explain to the wife that way). Perfect the scoop and dodge, too (See J.T. Snow in 2002 World Series), because it may save your kid.

Or, maybe, consider leaving the little one in their seats.

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Final thought, probably as close to sports heresy or a lack of patriotism as I’ll get, but I do not see the allure of this weekend’s NFL draft. ESPN’s promotion/programming-programming/promotion (when does one end and the other begin?) has been endless, matched only I’m sure by the months of analysis we’ll be subjected to after the fact. This is in keeping with the network’s upping the ante of NFL coverage, which conveniently coincided with its contract to cover the sport.

While professional football teams surely have much on the line at the draft this weekend, I’ll probably not rearrange my life around the event. I like what Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Thomas plans to do for the draft. He is projected to go about fourth in the first round, but whoever picks him will have to send a boat to notify him (or perhaps cell phone). While most of his first round cohorts are in New York City this week buying expensive suits and posing for photo ops, Thomas stayed in Wisconsin to attend class (The 6’6”, 315-pound Thomas is pulling As and Bs.) and pack for a fishing trip with his father. That’s where he’ll be when his name is called Saturday.

How old school. How refreshing.