Most of you know how I love broadcasting and watching high school sports. I cover mostly LQPV, Dawson-Boyd, Canby and Minneota sports. In my closet, I have school apparel from each of those schools! I take pride in wearing all of them. Well, I had a first the other day. I put on a Montevideo Thunder Hawk cap and t-shirt to support my granddaughter Adelyn. To be honest, it was very difficult to wear. Let me explain. 

First of all, I love my granddaughter Adelyn very much. I want to make that clear to everyone. I will support her in whatever she does. She will be going into fifth grade in the Montevideo school district. Adelyn loves to play sports and I enjoy watching her. This year Roxie and I have attended her basketball games and this summer she is playing softball for Montevideo Summer Rec.   

So what’s the problem?  

As you know in high school sports there are rivals. Most schools have some big rivals. When my four children were attending Lac qui Parle Valley high school, all of them were very active in sports. This was back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.  One of the biggest rivals LQPV had were the Montevideo Thunder Hawks. Because of this earlier rivalry it is difficult to switch loyalties! Do you see where I’m going with this blog? 

For example, my oldest son Josh played baseball for the Eagles on varsity from 1993 to 1995. There was no bigger rival in baseball in the area than LQPV and Montevideo. Every game, every inning and every pitch was intense. Some rivalries are just fun, but not LQPV and Montevideo in baseball. I do not like to use the word hate, because hate is such a strong word, but this was a heated rivalry. I remember close games, big plays, controversial plays and lots of trash talk on both sides. Montevideo coach Jeff Gallagher was always involved in the argument somehow which really irritated the LQPV fans. The rivalry continued with my son Brandon a few years later. As irony would have it, now Brandon is a baseball coach for the Thunder Hawks. 

Another example was LQPV and Montevideo in football. The Goose Call was on the line and the boys on both sides always played hard to take that gigantic goose call trophy back to their school. The goose call game always made state wide news coverage. The rival ended because LQPV left the West Central Conference and the Eagles won the last game, so they have the goose call in the trophy case. I remember at a basketball game in Montevideo, some of the LQPV football boys brought the goose call along with them and kept waving it and taunting the Montevideo student section with it. I thought that was genius and funny. It sure added to the rivalry.

LQPV-DB Shadows and the Montevideo Gold Dusters are perhaps the biggest dance rivals in the state. My daughter Brianna was a Shadow and found that competing against the Gold Dusters and YME Silhouettes made her a better dancer. The Shadows wanted to beat the Gold Dusters so bad at competitions. Just another case of the rival between LQPV and Montevideo.  

There you have it, that is my story and you can see I have little love for the Montevideo Thunder Hawks. Now some of my grandchildren are going to Montevideo schools and will eventually play varsity sports and be a Thunder Hawk.  As I said earlier this was a first for me putting on the purple apparel.  

Last winter when we attended a basketball game. Adelyn made it a point to mention to me that I wasn’t wearing Montevideo Thunder Hawk apparel. A few weeks later I received a Thunder Hawk t-shirt and Montevideo baseball cap. The first time I put the shirt and cap on and looked into the mirror, so many emotions ran through my mind. It felt so wrong. I told Brandon and Adelyn “I’m sorry, I can’t wear this.” Of course we all laughed about that, but it just didn’t seem right.  

When I attended Adelyn’s softball game in Dawson, I put the Montevideo cap on for the first time in public. I made sure Adelyn saw me in the stands proudly wearing the Thunder Hawk purple. She had the biggest smile on her face, it made my day and hers.  Little did I know that when I arrived at the field, she was playing the LQPV softball team! The rivalry continues! 

I love my granddaughter Adelyn and now I am a Thunder Hawk fan, and I wear the purple proudly! Family has to come first in the LQPV and Montevideo rivalry. Please forgive me LQPV fans.