I played varsity tennis for Ray DeCola at Urbana High School for four years (1979-82), and I don’t think there was any other tennis team around that was in better shape than we were.

DeCola, who died at the age of 86 earlier this week, was also the football coach at UHS, and he trained the tennis players like they were football players.

Run up the stairs, run down the stairs, run up the stairs, run down the stairs.

When I lost a match, it definitely wasn’t because of conditioning.

I may not have loved all the running in practice, but I certainly couldn’t argue with DeCola’s success – his football teams were some of the best in UHS history, and so were his tennis squads.

In football and in tennis at UHS, he had the luxury of coaching some talented athletes (me not included).

And being the great coach he was, DeCola managed to get the very most out of his talent, and the results were fantastic.

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It was only a matter of time before Phil Simms was out as CBS-TV’s lead commentator on NFL games.

Simms hasn’t lined up at quarterback in the league since 1993, long before a lot of today’s fans were even born.

So it was no surprise when CBS signed Tony Romo this week to replace Simms.

Romo has instant name recognition with all fans today, and he seems like a perfect match with play-by-play man Jim Nantz.

CBS said it hopes to still find a spot for Simms, probably because two years remain on his high-dollar contract.

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Trivia Time – Judge Roger Wilson was inducted into the Urbana University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988.

This week’s question – Where did Tony Romo play college football?