Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

Wow, this has been a crazy winter!

Pelican Lake had its ice-in date Nov. 28 this winter, but by the end of December, the lake had opened up again after a significant rainfall around Christmas.

The lake froze again (ice-in) within a week and it stayed that way through March 10, 2024 when Pelican Lake had its ice-out day.  That wasn’t the end, though, as Pelican was completely iced-in again Saturday, March 23, but was free of ice later the same day.

And, the night of Thursday, March 28, the lake froze over for a fourth time this winter, but was mostly clear of ice (ice-out) again by Sunday afternoon, March 31.  For those of you counting, that’s four ice-in and four ice-out dates this winter . . .  and we might not even be done yet.  Go figure.  

My question would be, is there a record for the number of ice-ins and ice-outs for one year?  Wow!

Few changes to sections for spring

There are a few major changes for section alignments this spring for Laker sports.  Hopefully, the weather will turn around this week so the teams can get outside and start their seasons next week.

The biggest change for spring sports involves track and field, which will move from Section 5A to 6A.  That’s huge for the Lakers since EVW-Kimball Area and Holdingford were former competitors in Section 5A and field very strong track programs.

The Laker softball and baseball programs will remain in Section 3AA this spring.  The baseball section loses ACGC and WCA, but gains KMS, while the softball section loses ACGC, RCW-BOLD and WCA, but adds a strong KMS softball program.

For boys and girls golf, the Lakers will stay in Section 3AA where they will lose ACGC, WCA and Worthington, but will also be joined by KMS, Kimball-EVW and Paynesville.

And, for boys tennis, Section 8A adds Detroit Lakes to make a very strong nine-team section.

Good luck to all the Laker spring sports teams as they get ready for two months of non-stop action.