High school officials, the men and women who wear the stripes, blow the whistles and keep fair, safe play foremost in their minds and actions, come from all sorts of backgrounds. Some become officials at a young age, some a little later. They are committed to the sports and activities they love and they want to ensure that current student-athletes have the best possible experience.
Despite cancer treatments, Mountain Lake's Luke Klassen has never stopped running. He has competed in every cross-country meet on the schedule this season. He hasn’t always competed with his varsity teammates, sometimes running junior varsity or junior high races. But he never stopped running.
The Simley Invitational is a long-standing cross-country event, having been held for many years at Simley High School in Inver Grove Heights. The 2022 event, however, could have carried a different name: The Gerber Family Invitational.
For about as long as anyone can remember, the Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels have been playing football on a spectacular throwback field tucked into a neighborhood on the edge of Willow River, surrounded by pine trees and bathed in tradition and success.
These were pioneers, the first female athletes to represent their schools when Title IX opened the door to athletic equality for females in 1972. Back then, these athletes competed for McIntosh-Winger and Erskine schools. Now, as the 50th anniversary of Title IX is marked, they were stars once more at their modern, merged school.
In the midst of their wild stompin’ hootin’ and hollerin’ and grabbin’ at the Paddle, the Detroit Lakes Lakers broke the thing into two pieces. No problem, because now they had TWO trophies to raise into the night sky.
Saturday morning will be special when the girls and boys soccer teams from St. Peter and Jordan meet for a doubleheader in Jordan. The focus is on raising funds and awareness in the fight against cystic fibrosis.
During this 50th anniversary of Title IX leveling the playing field for female athletes, the halftime ceremony was a splendid celebration as four females were inducted into the Bloomington Kennedy Athletic Hall of Fame.
“When you play in the South Suburban every night's a battle, it doesn't matter who's on the other side of the net. We all know the high level of competition and this is a great atmosphere.”
“He’s normally very stoic, very subdued, but this time he was very upbeat, very positive about my situation. He said, ‘You can’t just sit around and wait for bad things to happen. If you’re a coach, go coach. If you’re a teacher, go teach.’ ”
"Everybody keeps saying we'll never get back to normal, just like our nation will never get back to normal. But hopefully we're going to get as close to normal as we can."
