We've got an entire gaggle of news items to get through, and then I want to talk big hoops dates the rest of the season.

— First off, the city of Bakersfield is getting proactive about raising its high school sports profile. Bako's Convention and Visitors Bureau has placed a bid with the CIF to host the state basketball championships for three years starting in March 2010. The CVB also bid to renew its contract to host the wrestling championships, which will be in Bakersfield for the sixth year on March 6-7 of this year.
Bakersfield bid for the state football bowl championships last fall but was turned down in favor of Carson's Home Depot Center. The basketball championships will be at ARCO Arena in Sacramento for the 12th consecutive year this March.
There's no telling where the CIF will choose to have either sport — or even when a decision will be made, said director of communications Emmy Zack, but I think I speak for all of us involved in prep athletics when I say it's a good thing the city is taking an interest in bringing these events here.

— A new batch of Central Section wrestling rankings are out over at The California Wrestler, and the No. 1-ranked wrestler in six of the 14 weight classes is from Kern County. That's a pretty large percentage when you consider Kern had just one champion, Travis Rasmussen, last year.

— I pinch-hit for our college beat writer, Jeff Evans, last weekend at the BC baseball dinner while Jeff's on vacation, and it led to this fascinating story: I ran into Stockdale assistant baseball coach Greg Showers, who mentioned a story that ran in The Californian back in 1977. Here's the gist: Showers, who was at Arvin, and a bunch of other high schoolers were picked to play in a Kern County all-star game that February.
Happens every year, right? Well, yeah, but in '77, the opposing team was made up of major leaguers, including two guys — Don Sutton and Robin Yount — who ended up in the Hall of Fame. Other guys who played included Davey Lopes, Al Downing and Bakersfield's own George Culver from the Dodgers. The high schoolers were managed by another Hall of Famer, Sparky Anderson, and the major leaguers by yet another HOF shoo-in, Frank Robinson.
Can you imagine? The modern-day equivalent would be like, oh, say, Trevor Hoffman, Manny Ramirez, Ichiro and Clayton Kershaw coming to Bakersfield to play against the best player or two from each local high school. Of course, these days, that would be filled with contract disputes and pros sitting out to rest, but that's another story.

— I'm hoping a high school podcast is on the way for Friday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Finally, on to today's main topic. Stockdale and Centennial got together tonight in baskeball and soccer games of both genders, and we all know (though some might not like to admit it) that the Mustangs and Golden Hawks usually play big games no matter the size or shape of the ball. That's no exception tonight: In boys basketball, it's a meeting of defending league champ and favored Centennial and athletic, dangerous Stockdale; in girls hoops and soccer, it's the always competitive Golden Hawks trying to test Stockdale juggernauts. The Mustangs and Hawks are West's main challengers in boys soccer.

So that got me to thinking: What other games ought we to look forward to for the rest of the year? We'll start in basketball, then go to soccer and wrestling, up through all league play of each sport. This is going to get a little tedious, but you can bookmark this page as a point of reference to mark your calenders (all records through Tuesday).

Boys basketball
Thursday — Garces (4-0 SEYL) at Liberty (3-1)
Jan. 28 — Ridgeview (4-0 SWYL) at Centennial (3-0)
Jan. 29 — Liberty (3-1 SEYL) at East (4-1)
Jan. 30 — Bakersfield Christian (2-0 SSL) at Taft (2-0)
Feb. 3 — SLO-Mission Prep (12-8) at Bakersfield Christian (8-7)
Feb. 10 — Tehachapi (1-1 SSL) at Bakersfield Christian (2-0)
Feb. 11 — Ridgeview (4-0 SWYL) at Stockdale (1-2)
Feb. 12 — Liberty (3-1 SEYL) at Bakersfield (1-3); Garces (4-0) at East (4-1)
Feb. 13 — Stockdale (1-2 SWYL) at Centennial (3-0)
Feb. 17 — Liberty (3-1 SEYL) at Garces (4-0)
Feb. 20 — Centennial (3-0) at Ridgeview (4-0)

Girls basketball
Tuesday — Bakersfield (3-1 SEYL) at Golden Valley (4-1)
Jan. 29 — Golden Valley (4-1 SEYL) at Garces (4-0)
Jan. 30 — North (3-1 SWYL) at Stockdale (3-0)
Feb. 2 — Bakersfield (3-1 SEYL) at Garces (4-0)
Feb. 6 — Bakersfield Christian (2-0 SSL) at Shafter (1-1)
Feb. 11 — Stockdale (3-0 SWYL) at Ridgeview (3-2)

Boys soccer
Friday — Wasco (3-0-0 SSL) at Shafter (1-0-0); West (4-0-0 SWYL) at Stockdale (4-0-0)
Tuesday — Bakersfield (4-2-0 SEYL) at Golden Valley (5-0-0)
Feb. 4 — West (4-0-0 SWYL) at Centennial (3-1-0)
Feb. 10 — Arvin (1-1-0 SSL) at Wasco (3-0-0); Golden Valley (5-0-0 SEYL) at Liberty (3-2-1)

Girls soccer
Thursday — Liberty (6-0-0 SEYL) at Garces (3-2-0)
Feb. 2 — Bakersfield (5-1-0 SEYL) at Garces (3-2-0)
Feb. 6 — Stockdale (6-0-0 SWYL) at Frontier (4-2-0)
Feb. 12 — Bakersfield (5-1-0 SEYL) at Liberty (6-0-0)

Wrestling
Thursday — South at Frontier; Stockdale at West
Friday-Saturday — Bakersfield at Temecula tournament; Bakersfield Christian, Foothill, Frontier and Liberty at Morro Bay tournament
Jan. 28 — East at Bakersfield; Foothill at Liberty
Jan. 31 — Centennial duals tournament
Feb. 5 — Frontier at Stockdale
Feb. 12 — SSL championships at Wasco
Feb. 14 — SWYL championships, SEYL championships, TBA