Bring on the busiest week of the prep calendar

This week is universally regarded by newspaper sports editors in Indiana as the toughest week of the year, with many sectional competitions -- plus overlapping regional events -- taking place simultaneously in order to coincide with the end of the school year.

The fall season also has a lot of sports, but the post-season is spread out better over September and October.

Today the softball sectionals begin, and for local teams that means competition at South Vermillion and Indian Creek. Depending upon the numbers of teams, those tourneys are scheduled to end on Wednesday or Thursday.

Baseball sectionals start on Wednesday, and for reasons I have never understood will all finish up Monday (Memorial Day) unless weather forces a change of plans.

Track and tennis sectionals were last week, and Putnam County will be represented in those with the Greencastle girls' team going to the Crawfordsville on Tuesday for regional competition and numerous county athletes going to the regional at Bloomington North (girls on Tuesday, boys on Thursday).

Golf teams wait until June, and sort of get their own spotlight with no other competing events. The Banner Graphic will be at as many of these events as possible, and will rely on coaches to provide information for the others that we don't get to attend.

Technology has helped in many ways in such hectic weeks as this.

When I first served in a similar capacity 30 years ago fresh out of college, e-mail and the Internet did not exist. We developed film in a darkroom and were just starting to get these new-fangled things called computers to replace our typewriters.

The only thing better about those good old days was that newspapers of our size were printed around 1 p.m. and distributed as people were arriving home from work. Now, our presses start running about 12 hours earlier than that so people can have the news first thing in the morning.

Great for the readers, not as much for the sports guys. Fortunately, the big track meets have the results available online -- not only for spectators at the meet, but also so the media members can return back to their offices and collect the information without having to hang around waiting on a copy machine following the meet.

On Tuesday and Thursday nights, I will be going to Bloomington and e-mailing my story and photographs to the office through my iPad and a wireless keyboard.

This will allow the information to reach the office an hour or so quicker than if I were to drive back, and allow us to meet the deadline. I will also be checking my e-mail while at Bloomington North, do any necessary editing and then write up the information sent to me from coaches of other sports.

Busy times, but fun times. There's nothing like seeing the joy of teams like Greencastle's girls' tennis squad on Friday night after their sectional victor, and being able to report on it.

Here's to hoping the weather does its part to make it a great week.

* All-county team plans being made -- Plans are under way to choose all-county baseball and softball teams, and coaches have been very helpful in deciding the best method of making these decisions. The other sports all have their own county meets or matches, from which all-county designations are made.

* Owen Valley hires former BC boss -- Owen Valley reached into the Western Indiana Conference's past to hire a new boys' basketball coach, as former Brown County coach Roger Fleetwood is now in charge of the Patriot program.

Fleetwood coached at Brown County from 2007-2014 before leaving to take the head coaching job at Whitko. His teams went 20-27 there over the past two seasons.

Fleetwood will be in his 39th year as a head coach and has a career record of 510-365.

* Many familiar faces coming to DePauw -- Four successful athletes from Vigo County schools who I covered during my time working in Terre Haute will be continuing their careers at DePauw next school year. Volleyball player Meaghan Etling of Terre Haute South will look to equal or better the success of older sister Mary Kate on the Tiger volleyball squad. Etling is a good server and frontline player, and will do well for DePauw.

Mary Kate played at DePauw from 2012-2015 and earned several awards in her career. She now serves as an NCAA postgraduate intern working with championships and alliances.

The Etlings have a brother, Danny, who is fighting to be the starting quarterback for Louisiana State this fall. He sat out last season after transferring from Purdue. Others are Terre Haute North's Mike Hettinger and Anna Nagy and Hunter Voils of West Vigo.

Hettinger will compete in football and track for DePauw. He won the Terre Haute North sectional shot put title last week with a throw of 52-5.

Nagy was fourth in the 1,600 in last week's sectional, while Voils is a football speedster who could also find his way onto the track.