I’ve only covered one basketball game this year, but I always look forward to the playoffs. I still keep up with it. One of the things I miss most now with me being tied down to the office is covering high school basketball. The other, of course, is high school football.
With that said, we have a pretty unique situation this year. All the talk is about girls basketball, with this being a down year for boys hoops in the Valley. The Weslaco High Panthers stole the show last season on the boys side. The talk on the girls side this year centers around two teams. The stacked squad at McAllen High and Bianca Torre led Harlingen South. No matter how you dispute it — whether McHi is the best or South — these are two of the most talented girls basketball teams from the Valley in some time. Expectations are that one of these teams may finally cash in on the state tournament this season. That would be a first for a girls basketball team from deep South Texas.
There’s only one way these two teams will meet along the way. And for those that haven’t looked ahead, that would happen during the Region IV Final in San Antonio. That, my friends, would be a treat. South vs. McHi for the chance to move on to the state tournament. And that, as a basketball fan, would be a game that I wouldn’t want to miss.
With that said, let the playoffs begin. Maybe, just maybe, that dream matchup will happen.
Wade Baker, 30, is Sports Editor of The Monitor. He graduated from Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C. in 2000 with a degree in Mass Communications and moved to the Rio Grande Valley in 2002 for a sports reporter opening at The Monitor. Baker was promoted to his current position in August of 2007 after serving as assistant sports editor for two years. 
