I crawled out of bed at 5:15am Saturday morning, jumped in the shower, brushed my teeth and kissed my wife goodbye while she was still sleeping. I was on my way to US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis to broadcast the Minneota Vikings state football game. Kickoff was scheduled for 11:30.

The drive from my driveway to the stadium parking lot is exactly 3 hours with one stop on the way. My drive early Saturday morning didn’t start out too well. It was still dark and a strong wind was blowing the loose snow around. It was a ground blizzard from Madison to Clara City. Once the sun came up it wasn’t bad, and by the time I got to Hutchinson we had blue skies. I arrived at the parking lot in downtown Minneapolis at 9am, which is located across the street from US Bank Stadium. I strapped my backpack on and started to walk to the stadium. Approaching US Bank Stadium is pretty impressive. It’s a huge building and has a unique shape.

It felt strange walking to the doors because there was very few people around. I felt like I was alone. I found the doors where media was to enter and was greeted inside by a nice security lady. I took my backpack off and she searched my bag. I went through the metal detector all the while she was asking me questions, like what team are you covering? Do you do the play by play? She then directed me to a table to get my media pass. Once I got my media pass I had a long walk to the elevators to take me to the press box on the 3rd deck.

I took the elevator to the 3rd deck of the stadium. The press area in the stadium is pretty impressive. They have a huge cafeteria area with literally hundreds of TV screens all over the place. Lots of room for all radio and newspaper guys. I picked my spot and set up my equipment. Other radio stations were already broadcasting the game before Minnesota’s. I visited with the Marshall radio guys and reviewed my homework for the game. I was ready for kickoff!

The football game was pretty fun to broadcast. It went down to the last play with Minneota winning over Fillmore Central 28-27. After the game was over I took the elevator to the arena floor and went to the press room for the postgame press conference. I recorded the Viking players and Coach Johnston and after that was done I visited with Coach Chad Johnston in the elevator afterwards. I left the stadium around 3pm. It was a great day in Minneapolis and I’ll be back for the Prep Bowl in a couple of weeks. And do it all over again.