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The Grantsburg pool is in need of some major upgrades to be safe for our kids. Please consider donating to the cause. The Village is needing to raise $25,000 to make the upgrades.

Thanks to Jennifer Zeiler for providing this info so I didn't mess it up.

The Village of Grantsburg is accepting donations for the swimming pool.  Donations are tax exempt. Checks can be made payable to the Village of Grantsburg and mailed to 316 S Brad Street, Grantsburg, Wisconsin.  If a organization/individual needs to donate to a 501(c)3, checks can be made payable to the Grantsburg Village Improvement Program and mailed to the Village Office at the above address.  Please make a notation when sending any donations in that it is for the pool.

If you would like to welcome the state champion Grantsburg Pirates home you are invited to meet the bus at the Burnett Dairy Co-op at 3pm.

We will wait for the bus and follow it back to the school with a police escort.

You can also head straight to the school.

There will be a program in the gym upon the team’s arrival with the GOLD BALL!!!

My radio station (105.7 WXCX) is a good one. The station manager, Mike Hughes is also a good one.

Money is tight everywhere including the radio station. In fact, there won’t be much of a profit made (if any) during this state volleyball trip to Green Bay this weekend. My modest payment plus travel expenses (food, lodging, and 50.5 cents per mile)  plus a $100/match broadcasting fee to the WIAA will take a big chunk of what our station brings in.

He’s even popping an extra $75 for a land line instead of a cell phone because the sound quality is better. $75 is quite a bit in the whole scheme of things (it’s more than my per match payment).

This is not a case of an employee kissing up, but a genuine thank you to him and our station for letting us cover local sports even if it means we don’t make anything on it.

Everyone likes an ‘atta boy so if you’d like to email him here’s his address, but I bet he’d also like you to visit the businesses that buy ad space and let them know you heard their ad during the volleyball matches.

"So you're not dead" was the warm greeting I received from a Grantsburger (I don't know why Kozy or Dale's hasn't tried to cash in on that name for a sandwich. I'm going to copyright it someday) at the concession stand after Grantsburg beat Siren tonight in straight sets to finish their conference season undefeated. She was ever so subtly eluding to the fact that I've done a horrible job updating this blog. So in this post I'm going to try and recap all the news that has occurred in the week and a half I've strayed.

1. Nick Hallberg and Penny Curtin are the new coaches for the boys and girls basketball teams, respectively. I couldn't be happier as a fan of Grantsburg athletics. Both are knowledgeable, good teachers and easy to talk to. I feel like both will have a lot of success in the upcoming years.

2. Grantsburg volleyball wins the conference. It is really a testament to the program that this news is really not that surprising. Think of any other sport… go ahead… except for fast pitch, they are all a huge achievement. This conference win is a big achievement, too, but one that was very expected. Congratulations, Pirates!

(This photo of Grantsburg's seniors comes courtesy of this site maintained by the multi-talented Deb Johnson)

3. I'll definitely have more to say on the following if it passes, but the proposal of realigning football from conferences to districts is a really a bad deal for Grantsburg. It would make Grantsburg travel sooooooo far to play other teams in their division.

The closest team in the new district realignment would be Cameron which is 76 miles away and is currently the FARTHEST team from Grantsburg in the Large Lakeland conference. There would be FIVE teams well over 100 miles away, Rib Lake/Prentice being the farthest at 170 miles. To give you some perspective… St. Paul to Duluth is only 150 miles. The average travel distance for Grantsburg in this new format is 119 miles (in our current conference it is only 46 miles… which includes Cameron and Clear Lake – both over 70 miles away). Good grief.

From what I've read it seems like this proposal has a lot of momentum, as in it might be adopted this winter and may be implemented for the 2010 season.

I wonder how much more it will cost Grantsburg in travel. Where will that money come from? By the way… Grantsburg is not the only town this stinks for… northern Wisconsin is DOOMED! (OK… maybe not doomed, but definitely adversely affected).

What about JV and Middle School games? Let's look at JV. Say they play at 5:00 Monday evenings (like now)(Middle School generally plays on Tuesday or Thursday evenings). Assume it takes three hours to get to Prentice . They will have to leave school around 1 o'clock. and they won't get back home until maybe 11pm! And that's only true if the game doesn't go into overtime! A school night. Homework. Sleep. Not to mention the families who have to make the trek there and back.

I couldn't be more against it. If you're against it please write a letter to the WIAA.

The contact info is:

5516 Vern Holmes Dr., Stevens Point, WI 54482.

The WIAA phone number is (715) 344-8580.

Click on the map to be able to read it better and zoom in.

Wissports.net has this resource that shows you some of these things. And read Todd Beckmann's article from the Burnett County Sentinel which includes many quotes from Grantsburg Athletic Director, Mike Amundson. If you'd like to read the proposal in it's entirety… enjoy.

4. Eighth grade thriller against Unity. Ok, so I'm biased because I'm a football coach for the middle school team, but the game the eighth graders won (their last game in middle school) was one of the all-time best moments in a sporting event that I've been a part of.

We took the lead with about a minute and a half to go in a tight ball game. We were very excited. Then we kicked-off and Unity returned it for a touchdown. Ugh. What a bummer that was, but these guys didn't give up. Unity kicked it back to us with just over a minute to go in the game.

We trailed by six points.

We work our way down the field and have it third and goal at the two yard line. Nine seconds to go and we had just used our final time-out. We hand the ball off and score a touchdown. More jumping and yelling. Now we are tied. The two point conversion was good so we take the lead with six seconds left on the clock.

We don't make the mistake of kicking it deep this time. One of the up-men for Unity fields the ball and is tackled. Two seconds remaining.

Ball near mid-field.

They line up with trips to the right. QB drops back and unloads.

Then the crowd goes WILD as the ball is batted back and falls harmlessly to the ground. Grantsburg wins in a thriller.

Unity was a bigger and faster team, but Grantsburg had more heart!

I am still smiling about that one

5. I will be broadcasting Grantsburg volleyball on the radio starting next Tuesday as the playoffs begin. Grantsburg will be taking on Glenwood City in first round action from G-burg. Catch the action on 105.7 WXCX. I am sorry we weren't able to bring you any regular season games, but it was kind of nice for me to just go enjoy the whoopins without having to describe them. But, I'm very excited to be getting to bring you the state tournament.

That's all I can think of and care to opine about tonight. Congratulations, again, to the volleyball team. Another awesome regular season. They have a final tune up for the playoffs this weekend at the Cameron Tournament. They have won every other tournament they've entered this year and there's no reason they can't win the next two.

I was very impressed by Grantoberfest on Saturday. Congratulations Nicki Peterson and the Chamber of Commerce for a wonderful idea. It was great fun for my entire family and not as creepy as the fair (except for one of the kickball teams, YIKES!).

It was very fun to see a ton of people just out there enjoying their neighbors and friends. All the people I talked to really liked the event. And my mom won the Chili Cook-off!!! (In fact, we’re going to have that before the Monday Night Football game tomorrow… a new batch, thankfully).

I love our community and for the Chamber getting behind this event is really great and I hope they continue it well into the future.

The tragic plane crash on Wednesday, April 22 claimed the life of Michael Schute, 48 from Grantsburg.

You can read more about this story at the Burnett County Sentinel and WXCX/WCMP radio has audio from Burnett County Sheriff, Dean Roland as well as some video (which doesn’t show much except the charred ground).

Our prayers are with Mr. Schute’s family.

Photo Courtesy of the Burnett County Sentinel

By supporting your favorite school… you can also support your favorite blog. Ok, maybe its not your favorite blog, but click on the ad anyway and look at the awesome selection of apparel they have. You could have a Grantsburg Pirates tennis team if you want! Go ahead and check it out.

How come every other school district in Minnesota and Wisconsin can let the media know about a school delay or closing the night before, yet Grantsburg waits?

You know that I love the schools, but I wish they’d inform us sooner.

End of rant.

I’m a little late linking to this article by Todd Beckmann in the Sentinel which is basically a collage of thoughts from area high school coaches about the former editor of the Burnett County Sentinel, Byron Higgin.

Here is the link.

If you knew Byron at all you would know he had a deep affinity for sports. One glance into his office would give that away. Homer Hankies, bobble head dolls, baseball cards and other memorabilia adorned his workspace at the Sentinel.

He always had time to talk about sports, especially local. He loves it and he loved covering it.

What must have been an extremely scary situation on Friday, turned out to be a very cold emergency drill.

A possible bomb threat was overheard by someone which led to the evacuation of Grantsburg high school leading to students and staff assembling in the middle school on Friday, Dec. 19 around one in the afternoon.

We are all very thankful that the threat was not real and the outcome was anti-climactic.

For more on the story check out the Sentinel’s article.