Dick Kortokrax is going to win the battle.

When Kettering Alter Coach Joe Petrocelli announced this week that this season would be his last, it guaranteed that Kortokrax will be Ohio's All-Time winningest boys basketball coach for the forseeable future.

Five years ago it looked like "The King" would abdicate his throne as a health scare led to him saying that he would be stepping down after the 2008-09 season.

Well, that season was going well and Dick, feeling healthier, decided that he didn't want to retire after all. Meanwhile, Kalida had started to move on and began plotting a future course with another coach.

After some ugliness it was ultimately decided that Kortokrax would remain as coach and indeed, to this day, is still holding court in Kalida.

Followers of high school hoops have wondered for years who would blink first. It sure looked like it was Kortokrax back in 2008 but his change of heart meant the battle would go on.

And now, Petro has blinked.

King's lead over Petro had been narrowed considerably in the years before that State Runner Up finish for the Wildcats in 2009 but the spread has widened a bit in the last few years, growing to 30 heading into this season.

With Alter enjoying a strong season (15-4) and Kalida not (6-12) the totals are now 846 to 825 in favor of Kortokrax.

I don't know if King will follow Petro's lead and walk off into the sunset now but I suspect he won't. He has another grandson in high school and he's not going to want to end with a losing season.

By the way, the fewest wins in any season for a Kortokrax team is seven. The current Wildcats are only 6-12 so there's some work to do for this season not go down as Dick's worst.

To put in perspective just how large the gap is between King/Petro and all the others, the winningest active coach is Toledo St. Johns' Ed Heintschel with 605 wins. That means he'll need to win 20 games a season for TWELVE more seasons to catch Kortokrax. And that's if Dick stops now.

Heintschel recently became the tenth Ohio coach to win 600 games. Of the other nine, only Petrocelli and Kortokrax made it to 700.

Good luck trying to catch King, Ed.

Mike Fell is the new football coach at Lima Senior. He has a huge task in front of him.

I'm not sure any coach can resurrect this moribund program. It has been a laughingstock for a while and the fact that Fell has agreed to return to his alma mater is, to me, shocking.

Let's just say this program is among the worst in Ohio, regardless of division. I'm not going to bore you with the numbers, just take my word for it.

Lima Senior football is embarrasingly inept. And that's not only against "top-tier" teams but against mediocre teams.

A case in point is last year's game with Piqua. The Indians are a good program but were only 5-5 last year. Despite that, they clearly outclassed the Spartans in every phase of the game in posting a 35-7 win.

This district and program will have to collectively admit how bad it is in order to get better.

We can't pretend that "getting more kids to come out" will solve the problems. It won't.

The kids in the high school have no idea how to play football when it comes to fundamentals. They can't block, they can't tackle, they commit dumb penalties, they're weak and out of condition.

Until ALL of that changes it's not going to improve.

Coach Fell must take control of as many aspects of football in the system and the city as he can. I mean middle schools and even midgets.

It's obvious that the younger kids in Lima are not being properly coached to get better for the future because the kids are clueless when they come to the high school.

Mike Fell is nobody's fool. I'm sure he knows what he's getting into. He also has the requisite self confidence to overcome the inevitable naysayers. He'll be willing to make unpopular decisions. And there will be unpopular decisions.

I'm pretty confident that Mike Fell is ready and able to get Lima Senior football back to respecibility, if everyone "buys in".

To me, the real question is whether the school board, the administration, the teachers, the parents and the students in the city are ready to do the things, collectively, that will be necessary to turn it around.

I hope they are, but I fear they're not.

Buckle up, because either way, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

I'm not sure if this will qualify me as an old man or not because I've felt this way for a long time, way back when I wasn't old (you know, still in my 30's)....

but I've just about had it with the hysteria over uniforms.

Let me clarify that I "get it". I know the kids (athletes) are driving it. I know it can help apparel sales. I know it can be a marketing tool. I know it can even help in recruiting. I know all that.

I simply have moved past it. I guess I'm just a putz who enjoys sport for the competition and is not affected by the uniform selections.

Even though a part of it is that the players seem to really get into wearing a different style uniform every other game, the biggest reason it's done is because people keep buying the gear.

If you would quit buying something new everytime they come up with a different wrinkle then those changes would be less frequent.

To be clear, I'm not really bothered by the different uniform schemes. I don't like most of them but I generally don't care (unless they so ugly that they are an affront to the senses; hello Oregon and Maryland).

It's not so much the actual unis that get to me, it's that we are now forced to think about it all the time.

Should I be offended if our players don't want to wear our school colors?

If the team's wearing black are we going to have a "blackout"?

If I buy a jersey or t-shirt is it going to look outdated next week or next season?

I hate to say it but the fact that uniform colors and design can serve as a recruiting tool borders on pathetic. Are today's student athletes really that shallow that the type and style of uniforms they will get to wear could sway them? The sad answer is apparently yes.

The other thing that gets to me a little is the simple thought of "where does it end"? I have no idea and that's what annoys me.

The Akron Zips were going to put the school's athetic twitter handle on its uniforms until the NCAA said no.

I'm glad they did, mainly because it as least shows there could be some limit.

Then again, if it's a source of revenue you can bank that it will be permitted sooner or later.

Here is the latest on two guys who were High School hoops stars here just a year ago and are now playing big roles at the Division I level.

Tyler White (Lima Senior), Northern Kentucky

Tyler has started the last four games for the Norse, a program that is in its first year as full-fledged member of Division I.

NKU is 2-2 in those four starts, including the program's first ever Atlantic Sun Conference win in his first start on January 2nd.

White is averaging 10.5 points per game in his starts while shooting 45% from three-point range (10/22). As impressive is the fact that White has commited only four turnovers in those games.

After an 0-6 start, NKU is now 4-9 overall and 2-3 in the ASun.

Today White was named "Newcomer of the Week" in the conference. Click here for the full story: http://www2.nkunorse.com/news/2013/1/15/MBB_0115131506.aspx

Reggie McAdams (Elida), Akron

The road has been a little bumpier for Reggie as he has been up and down, which is pretty typical for a freshman.

His last game was his best. McAdams poured in 20 points on Saturday in the Zips 68-53 win at Northern Illinois. Reggie had only played 58 minutes in the five previous games while scoring six points on 1-of-14 shooting from three-point range.

On Saturday Reggie took advantage of more playing time created by an injury to Chauncey Gilliam. After the game Akron Coach Keith Dambrot spoke with the Akron Beacon Journal:

“McAdams has been working hard at it. It’s funny when you get an opportunity, because Chauncey [Gilliam] was hurt, he really helped us. Besides shooting the ball, he did a good job defensively.”

His performance on Saturday is the latest sign of the kind of player he can be but he's also had some struggles. 

In opening game of the season, Reggie scored 12 points on 4-of-10 three-point shooting in an overtime loss at Coastal Carolina.

Then, in the thrid game, he was 0-for-5 from deep and scored only three points in a loss to Oklahoma State.

The following five games he only played 27 minutes total. He then scored 11 points on 3-of-8 long range shooting against Arkansas Pine Bluff only to go back in hiding for the five games preceding his latest breakout at NIU.

McAdams has shown flashes of brilliance but the goal now is to be more consistent.

For the season he has appeared in 14 of the Zips' 15 games, averaging 5.2 points per game while shooting 33% from deep.

His next chance is tomorrow night as Akron will host Ball State.

Last week I wrote about L.C.C. basketball and how good they've been to this point in the season against a very good schedule. I still maintain the T-Birds are the best team in the area but there is another team that is putting together a body of work that should have it well prepped for a strong push toward a league title and a long tournament run.

It was another dramatic weekend for Elida as they beat Van Wert on a buzzer beater Friday night and lost to Archbold in overtime on Saturday.

This is nothing new for the Bulldogs. They've played perhaps the toughest schedule around.

Their record is 8-4 with the four losses coming to teams with a combined record of 36-8! Bath is 10-2, Delphos St. Johns is 8-3, Liberty Benton is 9-1 and Archbold is 9-2. The Bath and Archbold games were both overtime affairs.

The Dogs have also beaten four teams with winning records (L.C.C. 11-1, Van Wert 7-4, Spencerville 6-4 and Wapakoneta 6-5).

In addition, many of their games have been played in high energy settings and have come down to the very end. Sounds like tournament basketball to me.

Elida still has to play L.C.C. and Bath again along with Ottawa Glandorf so when all is said and done, not many teams will be more battle tested and tournament ready than Elida.

Even though they've lost a few games, Elida is getting better as the players around Dakota Mathias are developing and gaining confidence while playing in pressure packed situations.

-- Even though we are only at the midpoint of the conference seasons, some leagues are basically already over.

L.C.C. has already beaten contenders Crestview and Columbus Grove. The only other NWC teams that may be able to threaten the 'Birds are Spencerville and Paulding and they don't appear to really be in the same class as L.C.C.

In the Putnam County League, it's all but in Leipsic's pocket as the Vikings have wins over Miller City, Columbus Grove and Continental under their belt. Of their three games left in the league (Kalida, Ottoville and Ft. Jennings) only Ottoville, at 6-7, looks to have decent chance for an upset. They have much more work to do the Blanchard Valley Conference. They're tied with Liberty Benton atop the standings at 3-0 but in addition to a future meeting with the Eagles, the Vikes will play McComb this Friday and also have Arlington to deal with.

In the WBL, it looks like at least one of the triumvirate of Bath, Elida and Ottawa Glandorf will be the champion(s). All are 3-0 so the meetings between them will most likely decide the issue. Here are the dates to save on your calendar: 2/1 OG at Elida; 2/8 Elida at Bath; 2/15 Bath at OG.

In the MAC, Delphos St. Johns is in search of its first outright title since 2005. They're signature win was versus Ft. Recovery but there is much work to be done with dates against St. Henry (home Jan. 25), Versailles (away Feb. 8) and New Bremen (home Feb. 15).