Two Unbelievable Wins...

After a long season, and many a blowout along the way, finally here in the post season of the boys district did the games finally get great. Nothing is as thrilling and describing a close game that comes down to the final inch or space, or 100th of a second that changes the outcome of the game.

Last night, the James Valley Vikings got an overtime win in the semifinals of district 5b. It was the inch that made the difference here, as a player missed a layup that an inch to the left would have made it count and JVC would have been sent home, but that one inch let the Vikes live on for overtime, and the eventual win. I hoped and even said at the start of the championship tonight that I hope this game is as good as the games last night. I had no idea how great of a finish it would be.

Coming down the wire, the Vikings got a rebound off a missed freethrow with 10 seconds, they had to try and score, the first lay up came up to hard, and the put back didn't go in either, but a foul as time ran out kept hope in James Valley's hands. As a young man stepped to the line, with the season in his hands at the line, he made the first easily, and the second is where again an inch came into play. The second freethrow hit the back of the rim, went straight up in the air, and back through. An inch in any direction would have been a miss, but it was amazing to watch, and a blast to call. It's like something that should be on ESPN. Maybe later I will put together a top ten play list with audio. You love the big games and the big moments that lead up to them. So, now I can only wonder what's ahead to wrap up the next ball game.....only time will tell. The only thing that could be left, is this clip:


Or Click Here to play it on the website

Some things never do get old....

One thing that I enjoy about my job is the ability to travel. Last night on the way to Pierre, it was a great evening to be out and about. One of my favorites, which I get to see all the time going to Miller is coming over the Wessington Hills and seeing that small town sitting there as the sun fades away. The small town look with the old elevator and the water tower makes it really feel like it belongs in a painting somewhere. Another great one was coming over the hills on the way home outside of Pierre where the lights of the small towns can be seen for miles and miles. I just love the open road and the great views you get to see in the travels around the state.

Well, now we get right back into the thick of things next week. I get started Tuesday with a somewhat big game, the region 3 game at the arena, then spend Thursday and Friday in Miller for districts, then have hockey also on Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday, and start up with basketball again the following week. Quite a busy time of year, and it's sure nice to feel the great weather back. I'm trying not to get spring fever, cuz we'll pry end up with one big storm yet, but it's nice to see winter's stranglehold on us fading. Plus, we now have planned our new yearly Memorial Day weekend camping trip. It's getting so close, I can almost taste it through the cold winter winds.....

First Time in Years....

Well, the past couple of mornings I've done something that I have not done it years. I used a comb. Yes, a comb. I wouldn't have to use one, but I have tried to see what would happen, and the jury is still out on whether it will continue or not, but some people may be surprised to even find that i own a comb.

I was shopping in Best Buy in Sioux Falls the other day, and I was pleased to find a piece of my childhood for sale in the television shows to DVD section.

I've been waiting for this to come for about 3 years now, and I've seen almost every other show come out that was around the same time, and now I'm enjoying watching the episodes that I never did see as a kid, since I was only 3 when it started. But anyway, for more info on the show, here is the amazon.com page. But, it's nice to own this first portion of my childhood, and since playing with legos at Thanksgiving break, I feel young again. Now, the rest of the week, games on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then I'll check the schedule for next week.

A Long Day's Journey

Today I attended out annual soccer referee chapter meeting in Omaha. As I'm sure almost all of you know already I referee college soccer in the fall, and have to go through a series of meetings and physical torture (they call them fitness) tests. Today was the first of the meetings. It's in Omaha, because I'm part of the Great Plains referee association. 75% of the referees that belong to this group live in Nebraska along the I-80 corridor, and then 24% live in the North part of the chapter along the I-90 and I-29 corridors until about half way between Sioux City and Omaha, and a couple other in the middle that live in smaller towns. And then there is 1% that live in the extreme north part of the chapter, that would be me. The closest school I can referee is Dakota Wesleyan, and the next is South Dakota State, and then, it's 130 miles or further to referee the next closest school. It gets to be some miles, but I'm well on the way to my second season of college soccer. Amazing that spring is also less than 6 weeks away! It's time to start planning for fall again, and that's hard to believe.

After 2 Years....It finally happened

Well, my streak is over. I was hired at Performance Radio on January 26, 2006, and I had not actually lost track of myself and started laughing from being distracted while being on air until yesterday.

I was in the studio doing my weather report when Jeff Duffy came in behind me just after I had started. I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and he occasionally will just put my hood up for no reason at all. Well, he did so again this day, making sure it went around the headphones and everything. Now in this photo, you can see I don't have a hooded sweatshirt on, but it's basically the same thing, only add the hood over my head.

(Stock Photo - Courtesy of TW, Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved)

So, now that he's got me in, since I've only got one hand, I am in the middle of my forecast, and am trying hard to keep time as I had to end the weather at precisely 1:15 for a network break, I'm getting somewhat flustered. Then, Jeff decides to take it one more step. He reaches around, and pull on both of hood strings. The hood immediately tightens, and it forces the headphones to pop off my head (no problem, I can go on without them if need be), but his pull was hard enough, that it yanked my head downward, planting my nose directly into the microphone. It gives a resounding thud followed by the sound of the springs on the arm shaking back and forth from the impact (which is quite audible on the air). I couldn't do it anymore, I started to chuckle, and suddenly had no clue where I'd been in the forecast. I had that annoyed feeling when the hood came up to start with, so now I was in the middle of nowhere, with my time running out. I did get out of the forecast (I am quite sure much to the confusion of my audience who remember could only hear parts of what happened), and to the faint sound of Jeff laughing quite hard in the hallway. My first (partial) breakdown laughing on the air.

However, that was not quite as bad one that happened to Jeff several years ago. As you can see in this photo, you have a clear view from one studio into the other. This photo is actually taken in the Big Jim 93.3 Studio, looking into the Z105 studio, and you can see Jeff in the background in the red shirt in the KOKK studio.


Before I was hired, Jeff was the station's news director, and the station had a different sports director, Tim Omodt. Well, Jeff was doing an air shift, he was reading the story that the legendary race horse Secretariat has died, quite a sad story for that day. As Jeff has told this story to me, he looked over while reading the somber news, and there is Tim in the studio next door, lying on his back on the floor, with both legs and both arms pointed straight up in the air. As I gather it, the insuing laughter was far worse than my slight chuckle. Even thought it was not at the time, it's now quite funny to us all.

I am not excessively upset about mine, but my how sweet revenge can be.....so keep listening to KOKK, you never know what you might hear.....

Is this really sport?

Ok, so I guess this is a big deal to some people, but I'm still not sure about the entire dog show thing. I don't know about you, but I just never really had the desire to have a dog that I could travel with, and show as a show dog. I was also watching Family Feud on the game show network Sunday, and one survey was the wierd things people do with their pets. Share food with them, sleep with them, and others. Now, is this really a dog? Seriously.....

Apparently it's a Pekinese or something like that...I'm not sure that qualifies as a dog. If a cat, or any other small domestic animal can eat you, you don't qualify to be a dog.....

Sometimes it just gets away....

Talking about time here, and how all of the sudden you look up and it's already Saturday, and everything is running together in a blur. Already this week, since Thursday I've been out and about reffing and calling games in Wessington Springs, doing hockey last night, and tonight back out on the road to Miller, where I'll also be back again next week, and no doubt later in the year for the districts. It's coming to the busiest time of the year for us, where we run ragged and usually wind up 3 weeks from now exhausted. Anyhow, next week, we go back at it one more time for one more week before districts will begin for the girls. Time is definitely getting away from us here....

Super weekend....

Well, I thought I'd survived my west river road trip with the Tiger girls until today. I came down sick today, which i guess shouldn't have been a surprise considering that most of the team was sick during the weekend. I heard that there was one or two who threw up on the bus, although I didn't actually witness it. Anyhow, other than getting me under the weather, it was a great weekend. As always, the scenery is great, and the weather was amazing. It was 40 or so the entire time we were out there, and at least one game was a good one.

Then came Super Bowl Sunday. It was a fun game with great action and a couple of good ads in there, although several seemed like a complete waste of almost 3 million dollars. That's alot of money, and I guess to those that spent on it, well, good luck getting your returns on your investment, although you did reach an audience of approximately 97.5 million people. I was amazed to find out that only the final episode of MASH has had a bigger audience at 106 million people according to this MSNBC article. That's a pretty good draw of people for the Super Bowl though, but Tide is going to have to sell a ton of those little cleaning sticks to make up for their investment. On the other hand, brand recognition is really what some of those companies were after, and no doubt some of those will benefit somewhat, but still, alot of ground to cover for 2.7 million dollars.

Finally, the busiest time of the sports broadcasting season is only 2 weeks away with the start of the Class B Districts. Guess it's good that I'm sick now, and not then....it will be quite a ride. Speaking of rides, now only 4 months and 18 days from the start of "Lake Season."