Hey there, kids! Hope you're enjoying your weekend. I am. I'm writing this from my mom's house. I went back home to see my cousin 'P' and his Chaminade teammates take on Clayton. My cousin's team won so it was worth me breaking speed limits for 3 1/2 hours and baking in this ungodly sun. Seriously, when is Autumn weather coming?

Now on to teams that ya'll care about. First, a thousand apologies going out to the Raymore-Peculiar PANTHERS. In my Saturday morning column, I referred to Tom Kruse's boys as the 'Tigers.' Maybe I had Tigers on the brain because Ray-Pec's finest were back in town, Chase Coffman and Derrick Washington, enjoying their bye week and decked out in Mizzou Tiger gear. Or maybe I'm waging a one-woman campaign against the unethical treatment of the Panthera and am secretly trying to change the Ray-Pec mascot. Whatever the case, I'm sorry, Ray-Pec fans. I definitely know better. So from here on out, I will refer to your team as THE PANTHERS, only in bold type. There.

So THE PANTHERS came up short in knocking off The Star's No. 1 ranked Wildcats, losing 28-21. I like that Cameron Coffman-Gavin Lutman connection but you could tell they weren't clicking all night. The youngest Coffman has the tools - pocket presence and a good strong arm - but many times he and his receievers just weren't on the same page.

Too bad, because THE PANTHERS were holding on to that 7-0 lead for the longest and a couple more body blows could've hurt Blue Springs.

But as I wrote in the story, Blue Springs has this knack for starting slowly and making almost every game exciting with some sort of comeback or hold-on-for-dear-life defensive moment. The Wildcats are super talented, Keeston Terry and Darrian Miller impressed me again. Scary to think how good the 'Cats are now and they'll still have guys like Terry and Miller around next year. Blue Springs has played a killer schedule but you'd like to see them put together a complete game before it's too late.

As for THE PANTHERS... THE PANTHERS will do whatever THE PANTHERS want to do. Because they are THE PANTHERS. (overkill now). Wouldn't be shocked to see Ray-Pec make a nice run deep into the Class 5 playoffs.

Other thoughts:

• How 'bout them Raytown South Cardinals, eh? Are the Cardinals for real? They just answered that on Friday night by beating Lee's Summit West. They're now 5-0 and enjoying their best start in four years.
• Congratulations to East High for getting that first win. East High re-opened to take Van Horn's place in the KCMO district, so it's nice to see the boys winning a game after three tough losses.
• And is this the year that St. Thomas Aquinas will finally get past the Kansas Class 5A semifinals? Who knows but the Saints are looking good in this regular season.

Before I check out, I just want to salute my guy Bob Luder. He worked at The Star for about as long as I've been alive, making sure your kid got his or her name into the paper. But he did more than that, he was a valuable asset to the high school beat and also Bob split time covering professional tennis and soccer in KC. Now, Bob has moved on to better and brighter endeavors. I'll miss his off-color humor in our staff meetings and his Monday morning movie reviews. He really is a great guy. You're my boy, BLu.