I know you missed me. Don't lie. And now that I'm done feeding my ego, let's get to a long list of notes this Friday.

• Had a phone interview last night with Eric Gordon. Unfortunately, I don't have much "news" to pass along. I was prohibited from asking the North Central grad his thoughts on the "situation" down at IU this week. Aside from wanting to have a great quote to put in this space, I was actually OK with the media relations department telling me to just not ask. That's not really what we're here for...you can read the paper if you'd like to be surprised by more canned responses. As for the interview, you can look forward to a follow-up story on our first cover boy, Mr. Gordon, in our 1st anniversary issue coming in April. I did ask him if he knew his cover ended up on Ebay (keep in mind we're a free magazine), to which he replied, "Oh man, really? That's crazy...it better have sold for a lot."
• What a weekend on tap in high school sports. I'll be headed to Conseco this evening for the first round of the individual wrestling state finals. There's loads of local grapplers hitting the mats, which you can read about by clicking here. Several undefeated wrestlers will be trying to close out their quest with ultimate immortality, including 103-pound Ethan Riley of Indian Creek (29-0), Kyle Ulrey of New Palestine at 152 (42-0) and heavyweight Chico Adams of Perry Meridian (47-0). I will admit that I've never wrestled, but just watching the state finals and other matches over the years, wrestling has to be at the top of the list for "most intense 2-6 minutes in high school sports". It's me and you, baby, mano-a-mano. We'll have magazines at the Varsity Club Restaurant at Conseco all weekend (until they run out), so be sure to stop by.
  
  
• I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Warren Central track and field coach Dennis McNulty, who is racking up just as many coaching honors as he is state titles. This month alone, McNulty, a firey fellow, was named a finalist for National Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association, which will be announced in June in Colorado. On Feb. 1, the Indiana Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches named McNulty its Indiana Coach of the Year. And on Feb. 7, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) selected McNulty as the Central Sectional Coach of the Year (coaches from Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin). Deep breath. That was a mouthful. "I am quite humbled by all of this," McNulty said.
• Not to shamelessly self promote our magazine, but we received good word this week that the Central Indiana franchise of HSSTM (that's us, duh) has the highest Web site traffic of any other franchise around the country. By a longshot. While this is good news, it's certainly not the end of it...we need your help. If you like what we're doing here with the mag and the online portion, please spread the word to friends, family and anyone else interested in high school sports. We can do all the promotion and magazine ads and everything else, but the simple fact is that word of mouth is the most powerful avenue to get new visitors and readers (and possibly advertisers). Brian and I might not always be blogging every day, but we consistently update other parts of the site (mainly the Showcase stories on the homepage) to give people a reason to come back every couple days. In advance, thanks for your help and support.
• As far as the hardwood is concerned, let's just say there's a lot going on this weekend. On the boys side, three showdowns are on tap: tonight, red hot Brownsburg (15-3) takes its 13-game winning streak on the road for a conference battle with Lafayette Jeff (18-1), who has a 13-game streak of its own. Then on Saturday, Lawrence North (15-4) travels down to Bloomington South (16-1) for another great match-up. Also, in a marquee small-school contest, Guerin Catholic (15-4) travles to take on Lutheran (14-4). On the girls side...that's obvious, regionals take the court tomorrow. Our very own Brian Moore will be headed to the Mt. Vernon (Fortville) Regional while our boss, Phil Temple, is headed to Southport.
• We received a humbling announcement this morning from Hamilton Heights High School. Junior student Tyler Shook has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer in his face and skull. Tyler is currently going through chemo and radiation treatments and there is a way you can help the Shook family. The Key Club at Hamilton Heights is trying to help raise money, and the Applebee's in Noblesville has agreed to donate 15 percent of their sales this Monday, Feb. 18th to his cause. You MUST bring a flyer to the restaurant, so please email assistant athletic director Ruth McKinney at rmckinney@mail.hhsc.k12.in.usfor more information and the flyer. HSSTM wishes Tyler and his family all the best through this very difficult time.