Kids ready for spotlight

She stands 5-foot-10, weighs 150 pounds and can smack a golf ball 300 yards.\nBut that's only a minor part of Michelle Wie's appeal.\nWie's age (12) and school grade (7th) make her the West Coast's can't-miss golf story of the weekend.\nOn the East Coast, five time zones away, 17-year-old Ty Tryon is competing at the PGA Tour's Genuity Championship in Miami.\nWie and Tryon, though, aren't even the most famous athletes not yet allowed to vote in action this weekend. That honor belongs to basketball player LeBron James of Akron, Ohio.\nJames is the 17-year-old high school junior who Sports Illustrated placed on its cover two weeks ago. Tonight, James and his St.Vincent-St Mary High School teammates get to smack around Oberlin Firelands in the second round of the Ohio's Division II high school basketball playoffs.\nJames will play in front of a sellout crowd, Wie will attract the largest galleries during the LPGA Tour's first tournament, and besides Tiger Woods, Tryon is the second biggest attraction at this week's PGA Tour event.\nGet the picture?\nFollowing this trio of young athletes through the developmental stages of their respective careers is fun. Wie, Tryon and James still play because they want to, not because they have to. They haven't developed the cynical and confrontational views toward life displayed by many professional and collegiate athletes.\nWie (pronounced Wee) qualified for her first LPGA Tour event by shooting an 83 during a Monday qualifying round. \nWie isn't old enough to compete full-time on the PGA. She won't be until she turns 18. She's also not old enough to play for her school's golf team. Too bad -- the Punahou School team could probably use a golfer whose personal best is a 64.\nIf Wie shoots a 64 today, she would force casual sports fans to do the unthinkable and watch an LPGA Tour event.\nPlaying in a professional event is becoming a routine practice for Tryon, who earned his PGA Tour card during last December's qualifying school. Like Wie, Tryon also can't play full-time until he turns 18. \nBut that hasn't kept him from playing against the world's top golfers in between history and math classes. Last year, Tryon made the cut at the Honda Classic and B.C. Open. He missed the cut at the Phoenix Open in his only PGA Tour appearance.\nTryon, who is from Orlando, plays his best golf in Florida. At last season's Honda Classic, he finished 39th, becoming the youngest player to make a PGA Tour cut in 44 years. \n A 39th-place finish at the Genuity Classic would give Tryon enough to build a decent-size house. \n Or maybe enough to pay prom expenses for dozens of friends.\nThere's one problem: Tryon isn't old enough to collect a PGA Tour paycheck.\nJames is the only member of the trio who won't receive national television exposure this weekend. But who really needs television when you've already been on the cover of America's most popular sports magazine.\nEventually, James should receive more television exposure than Wie and Tryon -- combined. For now, James plays in sold out gyms throughout Northeast Ohio. \nJames might be the most followed athlete in Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon-Journal sent reporters to Trenton, N.J., for St. Vincent-St. Mary's game against Oak Hill Academy (Va.).\nShaquille O'Neal made a special trip to Canton, Ohio, last week when the Lakers played the Cavailers in Cleveland, and the center didn't even visit the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame. Instead, O'Neal made the 45-minute journey from Cleveland to watch James play a regular season game. \n"I haven't been to a high school game in awhile, but us No. 1 players must stick together," O'Neal told the Plain-Dealer.\nDoes that mean O'Neal will make side trips to see Wie and Tryon?\nProbably not. O'Neal isn't much of a golfer. \nBut if there's a weekend to follow something different, this is the one. The Olympics are over, O'Neal's Lakers are taking a Spring Break and 13 days remain until the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament begins. \nAt least there's a trio of kids to salvage the weekend.