I was discussing long-range planning with ace photographer Gary Feinstein last week and he mentioned graduation was coming up at the end of the month.

Graduation? That means the school year will soon be over, right? So many things left to cover, so little month left to do it in.

Here's what to expect in the upcoming weeks:

* The final West Yosemite League boys golf tournament of the year is Monday at Kings Country Club, with Lemoore just one point out of first place in the team standings.

The top two teams and top 15 individuals not on an advancing team will move on to the regional meet May 12 at River Island in Porterville.

* The postseason begins this week for the swimmers, runners and throwers.

The WYL championships in swimming will be held at Golden West (Visalia) Thursday and Friday, while the league meet in track and field is Friday, also at Golden West.

The road to the state track finals may be of greater interest to local sports fans this year, since that meet, California's oldest high school championship competition, will be held at Buchanan (Clovis) June 5-6.

The buildup begins in earnest May 15 with the divisional meet at Tulare. The Central Section championships are May 22-23 at Buchanan.

* The WYL will hold its boys tennis championships on Friday as well.

* Key date for baseball and softball players throughout Kings County is May 16, when the Central Section announces playoff seedings.

Got all that? If you don't, fear not ... no quiz at the end of this column.

However, we do have a few thoughts hopefully worth that second cup of coffee on a Sunday morning as we bask in the afterglow of a major prizefight, a Game 7 in the NBA playoffs, a Sprint Cup race and the Kentucky Derby happening on the same day.

* Belated kudos to Hanford High sophomore Madison Parrish, who was named to two all-state teams by CalHiSports.com, the 15-player soph squad and the 20-player Division II all-state team.

* And another tip of the cap Hanford's one and only Cougar Williams, who was named to that only at Cal-Hi invention, the Grid-Hoops Team, for athletes who excelled in both sports. Williams made the third team.

Williams, headed to Cal Poly this fall on a football scholarship, was an all-state pick in football (Division III) and basketball (Division II).

For full squad lists, check http://myespn.go.com/blogs/calhisports.

* Williams and fellow Bullpups D.J. Jackson-Maciel and Michael Faccinto will join forces with Warren Moon and Ethan Carrell of your Central Section Division III champion Hanford West Huskies, Kameron Hoyt, Cheyanne Alcala and T.J. Johnson of Lemoore, and Andrew Burke, Joseph Turner and Devin Johnson of Corcoran in the Kings-Tulare all-star basketball game May 30 at Redwood High. Game time is 7 p.m.

Lemoore's T.J. Wilkins will coach the Kings squad.

* Not to forget Hanford High's girls swim team, winners of the recent 20-team Sunnyside meet.

* And how about this for a unique form of sporting justice, again courtesy our friends at CalHiSports.com: Wheatland High School's softball team was scheduled to start Friday's game with Sutter, the No. 1 team in the state Div. IV rankings, trailing 3-0. Seems that five Wheatland players had vandalized Sutter's scoreboard and playing field, it was determined after an investigation, and the three-run deficit in both games between the schools was part of the punishment.

* Corcoran's Jarret Santos is off to a strong start with the Class AA Jacksonville Suns of the Southern League.

Santos is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in eight outings with the Florida Marlins' farm club.

The Corcoran High grad attended North Carolina-Greensboro before being picked in the 34th round of the 2004 draft by the Marlins.

* What to do with all that time you'd planned use to root on the San Jose Sharks, before they did yet-another playoff nosedive? My rule is to pull for the last Canadians standing, the Vancouver Canucks this time around, since the hockey-crazed folks in the Great White North haven't hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup in their home and native land since the 1992-93 Montreal Canadiens won it, defeating Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings. How could you not like a country where the currency is nicknamed the loonie?

Richard de Give is The Sentinel's sports editor. He can be reached at 583-2430 or rdegive@HanfordSentinel.com.

(April 3, 2009