While winter sports practices started Monday, it still will be a few weeks until the first whistle is blown on a basketball court or wrestling mat.

So, for now, here are a few thoughts of mine on the upcoming MHS seasons and some random thoughts that only serve the purpose of entertaining readers, making fun of myself, or both.

• Playing at the new gym in the USD 408 Sports and Aquatics Center has to be awesome for the Marion basketball players. There is something to be said about older gyms and their mystique, but there also is something to be said about playing in one of the nicest facilities in the state.
• Speaking of basketball, Monday was my first practice as C-team girls’ coach. It went pretty well. Or at least I’m assuming so because they said I could come back the next day. Look for a monthly column in this space with an inside look at what it’s like to coach at MHS.
• It’s nice to see the aquatics center being used so much. MHS wrestling and basketball teams have used it. All three schools in the district have used it for gym classes, and two Tabor College teams have come to town for water conditioning. It’s going to be quite a site in the next month or so when one of the teams is conditioning and looks outside to see snowflakes coming down.
• I began swimming in the pool this week, and if it’s even possible, I feel like a fish out of water when I’m in the water. I can swim well enough to get where I need to, and help someone who doesn’t know how to at all, but my swimming attempts this week have left me wondering if I can even beat some of the five-year-olds on the Marion summer swim team.
• A new era begins this week for the MHS boys’ team as head coach Jeff McMillin takes over the reigns from Rex Ostmeyer. His first game will be the opening game of the first Marion Classic that also is the opening basketball game in the new gym against a county team Marion has not played in years; no pressure, Coach.
• The pool and gymnasium have been the subjects of deserved praise, but the new wrestling room located next to the gym floor is nice as well. The room, which doubles as a FEMA-approved storm shelter, is probably twice as big as the former one. Now, when I go take a picture or talk to coach Chad Adkins, I can walk into the room without directly stepping on the mat.
• I was in Hope, for the first time, Sunday to watch a band called The Wiyos perform. The California Sisters, Jessica Gilbert and Pat Wick of Ramona (as well as many other volunteers and sponsors) put on the show and did a great job. The blues-jazz-western-anything-goes-band was impressive. I can’t play any instrument other than a recorder, and after watching the unique band, I now need to add a 1930s washboard with bells, horns, and whistles to the list.
• If you have made it this far, you’ve realized I can’t play an instrument, swim only so-so, and for the record, can’t sing a lick (unlike the talented MHS cast of “Grease”). Maybe you should just focus on the parts about the MHS athletic teams. I have a feeling it’s going to be a fun year.