Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

The high school Falls Sports season will soon be on us and, in fact, the start of official fall sports practices is one week away on Monday, Aug. 12.

The fall sports season has always been my favorite and even after 37 years I’m still excited about beginning coverage of a new school year of sports at MAHS.  

People sometimes ask me when I’m thinking about retiring, but I tell them as long as I’m excited about doing my job, I’ll never retire.  Each day is a vacation to me and I thoroughly enjoy doing what I’m doing.

All seven fall sports at Minnewaska Area High School are set to begin Monday, Aug. 12 and, only four days later, the girls tennis team is the first to get its season going on Friday, Aug. 16 at the Park Rapids Invitational.

See story on page 1B of this week’s paper for information about the first-week practice schedule at MAHS.

•  The girls tennis team has its first home meet set for Monday, Aug. 26 against Montevideo.

The Lakers should be very tough again this year and should have a realistic shot at earning a state team berth.

•  Soccer is the next sport to get underway and David Vinje and his team are set to play at Fergus Falls, Thursday, Aug. 22 for its first game followed by the home opener two days later against Heritage Christian, Saturday, Aug. 24.

•  The Gator swimming and diving team is set to start its season Friday, Aug. 23 at the Willmar Invitational and the first home meet is set for Sept. 10 at the UM-Morris pool followed one week later by the first meet at MAHS set for Tuesday, Sept. 17 against Montevideo.

•  Cross-country has two weeks to prepare for its first meet, the Morris Invitational, set for Monday, Aug. 26.  The cross-country teams have just one home meet scheduled each year and this year’s home meet is set for Tuesday, Oct. 8 at the Minnewaska Golf Club.

•  Finally, the volleyball team and football squad are both set to get their seasons underway, Thursday, Aug. 29, although they both have earlier scrimmages.

The volleyball team, with new head coach Mitch McGuire, is set to commence play Thursday, Aug. 29 at Montevideo followed by the home opener with Sauk Centre, Tuesday, Sept. 3, while the football team opens up the regular-season at Morris Area, Thursday, Aug. 29 followed by the homer opener, Friday, Sept. 6 against Sauk Centre.

Before that, the volleyball team is set to host a home scrimmage, Friday, Aug. 16 and also play a scrimmage at Concordia College, Saturday, Aug. 24, while the football team is set to play in a scrimmage against Royalton, Saturday, Aug. 24 at St. John’s University.

Either way, it won’t be long before the start of the high school sports season . . .but, let’s enjoy a little more summer first.