2010 Sports Better Than You Think; Clevelanders

I'm a Clevelander, how can any one of us Clevelanders write about great sport moments of 2010? The Chosen One, revolving door quarterbacks with the Browns, our beloved Featherheads, the Indians. Let's give this a try and see where it goes.

One good thing on the Cleveland sports scene is the ascendency of Colt McCoy. Drafting a quarterback is enough to scare any Browns fan, let alone one like McCoy. Heralded at the University of Texas, winning, throwing TD's, many awards, all this usually forebodes a flop for our beloved Brownies. Tim Couch and Brady Quinn, nothing more said. When the Browns drafted McCoy in the third round, fans and sportswriters in Cleveland questioned the sanity of Mike Holmgren. The rap on McCoy was that he was too small, had a bad release point and he didn't have enough ball speed. Not only that, he looked like the kid packing your groceries at Heinens.

Colt is out to prove us wrong. With his first start in week 6 against the Steelers, McCoy has been impressive even in his two losses. With a QB rating of 63.8% and 975 passing yards, the Browns might have found the "Real McCoy." Eric Mangeni, the head coach for the Browns, has named McCoy his starter for the last three games of the season. Let's hope he is as good as the NFL's most famous bagboy, Kurt Warner.

Now we come to number two, wow, I am sweating trying to think ahead to three, four and five. Second on the list has to go to high school sports. The Greater Cleveland area was well represented in this year's state football title games with St. Edward, my beloved Big Green Machine, winning the Division I football title. Unbelievably, this was the first time this athletic powerhouse won a state title in football. Northeast Ohio was well represented in both the state title game and throughout the playoffs. We had Maple Heights winning the Division II title and Akron Buchtel, even though they lost, in the Division III title game. The region was well represented in this year's playoffs with 35 area high schools vying for the title. Perennial favorites like Glenville, Mentor and Solon fought to bring their colors to the big show along with newcomers such as Cleveland JFK . Fan of the high school pigskin? Northeast Ohioans, you had a great year.

Third, fourth and fifth places to greatest sports moments has to be no team left. Really though, let's look at Manny Acta. Even though the Tribe went 69-93 in 2010, good enough to finish ahead of the Kansas City Royals, some hope was shown. With that last statement, I have proved I am a true Clevelander. I see hope in a .426 ball club. Really though, Acta is a fine young manager who has assembled a good coaching staff. He brought in Sandy Alomar Jr. to be his first base coach. Acta has shown a deft hand at handling young talent and an ever changing roster. Let's hope 2011 brings some player stability so Manny can show us what made him one of the young, sought after managers in the Majors.

Cleveland State Basketball. 13-1 so far. Sitting atop the Horizon League standings. We will see them in , at least, the NIT Tournament this spring. Enough said.

I'm going with a generality for the ending. Even though Fans of the pro sports in Cleveland have many years of heartache, you have to look at the big picture. We are a major league town in three sports. Right up the road in Columbus, we have Buckeye sports and the Blue Jackets. There are great high school and small college sports year round. Even though it has been a mismatch for a few years, one of the greatest football rivalries in history, the Browns and Steelers. I had a lot to cheer and much heartache in 2010. How about you?

http://bluejackets.nhl.com/

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=cle