I'm not usually one to point out mistakes because a) they happen and b) they can happen to me as much as they can happen to anyone. However, with all accommodations to karma already being made, this is a big deal.

Detroit Pershing lost yesterday -- twice! The state's No. 1 high school basketball team going down is a big deal in any state and in the rugged PSL, where only the top two teams in each division make the playoffs, Southeastern's win over the Doughboys makes for huge headlines.

But what was the score? The Detroit Free Press and writer Mike Horan published a score that didn't match The Detroit News article written by Rod Beard. The Freep had the score 78-75; The News reported a 77-76 tally. Usually the two papers do a pretty admirable job in getting the mountain's worth of prep scores in all sports correct, but this isn't just a game. This is the No. 1 team in the state losing.

Now honestly, the score thing isn't that big of a deal. Yes, accuracy matters, but both papers and their respective staffs are going through a massive downsizing and staffers are being asked to do a lot more with a whole lot less, like every other industry. And neither paper got the outcome of the game wrong: Southeastern won; Pershing lost.

Here's what's really sad to me. Of the approximately five million people in metro Detroit that don't live within the city proper, I would bet less than 1% have ever seen a PSL basketball team, much less a PSL game. The concerns over violence and safety can be real in the PSL but the availability of staff and officials is a bigger problem. Regardless, some of the very best prep basketball in all of the state gets missed because the games are played at 4p.m. and too many suburbanites are clueless about the city's high schools, where they're located, what's safe and what's not.

To boot, the score is inconsistent, and while that means a copy editor at one or both of the papers is fretting, it also adds fuel to the fire that drives so many Detroiters. I'm oft-reminded of the opinion that only the suburbs get the wheat while the city gets the chaff. Of course it's not true but that idea gains ground when stuff like this happens.

I've refereed dozens of PSL football and basketball games without a problem. Further, I refereed the Southeastern - Pershing game last year at Pershing so I know it was a hell of a game yesterday. And I can tell you outside of Cass Tech and Renaissance, Southeastern's gym is as nice as they come to watch a game.

It's too bad so few get to see the best the PSL has to offer, and if anyone knows the correct score, can you help a brother out?

~T.C. Cameron is writing Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, due August of 2009 from Arcadia Publishing.

Can't we all get along?

It seems the basketball season has been marred in recent weeks by fights, disturbances and a four-person shooting in Flint, a city already besieged with problems. It makes Rodney King's oft-quoted question ring prophetic, doesn't it?

The Detroit News reported today Detroit Community High Athletic Director Kevin Dargin accepted the resignation of basketball coach Tony Woods after Woods admitted to an altercation with another coach. Ferndale and Seaholm had to can the majority of the fourth quarter on January 9th after a non-student fight in the stands spilled onto the floor of a game already decided. Seaholm was declared the winner of a game they already led 69-46 with 6:45 to play in the fourth quarter. On January 13th, Detroit Cass Tech banned all fans except parents for their rivalry game with Detroit King due to concerns of possible violence that arose in the junior varsity game played earlier in the day.

That's the good news; Now the bad and ugly.Detroit Henry Ford, still suffering through a turf war and already struggling to ease tensions between the displaced students of now-closed Redford and Mackenzie, had a student shot and killed within eyesight of the school this past fall. Henry Ford has a proud football history but suffered the indignity of having to move home football games from Friday afternoons to Saturday mornings this past fall.

Outstate, Godwin Heights and Lee High will have to return to play the final 10 seconds after a fight ruined the potential finish of a game Godwin Heights was leading 71-68 on January 15th. Anthony Turley, 26, of Comstock pled guilty on January 16th to starting the fight that resulted in pepper spray being administered in the gym. The breathing problems from the spray resulted in the game's suspension.

Finally, four fans were shot on January 20th in the parking lot at Flint Beecher High last week after Beecher defeated Flint Hamady 53-50. Police have determined four different handguns were used in the Beecher High shooting. Beecher's school district garnered national headlines when Kayla Rolland, a six-year-old first-grader, was fatally shot in her classroom by a classmate in the winter of 2000 at Buell Elementary School. Buell has since closed.

This is not what school sports are about, that much we all know. Is it the tough economic conditions? Is this the societal structure breaking down in front of our eyes? Or is it simply kids being kids, parents not being parents and leaders being the all-too-silent objectors? Certainly the economic conditions are a factor in some of this but seriously, how much can we blame on the poor job market and endless unemployment lines?

I don't have all the answers but I think it's fair to say a fight here and there is not news. The seemingly recurring story of fights, violence and shootings at Michigan's prep sporting events is getting tiresome to read and makes me wonder how much worse can it get in Michigan before it gets better.

~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron's 2nd title, Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries, is due August of 2009