Seat belts on for safety boys and girls. It’s about time to let this ‘Dawg’ hunt for a few moments.  Boy there’s a lot of stuff going and not enough time to get to it. Sorry for the layoff folks, but sometimes this sort of genius doesn’t happen overnight. (Insert massively lame, yet completely appropriate “you ain’t squat” joke here.)

So what did I miss?! Or should I say what did YOU miss? Well for starters I got tried harder than a former general in Nuremberg on Twitter by someone who thought they knew me and who I thought was one step below a rube, slightly above a simpleton, but now must face the wrath of Khan and wonder just when and where I might choose to snatch their soul from their being without even so much as passing wind on the person much less touch them. You see real men still solve problems through intellect. In other words, keep calling me names behind anything but a face-to-face meeting and I will show you who the REAL kitty cat is. Remember. Don’t ever assume you know someone unless you really are “likes to scrap” person. You know what I’m saying tough guy? I’m not the one with a constant look on my face that reminds me of a confused dog that’s just woke itself up from its own fart. Tootles for now. Meow.

Well basketball season has just ended and although it was not how several of the teams planned out, (Tampa Prep, Tampa Catholic, Blake, Gibbs and Lake Wales <—more on them later) with all but the Polk County fellas losing in the Semifinals.  There were some definite “deer in the headlights” moments as there tend to be with trips to big or should I say bigger arenas in which the slightest deviation from your routine can cause complete upheaval to everything. Including your ability to do the fundamentals like dribble and pass without looking like a 40+ Men’s League at the YMCA. We won’t even get into the shooting aspect. Some of the percentages from the past 4 days look more like our former and current Presidents combined average in approval ratings. At their worst. Or roughly the score of a student who misses everyday of prep leading up to an exam and then christmas-trees said test. Either way you shake it, not a very productive weekend for our guys here in the Bay Area.

There are some positives though. Found a very hungry group of fans and coaches from some of the ‘legacy’ schools in Polk County that really like what we do, and would love to see BCP make its way over to their “neck” of the woods at some point. I have to say that makes me pretty happy. Now some folks may already be close to a complete existential meltdown over the fact the Pinellas (and now Hernando, Pasco, and Polk) Kids get love on our board and from our Combine. Let me address this to you specifically and with great grace and profoundness. Shut-up. Just. Shut. Up. It’s no longer SOLELY about Hillsborough anymore. Some of the loudest critics of our movement into other markets are also the first ones to claim it’s about the kids on the Message Board. Huh? You’re more confused than the aforementioned “simp” in the second paragraph.

We are BCP Tampa Bay. There are teams that play in Saint Petersburg (which last I checked was not in Hillsborough) that call themselves ‘Tampa Bay’. I hate to break this to you. There are numbers that suggest we are failing in every sense of the word when it comes to our children in this area and since the ones that actually HAVE the children aren’t doing their best, we need to help them out. By whatever means necessary. Even if it means buying a house and moving the, err, oops, um, sorry hope nobody’s reading this by now. (If you are still, thanks.)

The way I look at it is this, if you have a problem with the premise of what’s going on here then you’ve got a problem with yourself. Are there areas of improvement all over the place? Hell yeah. Are there moments of unequivocal frustration when something gets written that doesn’t exactly meet the standards you’ve set for us? Damn straight. How do you think I feel? I’ve written thousands of pages over my years of material. It’s not that easy to sit down and wax poetic about something you may not have the slightest rush of blood to the head about. (Like so-and-so just picked up their 56th offer even though their verbally committed somewhere else). But stories like Camry and Earl Moore exist outside of this county and all over the Bay Area, and yes, there may be other sources that are looking to write the same stuff. Maybe not even about (gasp) football.

Please don’t get offended Hillsborough. I live here. I pay taxes in this county just like you do. I fight the same traffic and same economic issues that the rest of you are experiencing. Whether you like it or not, I’m one of you. Let’s just not continue the trend of staying blissfully ignorant any longer. We can be leaders in this virtually overnight. Unlike my genius.

Note: If you’re wondering why there’s a picture of DeLand at the top, it’s because of a philosophy I’ve adhered to for several years and based on one question: Why does anybody do anything?  Answer? Because they can. That and I STILL cannot get my ugly arse picture to crop correctly. (Hint)