The problem? The majority of their games are played against Minnesota teams. You know, the state with the most competitive hockey programs… the state that boasts the most NHLers…. the state that actually has enough interest in the sport that almost every high school has a hockey program, unlike Wisconsin where the a lot of the teams are combined schools, a la, the Burnett Blizzard.

But, in another "as usual" seeding meeting, the Blizzard are relegated to an away game as they are seeded #5 (out of 9). They miss out on playing in front of their home fans because they play most of their games against those hapless Minnesotans.

What a farce. I understand to a point, but the Blizz has a 19-2 record and have proven themselves against Wisconsin teams with a 7-2 record.

A #5 seed, though? That's absurd. The team they're playing in the first round is Menomonie (11-9, 3-7). The Mustangs finished a distant fifth in the Big Rivers Conference… but they get the four seed because they play all Wisconsin teams.

Record

The Blizz have the second best win percentage in the state. The only team higher is Verona and they are ranked #3 in the state. The number one team in the Blizz's section is Superior (and I'm not saying they shouldn't be) and their record is 11-8. 

I do not believe seeding should be based on record alone, but 19-2? that's pretty outstanding… definitely deserving of a home game. 

The RPI does not lie.

The RPI takes into account your opponent's winning percentage, your opponent's opponent's winning percentage, and several other indicators and spits out your RPI number. .500 is your average team.

The Mustangs have a .500 RPI. The Blizzard have .538. There are sixteen teams between the two (there are only 91 teams participating in boys hockey this year).

I don't think the seedings should be based on the RPI, but I do believe this shows there is a pretty big discrepancy and that politics are definitely playing a part in the seeding process.

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Blizzard boys

Here's what I've found out about Marathon.

They have a go-to guy named Cody Hanke. He's a 6' 3" Senior center who scores a little over 24 points per game and he scored 31 in the state semi-final against Oostburg. The next leading scorer is a tie between Cedric Lechleitner and Brody Hurtis both scoring nearly eight points per game. Clearly, coach Hallberg must be concerned about Hanke, especially since Seth Coy suffered a concussion on Thursday and while there's a chance he'll play, I doubt it (I don't have any insider info on that, though).

It looks like they don't shoot too many three pointers, but they do have a decent percentage (35%). It seems their min threat is Koleman Schilling. He has a 32% shooting percentage from outside the arc.

Here's a handy chart to compare the stats of the teams:

Post from: We are Grantsburg

Marathon: who are they?

Game stats from the WIAA (Grantsburg 54 Blair-Taylor 49)

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a recap and great pic.

Here's WQOW – Eau Claire's video recap… Grantsburg is the second story

My kids, Kaitlyn and Zach, give a recap.

Here's a wissports.net summary and recap of the D4 semifinals.

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Press thread

The Mounders played only two games against teams with winning records, Grantsburg played four.

Elk Mound lost to Mondovi (9-0) and barely beat St. Croix Central (6-3) at home 33-30. The combined win/loss record of the other teams Elk Mound beat is 17-46 (.270).

The Pirates, on the other hand, faced a tougher schedule with a combined record of 38-43 (.469) while Elk Mound's opponents were a combined 32-49 (.395).

Of course, Elk Mound won eight games and shouldn't be penalized for playing weaker opponents because that's pretty much out of their hands, but it also shows that their record might not be quite as impressive as it first appears.

The two teams had two common opponents Colfax and St. Croix Falls. Both Grantsburg and Elk Mound beat those teams and by similar scores.

Grantsburg has been playing very good football recently and are heading in the right direction as we head toward the playoffs.

I believe this will be a difficult game for the Pirates, but I also believe they can and will win. If they execute the way they have been recently on offense and limit their penalties it will be a playoff victory.

Elk Mound vs. Glenwood City writeup

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Grantsburg vs. Elk Mound… my thoughts

Wow!

If you take out their two matches with Washburn it's even gaudier with the average score being 24.93 – 10.2. Or if you want to look at it this way: the Washburn Castleguards scored 91 points against the Pirates in five sets (25, 8, 13, 22, 23) which accounts for 11.3% of all the scoring against the Pirates this year!

Game scores courtesy of the Grantsburg Volleyball website

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More volleyball dominance

State final

State semi-final

Pre-state

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State Stats

The Pirates are ranked number one again according to the Wissport.net poll. They remain number one in the WVCA poll as well.

The Pirates look like they’re ready for the post-season which starts next Tuesday and you can listen to every match on 105.7 WXCX. (If you’d like to advertise please call the station at 888.629.7575 – no, I don’t get a commission)

Here are the nearly final standings for the West Lakeland conference. Grantsburg still has the Cameron Tournament this weekend so the overall records will change, but the conference season is over.

Post from: We are Grantsburg

West-Lakeland volleyball standings

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).

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Final home game for footballers tonight

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

Congratulations, Pirates!

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Grantsburg volleyball #1 in two state polls

Did you see that the Siren girls whallopped the Drummond girls 71-8? Wow… that’s the definition of a blowout!

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Congratulations to Janey Emery