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Here's a link to one of my Inside the Huddle columns which goes through the trials and tribulations of my love life. It was tough to write and it is definitely an abridged version because I can only write 800 words or so for the Sentinel. Give it a read if you have five minutes.

Hooray for common sense!

The WIAA board of control rejected the proposal by an 8-2 margin to change the current football setup with conferences to a district format. You can read about the ill-fated plan here.

There were some good things about the plan, such as ending the three games in ten days at the end of the regular season and beginning of playoffs. That issue is slated to be confronted by the 2011 season. Here's a few ideas.

Todd Beckmann from the Sentinel has been all over this story and here's his latest about the thumbs-down vote from the WIAA.

For those of you who are hoping to listen to the Webster vs. Glenwood City football game you can listen online here. Find the link that says “Listen Live” and you’ll be able to follow the Tigers in a big victory (hopefully).

Angela Gaffney, Michelle Lund, and Steven McKinley represent the Grantsburg Pirates at the state cross country tournament held today at Wisconsin Rapids.

Angela (Jr.) finished 33rd last year and Michelle Lund (Sr.) finished 61st. Steven McKinley (Sr.) finished 65th last year.

Also congratulations to the Webster boys (ranked 6th) and Frederic girls (ranked 13th) cross country teams as they both qualified as teams. Webster won state last year.

The Webster Tigers (ranked 8th in the state) take on Glenwood City (ranked 12th) this afternoon in the second game of the WIAA state playoffs. Webster beat the Northwood/Solon Springs Evergreens 42-0 on Tuesday to advance to this game today. Good luck, Tigers!

The Frederic Vikings play Shell Lake (ranked 7th in D7) in second round football action as well. The Vikings, though seeded lower than the Lakers, are hosting the game.

Finally, the Grantsburg volleyball team is traveling to Clear Lake to try and defend their sectional championship and make it back to the Resch Center in Green Bay for the second year in a row. The Pirates take on Melrose-Mindoro for that right.

Grantsburg is ranked number one in the state, Melrose-Mindoro was unranked and had a number two seed in the tournament (Mondovi was the number one seed).

You can listen to the broadcast of the volleyball match on 105.7 WXCX starting at 7pm. Go Pirates!!!

The football brackets are out and even though Grantsburg missed them this year I thought you might like to know where other area teams are scheduled.

Congrats to the Webster Tigers, Luck Cardinals and Frederic Vikings… the only area teams to receive a berth.

Division 6 (Webster)

Division 7 (Frederic, Luck)

105.7 WXCX will be following the Webster Tigers.

Good luck to all three teams!

Congratulations are in order for the Siren Dragons football squad. By beating Winter last week they snapped a 42 game losing streak, the longest active streak in Wisconsin.

They were nominated and won the team of the week at wissports.net. You can read about it here.

Congratulations to our green and white neighbors!

A successful home season was capped off tonight for the Grantsburg football team as they blanked the Cameron Comets 22-0. The shutout is the second in a row for Cameron as Webster smoked them 49-0 last week.

Grantsburg moves to 2-3 in the conference. With a win against Clear Lake next week, Grantsburg would technically be eligible for the playoffs, but would probably not be included because they would not have an overall winning record. As it is now Grantsburg is 2-3 in the conference and 3-5 overall.

The game was a breath of fresh air for Pirate fans. Big plays and turnovers have been killers in the past couple games for the guys in Purple, but tonight they limited their turnovers (thought I think they lost the turnover battle 3-1) and allowed no big plays… while turning in a few of their own.

Grantsburg’s big plays were courtesy of Kyle Johnson. He had a 52 yard run which led the Grantsburg’s third and final touchdown of the night. Then he and QB Brent Myers connected on a couple of 40 yard passes in the game as well.

I think the game can be summed up with just one word.

Solid.

The defense played great, holding Cameron to several three and out drives and stopping them on fourth down once. And obviously holding them scoreless.

The offense did what they are supposed to. They ran effectively, gained good yardage on first downs and threw only occasionally. That is a recipe that has produced success in the past.

Like the title says, the Pirates won three games (Cameron, Colfax, Unity) at home while losing only one (Webster).

They probably won’t make the playoffs this year, but I think most people would qualify this year a success as the team has turned it around after the brutal year last year (winless) and the tough start, the Pirates seem to be heading in the right direction and that is a testament to Head Coach Keith Lehne and his coaching staff.

The Grantsburg football team will don their purple jerseys for the last time tonight as they take on the Comets from Cameron at Robert Olson field. The game can be heard on 105.7 WXCX. Tune in around 6:20 for Red Rock Radio Replay then listen to the game at 7:00.

It looks like Grantsburg has a pretty good chance of getting their second conference win of the season and their third win overall because Cameron has only one win this season and it was a non-conference game against the Northwood/Solon Springs Evergreens (3-3, 3-4) 35-0.

Both teams have had trouble stopping their opponent’s from scoring this year. Grantsburg has given up 202 points this year (last year they gave up 298), Cameron has allowed 201 points.

Grantsburg has scored 114 points, while Cameron has only mustered 75 (35 against one team).

"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.

It was a miserable night in Grantsburg when the Pirates, winners of two straight, had their eyes set on pulling an upset on the visiting Webster Tigers. It was not to be.

The rain and wind and cold combined to make things very unenjoyable for Pirate players and fans alike. The team turned the ball over around eight times ( I lost track after four fumbles and an interception). It was a rough one for the young team as they lost 28-0.

Give credit to the Tigers, though… they are still undefeated and have control of the Large Lakeland.

Grantsburg takes on St. Croix Falls next Thursday.