The regular season of high school boys basketball has been put to bed and now we get ready for the run to the state championships. Like my colleagues in Indiana, I still long for the days of one champion. However, that's not going to happen.

So how was it in the Metro this year? I can start off by saying this was not a vintage year for high school basketball, but there were plenty of bright spots.

I would remind those people who would like to see a star player to catch a Linn-Mar tournament game and take a look at Marcus Paige, because the North Carolina signee has had a super year and will be a factor in Linn-Mar's attempt to, once again, get back to the state tournament. Marcus is an exceptional talent and he should have an exceptional college
career for the Tar Heels.

A couple of teams showed improvement as the season went along in Cedar Rapids Kennedy and Cedar Rapids Prairie. Jefferson was hurt late in the season by an injury to Alec Saunders. And then there was Cedar Rapids Washington.

I went to the Washington-Dubuque Senior game, mainly to ask Coach Brad Metzger about his plans to get the Warriors out of the basement. I got an answer that he was going to go to work with the juniors, sophomores and freshmen and hold practices right through the finals of the state tournament.

Coach Metzger, during his career in Indiana and at Washington, is a foreigner when it comes to losing seasons. And I am sure that he will coach the team to an improvement in 2013. But this will be the first time that Washington has gone through a season where it lost every home game.

Let's give a tip of the fedora to the area coaches and wish them the best as it comes to tournament time and a drive for a state championship.

Barron Bremner touched many lives

There was sadness in this corner this week when Bill Quinby called me to say that Barron Bremner had passed away. Barron had served as athletic director and administrator at Cornell College and Coe College. To be able to do that with success and grace is tantamount to being an athletic director at Michigan and Ohio State.

There are many stories about Barron. He played on an Iowa Rose Bowl team, and his main job at that time was to be captain of the Mau Mau's.

Under Coach Forest Evashevski, it was Barron's job and those with him to make it as tough as they could on the varsity players who were to be Big Ten champions and Rose Bowl representatives. Barron did that to a tee.

Both schools have honored him with special recognition. The Athlete of the Year Award at Coe is named in Barron's honor. And the cup that goes to the all-sports winner between Coe and Cornell is also the Barron Bremner Award, initiated by Cornell College.

His history from where he grew up to his athletic and administrator career would fill volumes. Needless to say, this area in athletics and in relationships was well-served by Barron Bremner.

(Bob Brooks is sports director at KMRY and has been one of the leading voices of college and prep sports in Eastern Iowa for more than 65 years. He is a 10-time winner of the Iowa Sportscaster of the Year Award, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana in 2004. His sports reports can be heard weekday afternoons at 4:30 and 5:30, and Saturdays at 6:40 for the Hawkeye football wrap-up.)