By MONTE DUTTON

Kids are always going to do crazy things. This is because kids enjoy doing crazy things.

What prompted this routine observation?

I saw a commercial for the snack food Goldfish, and I thought, Why did they ever make a cheesy cracker shaped like goldfish? I remembered when kids, even before I came along, swallowed actual goldfish.

As the late comic James Gregory might have said, this happened because, sometimes in the past, some nut said to his wife, ‘Earleen, wonder how them little fish would taste on a cracker?’

They had goldfish back then but not Tide pods. They also packed telephone booths with people piled on top and in between one another. Now they don’t have phone booths.

If kids are going to swallow goldfish, why not give them crackers instead?

Free enterprise at work.

I just overheard on ESPN that world-class pickleball is being played by major beer manufacturers. What could go wrong?

Obviously, SportsCenter has ended.

It was roughly my 10^th visit to Pocono Raceway when I realized that the wall on the Long Pond Straight did not have any catch fencing. It was lined with a forest of what looked like cedar trees.

I realized it when Bill Elliott’s car came close to disappearing into the trees like an errant drive on the Pocono Manor course. I wasn’t alone. A fence was up at the next race.

In many areas of life, what almost happened doesn’t matter. Usually nothing changes until something really big and really bad happens.

In 2000, drivers Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin died in separate New Hampshire practice crashes. Nothing really changed until a Daytona Beach crashed cost Dale Earnhardt his life the following February. Earnhardt was NASCAR’s most famous driver.

Since then, the sport has gotten much safer.

Elyse Kiploks and Nicholas Boboshko have joined Tiffany Sardin’s women’s basketball staff at Presbyterian College.

Kiploks joins Presbyterian’s coaching staff after spending the past two seasons as associate head women’s basketball coach at Ferrum College.

Before beginning her coaching career, the Melbourne, Australia native played five seasons of professional basketball for teams in Australia, England, and Spain.

Kiploks was a standout player at Charleston Southern.

Boboshko joins the coaching staff after spending last season as a graduate assistant women’s basketball coach at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas.

A native of Silver Spring, Md., Boboshko was an intern and a practice player for the women’s basketball program at Towson University during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

Rob Lane has been promoted to assistant coach after serving as Quinton Ferrell’s director of operations.

Before joining Presbyterian’s coaching staff before the 2022-23 season, he spent one season as an assistant coach at Sarah Lawrence College. Before Sarah Lawrence, he was a graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, in 2019-21.

Six county players – Luke Young, Camden Finley and Jaydon Glenn of Clinton; Brayden Patterson and Tristan Buzbee of Laurens; and Braydon Burke of Laurens Academy – are representing the state in the Senior League World Series in Easley.

They will compete for S.C. all-stars against other regions of the U.S. and then against international teams from Canada, Europe/Africa, Caribbean, Australia, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The tournament is Saturday, July 27, through Saturday, Aug. 3. Games will be televised on ESPN+.

Anderson Post 14 salvaged the third game of the American Legion series, dominating Chapin-Newberry 193/24, 9-0, on Thursday night.

For the second game in a row, Clinton’s Carson Glenn turned in a creditable, 2-1/3-inning relief outing. He allowed two unearned runs and fanned three. Chapin-Newberry (10-8) totaled only three hits.

Anderson’s Brody Linker, in addition to being the winning pitcher, stroked three hits by himself.

In something of a surprise, the Big South Conference has moved its basketball tournaments to Johnson City, Tenn., for at least the next two seasons.

The conference is to hold the Hercules Tires Big South Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships Freedom Hall Civic Center.

Located an average of three hours from the Big South’s nine member institutions, Johnson City becomes the first location outside the conference’s “traditional footprint” to host the basketball championships.

Freedom Hall opened in 1974 and is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The facility has played host to more than 2,500 events since its opening act featuring Bob Hope 50 years ago.

Now the Southern Conference is holding its tournament in a Big South city (UNC Asheville), and the Big South is holding its in a SoCon city (East Tennessee State).

Advertising alone will not keep me going. I rely on readers who like the coverage I provide to make contributions.

Please donate whatever you consider appropriate via Venmo at DHK Sports. You may also reach me by mail at 11185 Highway 56 North, Clinton  29325.

If you choose, make a monthly donation via Patreon. The Laurens County site is here. The Furman site is here.

Support the advertisers. They are all fine people who appreciate my attempts to restore coverage of local sports. They are dependable, and not too long ago, I sold a couple ads to folks who weren’t. I am thus cautious.

In the off chance you’d like to read my novels and other books, they’re available on Amazon and many prominent bookseller sites. You can read them on your phones and other devices for a modest cost. I make a bit more if you purchase the actual books, but what I mainly want is for folks to read them.

Sample my collection of short stories, Longer Songs (they were based on songs I wrote). Download it for 99 cents.

Photo galleries are posted on Instagram @furmanatt and @laurenscountysports.

Thanks for your support.