Visit of a Lifetime, and Playoff Predictions

Hello to boys and girls from all over the world reading my latest blog, and hopefully adhearing to the tips and information I will be giving out once again in the latest blog of, "Life of a Student Athlete."  So in today's edition your are going to be able to live the awesome experience I encountered a couple weeks ago.  We are also going to put in a preview or fill out some "brackets" if you will in every class of the Section VI Football playoffs.  So as most of you know, I am a baseball player, and I'd love to play in college.  Anyways I'm a pitcher and over the summer I travel all over for baseball tournaments with my summer team.  And one time this past summer we were in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I got my chance to come into the game near the end right before a storm was about to blow over us.  I threw maybe 10 pitches and in those ten pitches, I got hit with a come backer, and made a throwing error to first base.  I got right back up and toughed it out and that's the reason I'm telling you this story.  Because at that game, was a scout from Michigan State.  Yes, the Michigan State, from the Big Ten, a storied program.  Well a couple weeks later I received an email to go to their camp, not really a big deal it's only a camp.  But then, another week or two after that, the coolest thing ever happened.  I got another email  from Michigan State again, which was very strange.  In it said that they were interested in me and they wanted a copy of my transcript, my school baseball schedule, and my summer baseball schedule.  But it didn't stop there.  They then told me that they would like to invite me down for an unofficial visit and take me to a football game of my choice for who they were going to be playing against.  And that's what was really amazing.  So two weekends ago, our homecoming, I went down at 6 in the morning on Saturday to take a 5 hour road trip to East Lansing.  We arrived and I can't put into words what it's like there.  The campus, the people, the history, it was surreal.  The campus was beautiful and it was awesome to be in a college atmosphere on game day.  So many people tailgating and so many events going on.  As well as College Gameday, from ESPN was there.  Once we got there we went to check out the baseball stadium and meet all the coaches and have some food before the game and then they sat us down and some different people came in to speak to us.  The first was a Michigan State alum, and played on the baseball team, he was in charge of the office of admissions or something and he was a really good speaker and he provided a ton of information and that was neat, and then the team tutor or head tutor for all athletics.  After they were all done talking we traveled over to the football stadium, and I, along with all the other recruits there, got field passes and we were able to go on the field for the majority of pregame.  And we were right up close too, literally 3 feet from the players.  And the beginning of the wall for the seats is like 5 yards from the benches.  Our seats were also right next to the student section.  It's just an unbelievable atmosphere and I had an amazing time.  We got to go to their game against Ohio State, and unfortunately they lost.  The camp was the next day and I didn't do bad I must say.  Overall I was pretty happy.  And even more excited with the entire weekend.  Thank you to everyone that made it happen.  So Week 7 of High School Football has ended you know what that means, playoffs are here for Section VI Football.  In Class AA the match ups look like this: Hutch-Tech will travel to Jamestown, Frontier will travel to Niagara Falls, Kenmore West will travel to Orchard Park, and Clarence will travel to Lockport.  My predictions for who will square off at the Ralph is a rematch of the Week 6 phenomenon, Orchard Park versus Jamestown.  Jamestown won the first battle in a 35-28 thriller, but in this game I think OP will dethrone the #1 seed in the South.  In Class A Starpoint takes on West Seneca East, Williamsville South takes on McKinley, Grand Island takes on Iroquois, and Williamsville East takes on Sweet Home.  And at the Ralph the game everyone wants to see, including me, is going to be the battle of the undefeateds, West Seneca East and Sweet Home.  I think that West Seneca East is going to pull off the upset and I cannot wait for this exciting match up.  In Class B, Pioneer will travel here to Alden, Depew will travel to Burgard, Springville will travel to Eden, Lew-Port will travel to Cheektowaga.  I think it will be Alden against Cheektowaga at the Ralph, a rematch of the game 3 years ago where Cheektowaga won, this time I think it'll be different.  In Class C, Cassadaga Valley goes to JFK, Fredonia goes to Allegheny-Limestone, Westfield goes to Wilson, and Cleveland Hill goes to Salamanca.  I think Allegheny-Limestone will beat JFK and go to the Ralph and they will take on Salamanca.