Mid-week update

It was a strange day for this reporter. First there was that weird, tragic story out of Aplington-Parkersburg about the coach that was shot by one of his former players. My friend Jordan is on vacation in Las Vegas and he texted me to ask if we were covering it.

Later I went out to Remsen to work on a feature on senior Jonathan Schreiner, so look for that sometime next week.

Wednesday evening, I covered the Le Mars baseball and softball games for the second night in a row. I am convinced of one thing: There are apparently only three songs on the mix CD that plays over the loudspeakers: "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor and "Jump Around" from House of Pain.

"Eye of the Tiger" is hands-down, bar-none, no-bones-about-it THE MOST OVERPLAYED song at high school events. I would be perfectly happy to never hear the song again.

A few more wacky events occurred at the Le Mars games tonight. First, freshman softball player Jess Arnold recognized my Washington State shirt and asked me "Is that a Wazzu shirt?"

When I replied that it was, she said she was originally from Issaquah, Wash. (a somewhat well-to-do Eastside suburb of Seattle). She said her family moved her when she was in sixth grade for her dad's job.

Arnold is also the most loquacious, outgoing freshman I have encountered so far in Le Mars.

Finally, since Le Mars was facing Sheldon, I wrapped up my evening by playing a little Dutch bingo with Todd Meendering (sorry if I misheard your last name, Todd).

Turns out Todd knew my Uncle Dave at Dordt and actually married a girl from Lynden, Wash. - the hometown of both of my parents.

He even had the audacity to tell me I looked like Uncle Dave.

Granted, I've heard that my entire life, but I'm pretty sure I outweigh Uncle Dave by at least 30 pounds.

Guess we'll find our for sure at our family reunion in Hull in two weeks.