You know the game of basketball has a way of bringing people together. It was a fun and busy week of basketball for me.

It started Monday at LQPV where the Eagle boys hosted the Canby Lancers. I got to visit with a number of my friends from Canby and we mostly talked about the success of the Canby Sportsman ice fishing tournament on Del Clark Lake the week before. A number of Canby fans said they had heard my interviews on the radio. I always enjoy visiting with Lancer coach Eric Hansen. I told him it has to be difficult for him being the boys coach and having a daughter play varsity basketball for the Lancers. He agreed, but is able to get to most of her games. The boys game was a high scoring affair with the Eagles winning 80 to 71.

Tuesday was a night off from high school sports because of caucus night around the state of Minnesota. However, I did attend a college basketball game. Dick Newman picked me up and we made the trip to Morris to watch two former LQPV basketball players, Kelsea Lund and Haley Wollschlager. Kelsea is now a senior at Northwestern in St. Paul and Haley plays for the University of Minnesota at Morris. I have seen these cousins and best friends play basketball together since they were in grade school. I remember them playing varsity as 8th graders. I have had fun interviewing them countless times. Now to see them as young women playing a sport they love at the college level is pretty cool. Many LQPV fans and the girls families were in attendance. The game went into overtime with Northwestern pulling it out. The two teams played again in St. Paul Friday night and that might have been the last time you see Kelsea and Haley on the basketball floor together.

Thursday evening Bart Hill and I traveled to Prinsburg for a important boys basketball game with LQPV and Central Minnesota Christian. Bart and I didn’t get the word that the C squad game had been cancelled earlier that afternoon, so when we arrived at the gym about 5pm we had the place to ourselves. When we went to the press box area, there were two signs that said “Reserved for Marshall radio.” I had to laugh, because I knew Marshall radio wasn’t coming. The AD at CMC must have thought when I let him know I was coming to broadcast the game that I was from Marshall radio. The fans of Central Minnesota Christian are the best. I had three people greet me while I walked up to the press box and shook my hand to welcome me to CMC and thank me for coming

. The ballgame didn’t go the Eagles way, CMC has a senior team and they went to the state basketball tournament last year. We named Case Mulder and Ben Van Epps Players of the Game. They combined for 50 of the 80 points the Bluejays had. After the game in the lobby of the school it was Sara and Jason Wollschlager’s turn to feed the team after the game. Sara kindly asked Bart and I if we wanted a meal. I told Sara that I don’t turn down food. She even made cupcakes with pink frosting. Bart and I gathered our meal and went to the car to leave. We quickly ate our meal in the parking lot, however Bart forgot to take a cupcake and he was a little upset and I told him I wouldn’t be sharing mine. The next morning I went to get in my car to go to work and there was a lot of pink frosting all over my steering wheel!! I did not see that from the night before. I tried to clean it up, but it was frozen solid. Funny. yet Frustrating!

I wrapped the week up in Dawson Friday night. I have changed my location for broadcasting the games at Dawson. I don’t sit at the scorer’s table anymore like I have for twenty some years. I now sit at a table at the end of the court. A few games ago, Bart Hill came along and did the game with me. There is no room at the scorer’s table for two of us so I asked for a table to be set up in the corner. Since then I really liked the location and decided to stay there. Friday I also ran into Tayah McKenny working the concession stand. Tayah was so excited to see me and thanked me for blogging about her a couple weeks ago. She had a big smile on her face. She said her mom read it to her. Tayah is the one who delivered pizza to Bart and I during the game. After the game was over, Janelle and Tony were cleaning up around me and noticed I had spilled my bag of popcorn on the gym floor. I apologized to them and they both gave me a bad time about it.

So you can see the game of basketball brings people together and it is always fun to be in the gym!!