If you are school-girl-elated for football camps starting and the pigskin flying in real games within a month, cool. So are we!

But that doesn't mean there is "nothing going on right now" in the Sioux Falls sports scene.

The Canaries are going on. Big time! They are the hottest team in the 12-squad American Association of Professional Baseball with three games at The Birdcage on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday and seven more in a row next Monday through Sunday (Aug. 4-10), and this is the best Sioux Falls crew since the 2010 Pheasants dominated the season before losing the championship series. 

The Birds have won 8 of their last 10 games and four in a row — the best marks in the league in both cases as of Monday. They just completed a four-game Birdcage sweep of Lake Country to seize both the second best record in AAPB and the "hottest team" ownership. The Dockhounds had won eight straight heading into the series.

With one-third of their regular season games remaining, the Canaries are 41-27 and are either tops or second in the league in runs, home runs (tops by far), hits and every other hitting category. They have perhaps the best starting pitcher in the league — Thomas Dorminy at 9-0, the only regular season-long starter with 9 wins and 0 losses, plus the second best ERA (2.38) — and the best closer (Charlie Hasty, who just broke the Birds' all-time career saves record).

Jabari Henry is the league's all-time career home run king (and fifth in AAPB in HR this season with 14), and he wasn't even one of the seven All-Stars from Sioux Falls who made the trip to Fargo for the league's version of the "midsummer classic." Two of those studs, both starters, are local college products — Josh Rehwaldt (USF) and Jordan Barth (Augustana). 

This kind of dominance did not happen overnight. The Canaries had nine straight losing seasons (2011-19) and 11 of 12 sub-.500 campaigns until they broke through with playoff berths each of the last two seasons.

How has it all finally come together, from lovable losers to league leaders? General manager Duell Higbe has been with the organization since 2013, through thick and thin. He's seen the dark side and the new ray of light. He knows exactly why the Birds are flying high again, and details them all in this illuminating half-hour conversation with Happy Hour host John Gaskins.