The Belding Redskins baseball team is ready to begin the season. They just need the weather to cooperate. Following a season with a near .500 record (16-17-1), the Redskins return eight letterwinners and plenty of expectations

Belding senior Tyler Strevel said playing college baseball “has been a dream for a long time.” That dream came true on Wednesday when he signed a letter of intent to play baseball for Aquinas College next season.

Belding’s boys basketball program had some growing pains to go through this season. It started with new coach Jeff Wierzbicki, who took over the program from Brian Babbitt. He put in a new system for the Redskins to digest.

For the first time since 1988, Belding’s wrestling team went to a state quarterfinal. The trip to Battle Creek was part of the Redskins’ 20-9 season in dual meets, which coach Travis Meyer was proud of.

If things seemed different in Belding’s girls basketball season, it’s because things changed drastically in the second half of the season. “The first half of the season went great,” Belding first-year coach Brad Wilson said. “We played really well, we progressed each week. Then about Christmas time we hit a streak where we had some injuries, we had some sickness, and one girl that had a family situation. Because of that we played shorthanded. We had some key players that missed the second half of the season.”

The Central Montcalm Hornets and Belding Redskins boys basketball teams have had similar seasons this year. Both the Hornets and Redskins struggled to win games, but battled hard and never gave up. Wednesday’s district semifinal games were more of the same for the two schools.

Sometimes it’s just not meant to be. That may have been the case for Carson City-Crystal senior Kenneth Dittenber, who was in search of a third straight individual wrestling state title on Saturday at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Brighter lights. Bigger arena. That is the setting called the Palace of Auburn Hills. This weekend, it’s not the Detroit Pistons on centerstage, but the best of the best in high school wrestling.

During the pregame warmups, the Lakeview Wildcats seemed to be shooting the ball pretty well. They definitely did not waste any shots prior to the game, especially senior Andrea Henry. Henry scored a game-high 25 points, while leading the Wildcats to a 59-43 district opening win over the Belding Redskins on Monday night at Alma.

Belding wrestling coach Travis Meyer gets to do something this week he never had the opportunity to do as a high school wrestler. The former Redskin — graduated from Belding in 2001 — will get to lead his program on the mat at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek for the MHSAA team state wrestling finals on Friday and hopefully Saturday, as well.