high school sports

At least it will keep a few thousand Irishmen out of the bars that night.

St. Eds and St. Ignatius will meet at 8 p.m. Wednesday night, March 17, at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University in the regional basketball semi-final. That happens to be St. Patrick's Day.

It's the second half of a doubleheader, with Mentor and Avon Lake meeting in the other game at 6:15. The regional final is Saturday night in the same arena.

The documentary movie "Pinned," which I wrote about several weeks ago, has been selected for the Cleveland International Film Festival, where it will be shown three times.

This is quite an honor for Mike and Pat Norman, the brothers who produced the 91-minute film about high school wrestling. They began the project four years ago, going behind the scenes for a season with the St. Edward team and a parallel story of a Lakewood High wrestler.

That's what I was telling my son, John, as we watched the St. Ed vs. St. Ignatius basketball game in Sullivan Gym last Friday. The St. Ed Eagles had a terrible first half. Missing about 10 of 15 free throws was only part of the problem. They also lost the ball with careless no-look passes in the chaos underneath the basket more than once.

"They watch too much television. They see LeBron do that and because he makes it look easy, they think it's easy," I said to John.

It will be available for viewing in a few weeks, but I don't want to put it on the back burner of my mind. I might get distracted and neglect to tell you about it later. If you're a fan of high school sports -- especially wrestling -- you'll want to see the 90-minute documentary "Pinned."

It chronicles the St. Edward wrestling team of 2005-06 with an interwoven parallel story about Lakewood High wrestler Matt Curley. It follows the St. Ed wrestlers on each step of the season which culminated in the state championship and a fourth straight state title for St. Ed werstler Lance Palmer.