2009

Not much has happened around the county in the way of sports. Teams that did play had only one game/match in the last week because of the holidays.
Things will start rolling along starting on Saturday when most teams resume play.
Ronan and Polson face each other in all three sports this weekend. Polson hosts Ronan wrestling on Saturday night and Ronan hosts the boys and girls basketball teams next Tuesday.

Monday night, the Minnesota Vikings returned to their former selves, letting down fans with a 36-30 loss to da Bears last night.
I saw the score at half time and thought it was a done deal. Another Vikings loss but as the game went on and Minnesota’s score started to increase, I was optimistic.
And in true Viking fashion, they gave hope to their fans only to drop them faster than a hot pan fresh out of the oven.
Great.
So that’s, what, three losses in the last four weeks. Way to ruin the great 10-1 start. Yea, they clinched the division, but if they keep this up, the first round will be their last. I wasn’t able to watch the game, so I have zero analysis.
ESPN, even though I despise them for not having anything to with the NHL, did have a pretty good take on the downward spiral that is Brett Favre and the Vikings

Men’s Olympic hockey rosters are starting to be called in.
Slovakia, Latvia, Russia and gold medal-defending champions Sweden have announced their rosters.
Canada announced theirs yesterday and it is chalk-full of talent, but the question isn’t if they have the skill for the gold medal after their seventh place finish last time, but if they can come together quick enough for the games.

One year ago, I was sitting at college getting ready for 2009. I would graduate in five months, but would finish my last collegiate season of hockey. We made it to nationals and finished the highest our club has ever ended, fourth. I started looking for jobs, was flown to Alaska to interview for one, graduated, celebrated my graduation and pending job offer, celebrated my first rejection and moved back home all with in a month.
I continued my job search and was offered one in Polson, Mt. On the fourth of July while many were driving to the lake, buying barbeque supplies or sleeping in, I was driving as far west as I had ever been to start an amazing job opportunity as a sports editor.
My first job. My first big move. My first true independence.
The last twelve months has been a blur of classes, finals, lazy summer days, moving and adjusting.
I have moved from Minneapolis to Inver Grove Heights, MN to Polson, where I have moved twice since arriving.

As the new year approaches with in hours, I have found some amusing lists of the past year’s most exciting and the decade’s most memorable;

ESPN did NHL’s best in the decade. It has lists of decade’s top player, best uniform and upset.

Yahoo’s Puck Daddy did a best goals of the decade
No. 9 is a sore subject in my heart. Feel free to skip over it. My favorite is no. 4. The announcers get so excited and they are from the opposing team. Welcome to the NHL, Jonathan Toews.

At the Leader, Aimee, Sasha and I came up with our own lists:
Best sports moments of the decade, in no particular order as you can’t compare the Olympics to the MLB to the NHL. It’s like comparing oranges to apples in my book.
1.Jason Lezak coming from behind to help Michael Phelps with his gold medal quest in the 2008 Olympics during the 4x100 race: Clutch. In the video, even the announcers doubt USA can win. I know the outcome, yet I get chills.
2. Phelps winning eight gold medals
3. Tiger Woods. Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any male player, and 71 PGA Tour events, third all time.[6] He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer.
4.Boston Red Sox breaking the curse when winning the world series in 2004.
5. Penguins winning Mr. Stanley. My personal favorite of the decade.
6. Nadal beating Federer in 2008 during the French Open.
7. Boise State’s Statue of Liberty play in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma.
8. The 2004 match-up against USC and Texas. Classic.
9. The New York Giants beating New England in the 2007 Superbowl, Sasha’s favorite moment.
10. ....and rounding out our top-10, the University of Minnesota men’s hockey team winning back-to-back NCAA National Championships in 2002 and 2003. This is my list so I can put whoever I want.
Against Maine in 2002. Maine’s celebration after its first goal is funny since the game was in Minnesota. M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A MINNESOTA, MINNESOTA YAAAYYYY GOPHERS. RAH.
Against New Hampshire in 2003.

Our list of FAILS of the decade:
-Patriots going 18-0 before losing to the Giants.
-Giants dropping the 2001 World Series- Aimee’s heartbreaking moment.
-the NHL Lock-out. So disappointing.

Fun link of the day: Harry Potter and sports.

Star of the week:
-Arlee’s Cole Rice: he won his 100th match last Tuesday and is only a junior. That is quite impressive. Put those 100 wins in front of his 14 losses. Fourteen losses in 2.5 seasons of wrestling. That’s 5.6 losses per season. Not bad at all.


Things to watch:
-Polson vs Ronan wrestling: 6:30 p.m. on Saturday in Polson
-Mission/Charlo and Arlee wrestling: St. Ignatius hosts a wrestling tournament on Saturday. It starts at 9 a.m. and goes all day.
-Polson basketball vs Ronan basketball: girls and boys play on Tuesday night in Ronan

Happy New Year!

traveling

Note: I wrote this on Sunday, when I was flying from Minneapolis to Missoula with a lay over in Seattle. I'll post an updated post soon.

The last seven days have been crazy. Between putting together the paper, entertaining friends and traveling home for Christmas, I feel like I couldn’t have crammed more into seven days.

My four friends went snowmobiling and snowboarding the three days they were here. I had to work and didn’t go with them, but the stories they told proved how much fun they had.

They saw a moose when they went snowmobiling and had a minor run-in with a tree. While they were snowboarding, a new word to describe fresh powder entered their vocab: freshies. They traversed the freshies= they snowboarded in powder. I’ve never heard that.

At night we hung out in Polson and Ronan. I took them to my favorite pizza place and we hung out with Sasha. They got a good feel for Montana.

Then came the 22-hour drive.

We left on Tuesday night after I got done with the paper. Driving wasn’t too bad until we got to Bozeman/Billings and the western part of North Dakota. The snowstorm wasn’t too bad to drive through, but I didn’t drive. I played the part of navigator from 4 a.m. to about 11 a.m.

It wasn’t a bad drive. Compared to the train I took, it was more entertaining, as four guys in a car for close to a day was fun. However, the train was definitely roomier and weather didn’t matter.

Christmas was awesome. My family is loud and crazy and I couldn’t imagine not being in the middle of that during the holidays.

Flying, though, is by far my preferred way to travel. Driving can get long and you cannot really sleep but you do get to see the country and I like stopping at the gas stations to get a feel of the local area. The train was great but I was alone and was really antsy to get home. Flying is perfect for impatient people like me.

Except when there are delays.

The flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was delayed about 30 minutes and the one to Missoula was delayed as well. I hate waiting.

In Minneapolis, there was a girl circling the group of chairs I’m was sitting in gabbing on her phone. Her plane to Vail, CO was supposed to leave at 11 a.m. Currently, it was 4 p.m. She walked out of range before I could hear what happened to cause the delay.

That would suck. You can’t leave the airport because when things are fixed, the plane will take off. It’s not going to wait for me to come back.

I also heard she was jealous of Bella because Bella got an ipod from Santa.

That’s what happens when you are in a public place talking on the cell phone. Bored people will eavesdrop.

Another gem from a guy in Seattle:

“This is the last time I let me parents pick out a flight for me. I sat in front of three four year olds and got the complementary back massage from them the whole way. I wish their parents sat in front of them.”

I wonder if people ever laugh at the things they hear when I am on the phone. Probably.

Usually in airports, I put my headphones in and drown out the noise, but when I was traveling to Alaska eight months ago, I missed three calls over the intercom for boarding my flight. Now I’m paranoid I will actually get stuck somewhere.

Traveling alone just isn’t as fun as when you are with a group of people. Driving back to Minnesota was definitely better because I was with my friends. For hockey in college, we had to fly twice to the National tournament during my four years and that was always a ton of fun. Much better than sitting by myself watching the crazy cart drivers almost hit people and swerve around.

Those drivers are intense. I don’t think I would ever accept a ride from them, even if both of my legs were broken. They tailgate the people riding in front of them and I have seen like two people actually RIDE in the cart.

In Minneapolis, the carts have horns on them. Terrible idea. The drivers just lay on the horn.

I love this time of the year because newspapers, media outlets and anyone with an opinion put out a list of the best stories/teams/athletes of the year. Since we are ending a decade, the best of the decade lists come out too.

I really enjoy reading these. Most have two or three similar story lines but each seems to find one or two gems that I forgot about/never heard about.

The one story that seems to be on every list is, of course, Tiger Woods.

Yes, it did happen this year but its weird to have it on the list. It hasn’t ended. We all know his return to golf will be on that year’s list as well.

In Minnesota, my dad has a subscription to Sports Illustrated and when I go home, I try to read them all. I never get through the stack but I was able to look at the one with the best pictures of the decade. Those pictures are so cool. I often wonder how the photographers can take such amazing pictures. I find that some of my good ones come from luck.

I can’t think of my top-10 list, thank you indecisiveness. I have close to two hours in the Seattle airport and I cannot come up with a top-ten list of athletes or sports stories.

I’ll work on those and get those up soon.