I don’t normally like to write columns bemoaning the busy life of a sports writer. They tend to come off a bit whiny.

This weekend, however, I do ask that you say a little prayer for me and my colleagues Alex Swatson and Justin Sellers.

We’re about 24 hours from Warren County’s sports Armageddon. A whole mess of cosmic forces have aligned to make this one of the busiest weekends I can remember in almost two decades of covering sports for The Vicksburg Post.

Up first is the Red Carpet Bowl, the start of the high school football season and always one of the biggest events on the calendar each year. The 53rd annual RCB will begin at 6 p.m. Friday at Warren Central’s Viking Stadium, with Vicksburg and Harrison Central squaring off. Warren Central and Wayne County play the second game at 8:30 p.m.

Porters Chapel (at St. Andrew’s) and St. Aloysius (at Cathedral) are on the road, if you feel like traveling.

Vicksburg’s biggest youth baseball tournament, the Governor’s Cup, gets going Saturday. It used to be at the end of July, well ahead of this mess, but was rescheduled to become a USSSA-sanctioned tournament.

There’s no rest for the weary. A little after dawn on Saturday, several hundred people will jump into Eagle Lake for the Gator Bait Triathlon.

Later in the morning, the Warren County Cup — a Ryder Cup-style competition pitting the best golfers from Clear Creek Golf Course and the Vicksburg County Club — begins at Clear Creek, and Warren Central and Vicksburg High play in a slow-pitch softball tournament at WC’s Lucy Young Field.

Still hanging in there?

Sunday puts a bow on the weekend with more Governor’s Cup baseball and Warren County Cup golf. There’s even a Saints preseason game. The Saints play Malcolm Butler and the Patriots, so keep an eye on that one.

If you make it through all that, there’s a smattering of high school softball, soccer and volleyball games Monday and Tuesday before we get a breather heading into Week 2 of football season.

I’m not sure I’ll make it that long. I’m planning a day off Monday.

Or, rather, a day in bed.

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Ernest Bowker is a sports writer. He can be reached at 601-619-7120, or via email at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com