A few tips of the fedora: First to the champions of 42nd Street in girls soccer, as Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Xavier brought home the gold.

Excellent programs with fine leadership produce winners, as is the case with the Cougars and the Saints. Xavier has a legacy of seven straight championships that will stand for a long, long time, and maybe an eighth soccer title is on the way for them.

On Monday, it was great to chat with Mike Bender, the swing coach of U.S. Open hopeful Zach Johnson. He appeared at the 19th annual Four Oaks golf event at the Cedar Rapids Country Club and then flew to San Francisco to be with Zach as he attacks the Olympic Golf Club course.

Good putting to the Z-man in the Open this week. Hopefully, he'll make the cut and do well.

This week, too, I had lunch with Jack Roeder, former Kernels general manager, and we talked about the ongoing fundraising for the Prospect Meadows baseball/softball complex.

The fundraising presents a huge challenge, of course, but if anybody can bring this project to fruition, it is Jack Roeder and his fundraising group. Some pledges already have been received and the land donated by the county already has been deeded to this non-profit group. In fact, with a little rain, it should be a banner year for the soybean crop that rests on the hoped-for complex.

Just a reminder of what something like this could do for the Metro area came with the notice that 300 teams used diamonds in Des Moines last weekend. And it was an overnight situation, so consequently the financial impact to other goods and services was more than significant.

From the Metro's standpoint, this would be a great boon to the area involving Linn County, Marion, Cedar Rapids and surrounding territory. So it's my hope that after you take a look at this well-planned project that a positive response would be forthcoming.