Norton defeated Southwestern Heights 25-17, 25-21 in the second match, so the Bluejays will now match up with Lakin in the first semifinal. Before that takes place, there are still two more quarterfinal matches, Hoisington vs. Russell and Phillipsburg vs. Cimarron.

Jay Blair, who announces many of Phillipsburg’s matches on KQMA radio, sat down next to me in the press box. Jay had an even shorter turnaround than me, since he went to Ell-Saline for the Panthers’ football game last night at Brookville, back to P-burg, and then all the way down. Jay’s daughter, Melissa, was an All-State player for Phillipsburg from 2007-10 and is now wrapping up a solid college career at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina.

Tad Felts, the legendary KQMA broadcaster who covered high school sports from 1968 through 2011, is also here. I would thin so, because he spent time in Scott City and other places in southwest Kansas.

Russell and Hoisington are about to start. It stinks to high heaven these schools are located only 28 miles apart, are of similar size, yet aren’t in the same league. And they haven’t been in the same league since 1996, when Russell left the old Mid-State Activities Association for their current (crappy) league, the North Central Activities Association. Hoisington bounced around and finally landed in the Central Kansas League this year.

Here we go again. Back in a little while.