Big Weekend Ahead

There's a big weekend coming up with significant events for three groups that I'm a fan of:

1. The Mission Viejo High School Marching band will be defending their State Championship this Saturday night in Pleasant Hill, CA (outside of Concord). The Band won the title last year in Fresno, and hopes to repeat. They have some very tough competition, but with proud Dad and little brother Eric in the stands, piccolo player Emily Moore will hopefully be wearing the championship medal by the end of the evening.

2. The Mission Viejo High School football team starts CIF playoffs Friday night against Los Osos. Wish I could be there, but I'll be up in Pleasant Hill for the band competition. The Diablos ended the regular season 10-0 and embarrassed most of the competition. They could end up playing Hart, the last team to beat them (in the finals last year) in the second round, but the first round shouldn't be much of a problem.

3. NASCAR wraps up their season Fri-Sun at Homestead, FL. Only 82 points separate the top 5 drivers in the Nextel Cup division, which means given the right circumstances, any of the 5 could win. Kurt Busch holds a lead of just 18 points over Jimmy Johnson, and if I were a betting man, I would bet that Johnson has another great day and wins the title. He's won 4 of the last 5 races and certainly knows how to get it done.

The Busch Series Championship was decided last weekend when Martin Truax Jr. clinched the title, so that race will be entertaining, but don't expect too many fireworks.

The Craftsmen Truck Division is lead by Bobby Hamilton with second place Dennis Setzer 70 points back. Should Hamilton have trouble early, Setzer could certainly win the championship. Last year's Truck Division came down to the final few laps, so it could be a good race.

After this weekend there won't be any more NASCAR until February. What to do, what to do.....