Now, finally, the playoffs can get underway. All of our young athletes who worked so hard during their regular seasons ... and worked to be the best they could be ... will now get to play in the postseason.

If you picked up this issue Wednesday afternoon off the racks, the Bears baseball team is playing at 7 p.m. tonight in Fairfield against Lorena. The Bearettes softball squad plays at 6:30 p.m., Thursday at Lindale High School.

And those members of the BHS track team that advanced to regionals will compete at that track meet in Humble, Texas on Friday and Saturday.

It took a while. After the Swine Flu epidimic (media overreaction, maybe) saw a few school districts shut down after only one positive case, the Texas University Interscholastic League decided to suspend contact between districts. The rationale was that it would limit chances of spreading that flu.

Regardless of your opinion on that UIL action, it's now history and the games and competitions are back on the schedule.

Good luck to all our athletes as they compete.

...

I live in Kerens, so I travel Highway 31 between here and there every day and sometimes on a Saturday when we have a home event here. I'm amazed at the traffic this state highway sees on a consistent basis.

But, among that traffic, I often see school buses from the diffferent districts traveling in areas not associated with the town name on the vehicle.

Of course, this is after school hours when I see the buses.

We all know what we're seeing when one of those standard "yellow dog" school buses is out and about on a Tuesday or Friday night ... or on a weekend day.

There go the sporting teams of schools headed to another competition.

It's interesting to show up at someplace I haven't been before - a gymnasium, football field or baseball field - and see the same kids I normally see here at our playing fields.

But the games are the same and so are the athletes that I'd only have seen as visitors, except now they're the home team.

In any case, our kids have been, or are in the process of, being on the road themselves this week. And that's taking a little time away from school.

I hope our teachers will cut them some slack and give them enough time to make up whatever work they've missed while they've been representing our school.