Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

•  Vikings off to one of best starts in team history — The Vikings are off to one of the best starts in team history, but being a longtime Vikings’ fan, you can’t blame me if I’m still a little apprehensive of how the season will turn out.

I was a young boy crazy about football when the Vikings made it to four Super Bowls in the early to mid-1970s (1970, 1974, 1975 and 1977; that’s four times in eight years), but lost every one.  I didn’t think much of the losses at the time, thinking they’d be back many times after that, but here we are, 45 years later, and I’m still waiting for our fifth Super Bowl trip.

Anyway, I’m going to stay positive and hope for the best, but until they’re actually in the Super Bowl again, please don’t blame me for being a little pessimistic.  I will say, however, that Sunday’s win over Buffalo was one of the most exciting games I’ve seen and Jefferson’s catch ranks as one of the best I’ve ever seen. 

•  Great Veterans Day program at MAHS — I attended my first Veterans Day program at Minnewaska Area High School and I was thoroughly impressed with everything about the program.  

The music was excellent, the speeches were great, the students were all very respectful and overall, it was a great way to honor all our veterans.

I’ve always said I could never do what veterans have done and continue to do serving our country.  But, because of our veterans, we are able to live freely in this wonderful world.  Like Supt. Chip Rankin said, no matter what you think, this is still the greatest country in the world.  Thank you Veterans!

•  NBA is wide open this year — The NBA is wide open this year and there are a number of great teams capable of advancing to the playoffs, including the Minnesota Timberwolves.  The addition of Rudy Gobert hasn’t panned out the way the Wolves would like, but he’s the type of player that will adjust where needed, so I feel it’s just a matter of time before the team starts to click again.

It’s interesting to note that some of the teams in the bottom of the league are the LA Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, all of whom were expected to contend for an NBA title.

There are so many great players in the NBA right now, that any team is capable of beating any other.  It doesn’t matter if you have a team full of stars, the players still have to be able to play together and adapt to what is needed for that particular team.  It’s not the team with the best players that wins the NBA title, it’s the best team of players.

•  High school football — The Mid State Football Conferences are some of the toughest conferences in the state.  Kimball Area (8-0 and 9-1 overall), BOLD (7-1, 8-2), BBE (6-2, 7-3) and KMS (6-2, 8-2) were the top four teams in Mid State 3, while Pierz (4-1, 6-4), Rockford (4-1, 4-5) and Morris Area-CA (4-1, 6-4) tied for first in the Mid State 1 division.  Of those teams, only KMS advanced to the state tournament.

On the other hand, the Mid State 2 division sent three teams to the state tourney.  EV-Watkins won the title (5-0, 10-0), while Royalton (3-2, 7-3) and Howard Lake-WW (3-2, 9-2) tied for second, and Sauk Centre (2-3, 7-3) tied with Paynesville (2-3, 5-5) for fourth.  Earning state berths were EVW, HLWW and Sauk Centre.

Of course, this happened to be the year the Lakers played their non-conference games against EVW, Royalton and HLWW, two of which advanced to state.

•  Cross-country can come down to a few seconds — I was looking at the State Cross-Country team results recently, and I couldn’t believe how close a couple of the tournaments were.

Heritage Christian edged Luverne for the boys Class A title, 102-99.  The difference between the two teams was literally about three seconds.  Luverne’s fourth and fifth runners placed 39th and 42nd overall, among the state teams, and if the fifth runner had run 1.36 seconds faster and the fourth runner had run 1.66 seconds faster, Luverne would have won the title.

In the boys Class AA competition, Mankato East edged Rock Ridge by two points (111-113) for the title.  All it would have taken is for Rock Ridge’s fifth runner to finish 1.67 seconds faster to move up three places and give Rock Ridge the team title.  Yes, that’s how close some of these cross-country races are.