Are you missing high school sports? Well, Tuesday evenings you might want to listen to KLQP radio at 7:30pm. A couple of weeks ago during this COVID-19 Pandemic, I was watching ESPN and noticed they were playing March Madness basketball classics from years past because the current March Madness had been cancelled. Brilliant idea! I thought we could play some classic high school sports games on Q92 since we won’t be playing any live high school sports for a while, if at all.

I am sure glad that we record every game we broadcast on Q92. In our production room computer, we have hundreds of games saved, going back to 2011. Unfortunately, we begin recording games back around 1995 and I can’t find the flash-drive that I downloaded them on when we got rid of our old computer a few years ago. Hopefully it will show up somewhere. I was very frustrated this week and sick to my stomach that we might have lost the games from 1995 to around 2011. I will continue to look for that flash-drive, so pray that I find it. That is a lesson learned, I should have backed up the games on the cloud!

The good news is that I was going through the list of games this past week and found some really amazing classic games that I have broadcast since 2012. This past Tuesday we aired our first throwback game. The LQPV and Dawson-Boyd boys’ basketball game from last year’s Section 3A North Championship in Marshall that went into overtime, which the Blackjacks won. The response from people was overwhelming. They loved it, so we will continue to air high school classics on Tuesday evenings. Here is what I have coming up in the next month or two.

This week we have one of the most exciting girls’ basketball games I think I have ever broadcast. The year was 2015 and the Dawson/Boyd Blackjacks traveled down the road to LQPV to take on the Eagles for the Camden Conference North Championship. The game went into four overtimes! That’s right 4 overtimes! Both teams had great teams, I think the Eagles were 19 and 3 and the Blackjacks 18 and 2 at the time. The LQPV gym was absolutely full with screaming fans. It was a great game with some amazing athletes on both teams. LQPV had 8th grader Haley Wollschlager and freshman Kelsea Lund, along with Kaitlyn Connor, Alaysia Freetly, Drea Dufrane, Taniah Tosel. Dawson/Boyd started Justine Lee, Alyssa Strand, Alisa Hill, Andrea Lee and Kelly Husby. A game that I will always remember.

Also, I have the Canby Lancer boys basketball team winning the Section championship vs Southwest Minnesota Christian and also the 3 overtime loss too Fond du lac at Williams Arena that was one of the most intense games ever. I’m not sure what year that was, maybe 2014.

Another basketball game I will never forget was the MInneota girls playing Goodhue in the semifinals at Williams Arena. Taylor Riess stole the inbound pass with twelve seconds left in the game and went down and scored a layup while being fouled, but then missed her free throw and Megan Larson rebounded the ball and put it back up for a score with just a few seconds left, beating Goodhue by a couple of points. One of the best moments in high school sports. Austin Buysse helped me broadcast both games.

http://podcast.ruralsolutions.com/wordpress/index.php/2017/05/07/ramblings-best-sports-moment/

Later on in April, we have softball and baseball games to play. Remember the state baseball game when LQPV beat Ely in Chaska? The Eagles’ Jared Roiland in the bottom of the 7th with the game winning hit. There is a whole story about that game that you could write a book. In my opinion, the most exciting moment in LQPV athletic sports history.

LQPV baseball team winning in dramatic fashion over Ely in the state quarterfinals

I remember the Dawson/Boyd softball team beating RCW in Danube the score was 14-13. It was like 20 degrees out, it was the second game of the day, so it was dark and very cold, but what a game. Mary Bothun was unbelievable in that game. How about last year’s LQPV Section softball wins over Southwest MN Christian when Haley Wollschlager struck out the first 11 batters of the game and still lost 1-0, then a few days later struck out 14 batters and won 9-1. Very impressive wins for Haley and the lady Eagles softball team.

We will be broadcasting all these games mentioned, along with others every Tuesday evening at 7:30. Let’s hope this COVID-19 Pandemic ends soon so we can get back to broadcasting live games. But until then, enjoy the classic games on Tuesday nights.