By JIM STEELE

When will people learn about the McKenzie Rebels.

Back in the fall, the pundits ignored and disrespected the Rebel football team....for 15 weeks. This just in: McKenzie's football team was pretty darned good. But you wouldn't know it from reading regional publications. In case you missed it, the Rebs played for the Class A state title.

So now here we are in April with the Rebel baseball team off to an 8-4 start and at the doorstep of the District 13A minefield. Yet a recent column extolled the virtues (and listed these clubs as teams to watch) of Dyersburg, Bolivar, Lexington, South Side, Huntingdon, Hardin County and Jackson Christian School.

Ahem (me whistling loudly, jumping on top of a chair and waving wildly), over here guys! McKenzie has somehow managed to start the season 8-4. Okay, the Rebels were 17-18 a year ago, but crystallized at the end of the year, had a stellar victory at Humboldt and was four games away from repeating as Class A baseball champs. The Rebels suffered a close setback to statebound Huntingdon in the Region 7A finals and then ran into a buzzsaw with a hot-hitting JCS team in substate.

That's right, these youthful Rebels were in substate last year.

Having taken this walk down down memory lane, I remind these pundits that the Rebels lost two seniors off of last year's team. Bugs Smith was a two-time all-stater and took with him nine homers and a solid pitching record. Oc Melton was sporadically used because he was hampered by injury for most of his career.

That means almost everybody is back from a team that went to substate.

Earth to pundits: McKenzie should be one of those teams to watch. South Side was mentioned as one of those teams. Testing, testing, McKenzie just defeated the Hawks 7-4 and made it look pretty easy.

Lexington was one of those teams to watch. The Rebels came a whisker away from knocking off highly-touted hurler Billy Keck to finish second in the Big Red Classic. The Rebels lost 7-5, but had chances.

Tom Mathis always does a pretty good job with Dyersburg and McKenzie won't cross paths with the Trojans or with Bolivar, or with Hardin County, which has a quality 3A program and has for a long time. But the Rebels will face JCS on April 16 and gave the Eagles a run for their money in substate last year before their bats came alive in the middle innings.

McKenzie should be one of those teams on the list. But it isn't. Which is hardly surprising since few people pay attention to the multiplicity of success we've enjoyed.

McKenzie has great potential for a great season, but for some reason, the Rebels red and gray uniforms must be covered in stealth paint.