Mike Noel is the fifth-most winning softball coach in Central Section history in an 18-year Clovis High ride that has scooped 10 league and five section championships.

He's 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, can throw a baseball more than 90 mph, hit one 400 feet, has a 4.1 grade-point average, aspirations to be a surgeon and is as respectful as you'd want your son to be.

Fresno High baseball, the one dependable that has upheld the athletic pride of Fresno Unified School District for decades, continues to swing in glee.

May is National Bike Month, and the central San Joaquin Valley has really clipped in. "Fresno is really growing up in terms of cycling," shop co-owner Rich Holdsworth said. The city wasn't designed with bikes in mind, but significant progress has been made.

One likes to pierce the skin, one gets on the skin and one burrows under it. For those heading outdoors this time of year, all three are best avoided.

Big fish, specifically jumbo rainbow trout weighing from 3 to 6 pounds apiece, are the big story right now at Shaver Lake. By Memorial Day weekend, some 4,000 lunkers will be planted. Those fish, in addition to tens of thousands of rainbows weighing less than a pound and 150,000 rainbow, brown trout and kokanee fingerlings, will help revive a fishery that was decimated last winter when the lake was drained for dam maintenance.

Enter the Warzone, finger firmly on the pulse.

Enter the Warzone, the pithiest 2 minutes in sports.

Enter the Warzone, your first-round pick out of Wiseacre State.