{image1} The future is still bright

The Brewers aren't the only ones opening their 2005 season this week. The Nashville Sounds opened their 2005 season Thursday -- their first as the Brewers' AAA affiliate.

Over the past decade, the Crew's AAA affiliate has been a warehouse of AAAA players (other team's castoffs and home-grown, over-hyped prospects with no talent). That was supposed to have changed last year, but injuries to J.J. Hardy and Dave Krynzel left the officials for the Indianapolis Indians clamoring for more.

Indianapolis' loss is Nashville's gain. The Sounds appear to be the team to beat in the Pacific Coast League since the Brewers have seven of their top 10 prospects in Nashville to begin the 2005 season.

The rebuilding plan has been in place since Doug Melvin walked through the door. The plan is to let the young prospects learn how to win together in the minors. This follows the blueprint the Minnesota Twins created in the late '90s. The only player missing from the picture is J.J. Hardy, who on Monday became only the third Brewer in history to start his first game at shortstop on opening day.

The Sounds' line-up will be stacked. Coming off of a fantastic spring, Krynzel leads a bunch that is a who's who of the Brewers' future plans. The rest of the line-up shapes out with Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, Brad Nelson and Corey Hart.

And hitting isn't the Sounds' only strength. Ben Hendrickson heads up a staff that is a mix of young prospects like the flame-throwing Jose Capellan and Jeff Housman along with veterans like Rick Helling.

Frank Kremblas, who has spent the last three seasons managing the Brewers AA club in Huntsville, will manage the Sounds this year.

Predicting how young players are going to play is never an exact science, but barring injuries the Sounds should be fun to watch.

UWM on the big screen

It is absolutely amazing how far the basketball program at UWM has come since the day Bo Ryan was hired as head coach. Picking up where Ryan left off, former Panther coach Bruce Pearl made UWM a household name throughout the country.

The Cinderella run to the Sweet 16 put UWM on the map. Nothing is more telling than the national newsworthy announcement of Rob Jeter as the next head coach. Ryan's hiring six years ago barely was local news. On Thursday, the hiring of Jeter was on the front page of all of the national sports Web sites. It may be cliché, but your name on the marquis of ESPN.com means you are something.

U.S. soccer's savior

I have never claimed expertise in sports like soccer, but that may change with the advent of Eddie Johnson.

Much has been made of Landon Donovan as the future of U.S. soccer, but he is way too small to dominate in the box and his skills lend more toward setting up goals instead of actually scoring them.

Johnson has no problem putting the ball in the back of the net. He had six goals in his first five games and seems to have all of the skills to be a world-class striker. Also, he is doing this at the ripe age of 20.

The United States has produced quality players that play abroad at all positions except for forward. Never have they had a player like Romario, Ronaldo or Zidane. Their problems competing with the big boys of soccer have stemmed from their inability to score goals.

With the speed the United States has in the midfield in Donovan and DeMarcus Beasly, along with their superb defense and goaltending, Johnson could be the missing link to not only compete in the World Cup 2006 -- but also be a contender.