Grand Haven's varsity boys tennis team was no match for O-K Red Conference favorite West Ottawa on Wednesday, falling to the Panthers, 8-0. The Buccaneers went down in straight sets in each flight. At No. 3 doubles, the Bucs' Phil Chalifoux and Craig Peplinski played well, falling to Brandon Ballard and Mark VanderStoep, 6-3, 6-4.

Bryan Muri prides himself as an ultra cyclist, competing in events of 100 or more miles, and many times, riding throughout a 24-hour time period. He's already completed a 24-hour event at the Rocky Hill mountain bike race in Texas, as well as several other grueling mountain bike races. Muri's latest conquest of 100 miles only took him 6 hours, 11 minutes to complete, but the stage of the Deer Creek Challenge in Littleton, Colo., was excruciating.

The past few years, catching a 20-pound salmon out of Grand Haven was something to get excited about. The last few weeks, 20-pounders don't even warrant any raised eyebrows back at the dock. That's because the size, and numbers, of king salmon being caught is way up, according to several area charter boat captains.

Spring Lake's varsity boys tennis team went 3-0 at Monday's home tri-meet, scoring victories over North Muskegon, Western Michigan Christian and Whitehall. The Lakers beat the Norsemen, 5-3, scoring wins in all four doubles flights. Spring Lake also swept the doubles in a 6-2 win over Whitehall, then won at every flight except No. 4 singles in a 7-1 victory over WMC. Sophomore Ryan Fedewa went 3-0 at No. 1 singles, scoring easy wins against WMC and Whitehall but needing three sets to beat North Muskegon senior John Snider, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.

The last time a pitcher won the Most Valuable Player award in the American League, Justin Verlander was 9 years old. The season was 1992, when the Oakland A's closer Dennis Eckersly and his Old West gunfighter-style mustache took home the award. And the last starting pitcher to win MVP? Verlander was only 3 when a fresh-faced Roger Clemens won in 1986 with Boston.

Grand Haven advanced to the championship game of the WMOVA Tournament at East Kentwood on Saturday before falling to the host Falcons in the finals. The Buccaneers raced through pool play with wins over Northveiw, Kenowa Hills and Forest Hills Eastern. The Bucs topped Lakewood in the quarterfinals and Rockford in the semifinals before coming up short in a pair of close games against East Kentwood, 25-23, 26-24.

I recently heard a statistic that the average golfer - who obviously makes much more money than I do - has spent several thousand dollars over the past five years on golf clubs, and about $100 over that same period of time on golf lessons. I find it ironic that so many people feel that an upgrade in equipment will fix their game, yet they ignore the glaring flaws in their swing.

A year ago, Spring Lake scored a touchdown as time expired to beat Whitehall in the season-opener for both teams. On Thursday night, the Lakers looked poised for another dramatic win, but a costly interception by quarterback Keegan Wolter with just over a minute remaining helped the visiting Vikings hold on for a wild 33-31 win over the host Lakers at Thomas E. Grabinski Field.