I saw the first promotional photo of UofD-Mercy's Ray McCallum, Jr and his dad and coach Ray MCallum, Sr the other day and I immediately got goose bumps!!!

"Big Play Ray's" former DCD Yellow Jacket teammate, Amir "The Big Dandy" Williams, the premiere frontcourt hoops prospect in the state, possibly the entire Midwest recruiting region, has been invited by USA Basketball to try out for the U-18 U.S. National Team this week down in San Antonio. Williams is one of 17 players invited to Texas to vie for 12 open spots on the squad. Burney has a feeling The Big Dandy will be doing enough damage in the try outs that he earns a nod for the final roster.

Word is that my main SOSODEF homeboy, Marques Stevenson (Lake Orion) was making some crazy noise at the Sound Mind and Sound Body camp last week at Wayne State! The Dragons' running back showed off his skills to the many college scouts in the stands during both sessions on Thursday and Friday and is said to have raised his stock quite a bit by the workouts he displayed. Right now Marques is being looked at by CMU, WMU, Ball State, Toledo, Buffalo, Air Force (offer), Akron, Harvard and Brown. After sharing carries with Kym Bruce last season, Stevenson is expected to get the bulk of the touches toting the pigskin for coach Chris Bell's squad this fall.

Major Kudos to Clarkston's Taylor Hasselbach who became the first player in the county since 2007 to take home the state of Michigan's coveted Ms. Softball Award. Hasselbach hit over 530 this season, with a slugging percentage over .1000 for the third consecutive year and will play her college ball at the University of Michigan.

Mad Props go out to former Brother Rice slugger Matt Conway, who was recently named to the Freshman All-American Team by Collegiate Baseball Magazine, after completing one pretty unbelievable rookie campaign in the ACC with Wake Forest. Conway, who won the coveted Mr. Baseball Award in 2009 and a state championship with the Warriors back in 2008, hit a solid .382 this past season, with six homers and 32 RBI. His .382 batting average was tops among all freshman in the ACC.

Speaking of Mad Props and All-American's, what about giving it up to local prep soccer stars Olivia Brannon of Troy Athens and Anna Sieloff of Birmingham Detroit Country Day for being named Gatorade All-Americans last week!!! Brannon, who plays on defense for the Red Hawks, is only a junior and already a valued member of the U-17 U.S. National team. Sieloff, on the other hand, graduated from Country Day 10 days ago after being a standout goalkeeper for the Yellow Jackets this past season leading them to district and regional titles net.

Holly head basketball coach Lance Bayliss coaches an AAU team made up of some of the best 7^th Graders Northern Oakland County has to offer and the squad did so well these past few months they have qualified for Nationals and a chance at a big time 'Ship next month.....CONGRATS FELLAS!!

Former Lake Orion Dragons hoopster Anthony Fields, now at a prep school, is taking official visits to CMU, Penn State and Dayton. If u remember, this kid was a super stud point guard for the Dragons back when Drew Maynard was a senior. Burney thinks it's a shame that Fields didn't finish out his prep career at LO, but he understands that Fields did what he thought he had to do at the time when he left the OC back in '08. Can you imagine if the coach Shafkalis would have had Fields last season to add to the already mad flavor of Mayo, Schrauben, Monk ….etc? That would have been INSANE!