Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

What a great time at Waterama again!  This was my third year of covering Waterama for the Pope County Tribune and this year, I covered most of the events on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which meant I was doing a lot of walking, biking and taking pictures.

I helped my son run the Waterama Pickleball Tourney Thursday afternoon and most of Friday so I tried to get in some hours at work earlier in the morning and tried to take some pictures at various events those days when I could.  I always enjoy going to the pie eating contest at Magnifi Financial and I also had a chance to take some pictures at Crazy Days, the basketball shootout, tennis tourney, glow dance party and more.

Saturday was the busiest day of the week for me.  I was up bright and early to go to the office to work on some baseball results and pictures (and also have a couple cups of coffee) before heading out to Glenwood’s City Beach for the start of the Magic Mile at 8 a.m.  From there, I went to the Library to check out some great book deals before heading back to the office for a bit and then heading out toward Barsness Park for some wild and crazy action.

Yes, there was the farmers’ market, sand sculpture contest, Car-Tractor and Motorcycle Show, Yoga on the Beach, sand volleyball tourney, bean bag tourney, alumni soccer game, swim races and more.

Wow!

Then, it was back to the office for a quick breather before biking to City Park to take some pictures of water wars, kids’ games, inflatables and axe throwing.  Early in the afternoon, I met up with some of my family for the Kiddie Parade at 1:30 p.m. and my final responsibility of the day was the Jr. Royalty Coronation at City Park at 2 p.m.

I was able to spend some time with my family the rest of Saturday, but did entertain some thoughts about going back into Glenwood for the night-time activities like the ski show, pontoon parade and street dance.  Maybe next year.

I had some fun with the grandkids before they headed to bed and then I grabbed a favorite beverage and sat out on the deck and just stared at the lake thinking about what a great weekend it was.

I did go back into work Sunday, though, to begin going through all the pictures I took.  My boss had the responsibility Sunday for taking pics at the Parade, Ski Show and Sr. Coronation.  

One of my favorite tasks at work is going through all my photos and picking out the ones I’ll use for the paper.  I had a great time Sunday reliving all the great memories from a busy weekend.

We do take so many photos and we’re never able to use them all.  I do plan on running more photos of Waterama over the next few weeks along with results of the competitions that are made available to me.  And, if that’s not enough, the Pope County Tribune also has a photo gallery where we put a lot of the extra pictures the staff takes at various events.

Yes, Pope County you do a great job in hosting events all year long, but you do an especially-great job during Waterama, which is starting to become very special to me.  

Can’t wait til next year!