Shots

cap issues, the reduced cap this year and the need to re-sign or extend some of their own players this year and next just aren’t going to make Green Bay a major player on the market. Sure JJ Watt would’ve been nice. It was never going to happen.

I hated losing outstanding center Corey Linsley to the Chargers. But you knew it was either going to be Linsley or running back Aaron Jones that was going to be brought back. Not both. It might’ve been neither. Jones was just more affordable and more irreplaceable in the offense. The Packers know what they’re getting with King and he was more affordable than, say Kyle Fuller, who was cut by the Chicago Bears and quickly signed with Denver.

As always, if you’re looking for offseason roster news on the Packers, you have to look forward to the draft, which is five weeks away.

_ Finally, I know I’ve said it before, but with temperatures around 60 early this week, it’s worth repeating. How disappointing is it to have the weather we’ve had the past two springs, only to see nothing happening in prep sports?

It’s no one’s fault. Last year at this time, schools were shut down. Now, we’re waiting out the WIAA’s one-year alternate fall season that is taking place now in some parts of the state before the delayed and shortened WIAA spring season begins. Official practices for softball, baseball, track and golf start April 19. Girls soccer starts April 26 and boys tennis doesn’t officially start until May 3.

On Monday, March 22, at least in Medford, the baseball and softball teams were having contact days on their fields, the track team has been running outside for days and the girls soccer team was on the turf. And all of the kids were in Tshirts and shorts. Just amazing. Sunday in Medford, youth baseball groups could be found either on the turf or a field pretty much all day long.

At least this year, we know the kids will be competing a lot in May and June, barring something really unforeseen. With our luck, I can just see this area having one of those Mays where it never gets above 45 and rain mixes with snow every other day. Hopefully not, but it would be par for the course.

Matt Frey is the Sports Editor at The Star News.