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It cannot get much more up and down for an athletic team than the manner in which Scott’s boys basketball team has performed this season.

On one evening, like last Tuesday, the Skyhawks play as if they could beat the Brooklyn Nets. Four nights later, they went to Chapmanville and got their collective shirts handed to them by a Tiger team that is likely inferior to Coach Nick Cabell’s squad.

Youth is often blamed when a team plays at both ends of the spectrum. To be sure, Scott has a line-up dominated by younger athletes. Still, some observers point out that, by this point in the season, all the players have enough game experience behind them to be considered veterans.

“It’s hard to blame inexperience on a kid that’s been through 15 or 20 games,” said one retired veteran coach recently.

The ups and downs of the Skyhawk season cause both reason for optimism and concern. If they are “up” at tournament time, they have proven they are able to play with anyone in their region. If they come out cold and flat, it could be an early spring for Scott baseball and softball fans.

Cabell and his staff appear to work hard to get the most out of their players but sometimes the intangibles prove difficult to overcome.

When Scott defeated a tough Herbert Hoover team at home on Tuesday, it looked as though they might have jelled for the season. But, if they had, the refrigeration went out of the pudding on Saturday at Chapmanville.

Even Tiger fans expected a much closer game than the blowout that ensued in a game the Hawks were never really in from beginning to end.

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With the playoffs on the near horizon, Cabell and company had better figure out consistency pretty soon or, as noted, there will be no Charleston trips for the Hawks this year.

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Last week I mentioned that “Cabell’s Crazies” should be fashioned to replace the departed “Kingery’s Krazies” named for former Head Coach Jason Kingery.

It was interesting, then, to see shirts on some in the Chapmanville crowd designating “Hatching a New Era.” The reference is clearly to CRHS Head Coach Allan Hatcher.

Hatcher is in his first season at Chapmanville, having been a coaching legend in Kentucky. At CRHS, Hatcher replaced legendary Harts Coach Harry Kirk.

Kirk served three seasons at Chapmanville and made the Tiger team into a consistent winner.

Based on Kirk’s performance at CRHS, it is difficult to see why anyone would want to “Hatch a new era.” The inference is clearly that the Tigers had not been successful heretofore. Although Kirk failed in his effort to take the team to the state tournament for the first time ever, nobody I know at Chapmanville yearned to see him retire. In fact, most team boosters pleaded with him not to.

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One obvious fact has been that Kirk’s departure has lowered expectations and the crowd level at CRHS. Saturday night, for example, there were more Scott fans who traveled the short trip up the corridor than there were Tiger stalwarts.

One person said sales at the CRHS concession stand are up this year. I can only guess that more fans are becoming obese because I am confident attendance is down.

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One thing my long-time readers know is that I am solidly a Marshall man. Typically, I really am for Marshall and whoever is playing the University of Southern Pennsylvania at Morgantown. I bleed green.

I, and many others, are bleeding a lot of green as the mens basketball season progresses. A season that began full of great expectations has drifted slowly to the rear of Conference USA.

While there have been key injuries, the team is just not getting better under the leadership of Coach Tom Herrion. At some point, another coaching change may have to be made.

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I also remain dissatisfied with the in-game coaching of MU Head Football Coach Doc Holliday. There is no doubt, as proven during national signing day last week, that the Herd coach is perhaps the best recruiter in the nation. I just haven’t seen much proof that he can coach them once he brings them to Huntington.

If Holliday cannot produce a real winner this fall at Marshall, I suspect his bags will be packed for him at the end of the year.

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I am a fan, however, of San Diego State Head Basketball Coach Steve Fisher. Fisher led Michigan to a national championship and turned the program around at San Diego.

Thanks to satellite television, I can watch the Aztecs play nearly every game in their season.

We can, therefore, thank satellite tv for the rise of the Aztecs and the resurgence of Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Both are great performers.