I’m a day late (typically, I’d like to get these done on Monday), but from now until the end of the prep football regular season, I want to wrap up how The CA’s Dandy Dozen teams fared over the weekend. (I also need to earn some blogging brownie points with my boss.)

So away we go:
No. 1 White Station 28, No. 11 Fairley 19: Credit Class 4A Fairley with putting up a good fight and actually leading, 7-0, at one point, but Spartan senior RB Derrion Sanders was apparently just too much for the Bulldogs Friday night. Sanders rushed for 200 yards and three touchdowns against a Fairley defense that had allowed only 84.8 rushing yards per game this season.

No. 2 ECS 42, St. Benedict 7:We had a feeling this one would get ugly, and it was by the end of the second quarter (ECS led, 42-0, at the half). Congratulations are in order for longtime ECS coach Jim Heinz, who won his 200th career game Friday night.

No. 3 Olive Branch 31, Southaven 14: The Chargers actually led, 14-7, at the half on a pair of long TD passes by QB Joel Rich, but Conquistador junior QB Clint Wilson stepped in to save the day for OB in the second half, leading his team to touchdowns on three consecutive drives. Next up for OB, a date with nationally ranked South Panola in Batesville.

No. 4 Millington 26, No. 10 Collierville 14: Despite a late rally attempt by Collierville, the Trojans continued to roll, getting 113 rushing yards and a touchdown from senior RB Travis Simpson. Mark it down now: Millington will finish the regular-season 10-0.

No. 5 Whitehaven did not play

No. 6 Houston did not play

No. 7 West Memphis 59, Marion 0: This one was over as soon as the Blue Devils came out of the visitors’ locker room. West Memphis outgained host Marion, 436-65, and pulled its starters out by the start of the third quarter. Overpowering Blue Devil defense worth the price of admission.

No. 8 CBHS 62, Carver 14: My only question here is why was CBHS sophomore RB Eric Watson still running in touchdowns with 1:39 left to play in the third quarter and CBHS leading, 55-14? No question, though, CBHS is good, especially with senior QB Michael Blanchard back under center.

No. 9 St. George’s did not play

Dropped out: No. 12 Southaven

So who would your top pick be if The Commercial Appeal held a Shelby-Metro prep football fantasy league draft?

Dual-threat ECS quarterback Adam Currie? Do-it-all Harding wide receiver Marlon Brown? Southern Baptist Educational Center touchdown machine H.R. Greer?

In Tuesday’s Prep Insider, we asked the Commercial Appeal sports guys whom they would consider taking No. 1, and now we ask you, the fan.

Send us what you think.

Did anyone get to check out former Melrose running back Graig Cooper’s performance Thursday night for Miami (Fla.)? He scored a pair of touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving, and led the team in rushing (50 yards on seven carries) despite getting 13 less carries than starting RB Javarris James in a 34-17 Hurricane win over Texas A&M.

We all knew a few years ago when he transferred back to Memphis from Midwest City, Okla., (Cooper played at Kirby as a freshman) that Cooper was the real deal. You could see it in his first MIAA jamboree outing as a junior, his field vision and speed on the edge.

Cooper now has three touchdowns and is averaging 5.0 yards per carry on 48 carries, a total that includes a rough 18-carry, 26-yard rushing performance in Miami’s 51-13 loss to Oklahoma. Keep in mind, he’s still just a freshman.

Now, if only these announcers can get it right that it’s pronounced “Greg,” not “Craig.”

I get tired of Memphis-area volleyball coaches telling me that the volleyball played by teams in DeSoto County - more specifically at Olive Branch and Southaven - just isn’t as good as that of our Tennessee teams. They tell me that Mississippi volleyball doesn’t compare to Tennessee’s in terms of overall quality, and therefore, teams south of the Tennessee state line don’t deserve to be ranked in The CA’s volleyball top five.

That’s why I want to give some props to Collierville coach Lisa Lewis and Southaven coach Allison Burchyett for scheduling a home-and-home series this season. As evidenced by their 1-1 split (both teams won, 3-0, on their home floor), Tennessee and Mississippi perhaps aren’t so distant when it comes to the quality of high-school volleyball.

Lewis said every year she’d now like to schedule Olive Branch and Southaven because they represent the best Mississippi has to offer, and that makes a lot of sense. Here’s hoping more Memphis-area coaches follow suit rather than bad-mouthing their counterparts to the south.

Sixty-three. That’s how many straight games South Panola (3-0), the nation’s No. 15-best high-school football team according to USA Today, has won in a row.

This Friday, in comes mighty Trezevant (2-1), coming off consecutive wins over Washington (33-27) and Frayser (29-14). Think the Bears stand a chance?

Highly doubtful. In fact, here’s hoping whatever payoff Trezevant got to make the jaunt down to Batesville, Miss., is worth the embarrassment the Bears are likely to face on the field Friday night.

Now I can understand why a White Station, Whitehaven, CBHS, Melrose or Millington would want to play USP (that’s the University of South Panola for those of you unfamiliar with the program’s dominance). Those schools might want to see where they stack up against one of the nation’s best. But Trezevant? A Class 3A school that’s been one-and-done in the playoffs the last three years?

It’ll be a mercy killing, and that’s too bad for the Frayser-area kids who’ve got to put on their uniforms Friday night and suffer through what could be the beating of their lives.

Good luck Bears. Hopefully, you’ll come back from Batesville in one piece.

Coming off the high of getting to cover top-ranked White Station vs. Whitehaven at the Fairgrounds last week, a game that went down to the final play, there’s honestly very little to look forward to in terms of must-see Week 3 match-ups.

I guess the most attractive of the bunch would have to be No. 8 Melrose at No. 5 Whitehaven, but after that, there’s little else to shout about.

Frayser at Houston? No thank you. Overton at Collierville? Uh, no. That should be a one-sided affair as well.

It’s about the same for the rest of The Commercial Appeal’s Dandy Dozen teams.

White Station should hammer East. ECS is taking on a Class 2A Nashville Christ Presbyterian Acadmey team it figures to manhandle. Treadwell at Olive Branch will be over by halftime.

After covering Whitehaven twice in the last two weeks, you’ll likely find me this Friday night at CBHS vs. Wooddale at Halle, where we’ll find out just how good 2-0 Wooddale really is this season.

We’ll also get to find out how good Mitchell really is, as the Tigers take on No. 12 Fairley. At 1-2, Mitchell’s losses have come to Whitehaven and a Class 6A Daphne (Ala.) team last week. And don’t forget, the Tigers held Melrose to six points in a victory over the Golden Wildcats earlier this season.

An unnamed e-mailer pointed out to me Monday that he/she was sending a “letter to the editor” in regard to my using the term “Blackhaven Classic” in Saturday morning’s story about the Whitehaven-Fairley game at J.P. Freeman.

I want to point out that I put serious consideration into whether I should use the term at all in the story, and actually hadn’t used it in a preview story about the game that ran in Friday’s paper.

However, once I got out to Freeman that night, I saw people, white and black, wearing “Blackhaven Classic” T-Shirts they’d bought before and during the game. The actual trophy that Tiger running back Marcus Hightower hoisted above his head following Whitehaven’s 35-6 win also had the term “Blackhaven Classic” imprinted on its base. To not have used the term at all in the story, would have been to ignore a large detail that’s become part of a neighborhood rivalry that goes back more than two decades.

The e-mailer told me he/she thought it was an insult to the Whitehaven community, me using the term “Blackhaven Classic.” However, I beg to differ. The term “Blackhaven” is obviously one associated with a sense of pride in the Whitehaven community, or else it wouldn’t have been printed on t-shirts or trophies. Go into Whitehaven and ask whether most folks are offended by the term, and I’d venture to say you’d find very few that view it as an insult.

Anyway. I’m still looking forward to reading the e-mailer’s letter to the editor.

Until next time…