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The first half was full, FULL, of mistakes for the boys in purple. Botched punts, lost fumbles, a safety, penalties. All of these things going against them, yet they were only down by 9 heading into halftime. Trailing 9-0 at halftime of the rainiest day of this fall, the Grantsburg Pirates found a spark. I don’t know what the coaches said or what adjustments they made during that 15 minute period between the second and third quarters, whatever it was it worked. Big. They came out of the halftime locker room seemingly more focused and with more intensity than they showed in the first half.

The second half started with the Pirates stopping Colfax with a nifty three-and-out drive. The Pirates then scored on their first drive. Again, they held the Vikings to a three-and-out. The defense was all over the place. Gavin Meyer was outstanding from his linebacker spot and the interior of the defensive line held their ground wonderfully. The Vikings were not able to move the ball in the second half.

The Pirates did. They scored twenty unanswered points in the second half to win the game 20-9. It was a great come from behind game.

Grantsburg hadn’t won a game since October of 2007. Now they have won two in a row heading into Homecoming week against the Webster Tigers. (The Tigers are undefeated after smoking the Clear Lake Warriors, 31-0 tonight. I couldn’t believe that score when I heard it. )

Since the second half of the Luck game three weeks ago the Pirates have played inspired football (not flawless, obviously, but inspired). They are a fun team to watch and who knows, if they keep improving they might find themselves battling for a playoff spot. Who would have guessed?

The new WVCA poll came out today and Grantsburg remains ranked #1. The Wissports.net poll also gives the highest ranking to the Pirates.

The Pirates have a 14-1 match play record. Their one loss came to the Hayward Hurricanes during pool play during the Ashland Tournament. Hayward is is ranked #11 in Division 2 (Grantsburg is in Division 3). The Hurricanes only have one match loss… a rematch with the Pirates for the Ashland Tournament championship. Grantsburg won that 2-1.

Grantsburg has only lost three sets all year, all three to the Hurricanes (0-2, 2-1).

So, yeah. They’re pretty good.

I was able to take in some of the tournament hosted by Grantsburg this past weekend and to say they dominated would be an understatement.

Speaking with several people (fans/family of players) during the tournament I asked if they thought the team could be beat. The common response was a pause and then some variation of "no". The only thing that seemingly stands in the way of the Pirates and a return trip to the Resch Center in Green Bay would be some kind of injury to one of the starters, even then I wouldn’t count the girls out.

Tonight the Pirates take on the Luck Cardinals at home as a final tune up before heading north to Duluth for the Duluth-Marshall tournament. Hopefully the girls get some good competition during that tourney.

Congratulations to the Pirate football team on their victory tonight over the Unity Eagles. The final score was 34-21.

I was unable to attend tonight (I was broadcasting the Luck/Webster game which Webster won by eight in exciting fashion), but I had a friend in the Grantsburg stands texting me regular updates. I just had a feeling that tonight was going to be the night the Pirates finally get that victory to break their winless streak.

The Pirates went winless all of last year and some of the previous. They hadn’t won a game since October 2007.

Hopefully they can build off this nice win and turn it into an actual winning streak. They play the winless Colfax Cardinals next Friday. I’m broadcasting that game and you can listen to it on 105.7, WXCX.

Congrats again to the Pirate football team!!!

The Pirates strike once again playing close to perfect volleyball against the Webster Tigers in West Lakeland play.

The Pirates won 3-0 (25-9,25-10, 25-13). I give credit to the Mindy Widiker coached team because they never gave up and kept smiling the entire night. Even though they were getting trounced, they were having fun, so congrats to the Tigers.

The Pirates on the other hand just look unstoppable. They were hitting hard, playing good defense, passing well and they just own the court. The confidence they play with is as high as it can be. They believe they are unbeatable, and so do I.

I’ve included the audio from tonight’s tilt. I hope you enjoy it.

9-17-09 Webster @ Grantsburg Volleyball

The WisSports poll and the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association both have the Pirates at the top girls volleyball team in division 3.

The Pirates are 8-1 heading into tonight’s match with Webster. Their only loss was to Hayward in the Ashland Tournament.

Congratulations, Pirates!

The very successful coach of the Grantsburg Pirates boy’s basketball team resigned earlier this week from that position. Danny Judd has been the head coach of the team since the 2000-01 season.

He led the team to a state berth and second place finish during the ’04-’05 season and has had several other very good teams.

There has been no replacement named for the upcoming season yet. Nick Hallberg is the current assistant coach and JV head coach. The JV team went undefeated last year under Hallberg and Judd. Without any inside info at all and purely looking from the outside it would seem to be a good fit for Hallberg if he wants the job.

Danny Judd and Nick Hallberg

In a small surprise the Grantsburg Pirates will not be going undefeated this year as they did last year during the regular season. They dropped a match (0-2) to Hayward during the Ashland Invitational Tournament on Saturday.

Grantsburg went on to win the entire tournament by beating Hayward in the championship match.

Congrats to the v-ballers!

For more details check out the volleyball homepage tab on the right.

There were moments in the Luck vs. Grantsburg tilt that gave Pirate fans hope that the worst is behind them.

Grantsburg was able to move the ball fairly well against a very athletic and well coached Cardinal team. The problem for the Pirates were turnovers. The Pirates coughed the ball up several times, losing a couple. They also threw two interceptions.

Had Grantsburg been able to hang on to the ball tonight the score would not be as lopsided as it seems. I think Luck was definitely the better team tonight, but I don’t think the Pirates are that far from getting their first win of the season either.

If you missed the broadcast you can listen to it right here on We Are Grantsburg. Go ahead.

Here’s my postgame interview with Coach Keith Lehne.

The Grantsburg volleyball team heads north to the annual Ashland tournament held in, uh, Ashland.

The tournament starts with pool play and then ends with the top teams squaring off to determine the big winner. My hunch is Grantsburg will be one of those teams left standing at the end of pool play.

Did you know Bill Morrin (Grantsburg’s head volleyball coach) got his volleyball coaching start at Ashland Washburn? Well, you do now.

All the info in this post was blatantly and brazenly ripped off of the girls’ volleyball website maintained wonderfully by Deb Johnson. How she has time to update that site with all the time she spends on Facebook is anyone’s guess. But thanks to her anyway… it makes life just that much easier for this guy.

The Pirate football team tries to notch their first win since October of 2007 tonight against the Luck Cardinals. You can hear the game broadcast on 105.7 WXCX.

Luck is 2-0 on the young season and looks to be a pretty tough team to beat, especially on the road.

The last time these two teams played each other in Luck was a classic game that turned out to be one of the craziest I’d ever seen as a broadcaster. Grantsburg won the game 17-9. Grantsburg lost last year’s tilt 28-20.

I also wanted to plug Red Rock Radio Replay which is an area recap/preview show put on by WXCX and WCMP. You  can listen to the show at around 6:20 Friday evenings during the football season. You can also listen to it here anytime.