Spring sports go by quicker than those in the fall and winter (the longest). Playoffs already have started. If you haven’t seen a game or gone to a meet, this is the time to do it. Stakes are the highest. Athletes try their hardest. You might see something incredible. Or at least meaningful to those participating.
Just the other day, Minnetonka beat Prior Lake 1-0 in 19 innings. What a pitching duel. Which reminds me, somebody should move the pitching rubber back from 40 feet to 43, the college distance. Pitchers have too much of an edge.
A couple of other random thoughts:
Wayzata activities director Jaime Sherwood will almost surely be the next president of the Minnesota State High School League board of directors. He is running unopposed. The board picks its next officers at its June meeting. Sherwood is the outgoing president of the athletic directors state association.
Roger Aronson, the league lobbyist at the State Capitol, worked hard to convince lawmakers this season to repeal the sales tax on section and state tournament tickets. Don’t think he got it done this time. At least I haven’t heard if he did. A repeal would put an extra $500,000 into league coffers. The league wants to use that money to promote high school activities and help student-athletes who are immigrants adjust better.
Patrick Kelly, another league attorney like Aronson, said he heard no complaints about TV coverage of the state tournaments in March. … There have been concerns that Ch. 45 does not reach every corner of the state and had trouble finding stations to pick up those tournaments in some areas it doesn’t reach.
Lisa Lissimore, the league associate director in charge of the girls’ basketball state tournament, said that 18-minute halves improved the flow of the game and still allowed them to be played in the 60- to 90-minute window. She also said instant replay was used during the state semifinals and protocal was followed well. Attendance at the girls’ basketball state tournament was down slightly, about 400.
Richard Matter, the league’s director of finance, said the Alpine ski meet was very cold but still held on the day it was scheduled. He also was in charge of two other state tournaments. The Nordic ski meet, for the first time ever, was postponed four days. It was 15 degrees and sunny the day it was eventually held, Matter said. The adapted floor hockey state tournament was held at a new site, Bloomington Jefferson, and went well.
The gymnastics state meet had good crowds, associate director Jody Redman said. The sport’s coaches advisory committee recommended a dress code but “some people did not want to abide by it.” Others did dress professionally. A record amount of apparatus was sold at the meet.
The girls’ hockey state tournament drew a record 16,000 fans, associate director Craig Perry said. He said that was in large part due to the big crowds from Coon Rapids.
Wrestling drew 58,000 for its state tournament. A new format was used. The state tournament finished with team rather than individual championships. “The intent was to keep people there until the end,” Perry said.
Boys’ hockey attendance set a record, too, and for the first time instant replay was used. “It was very successful,” Perry said, “but it never will be without controversy.” Perry said work will continue to make the new tool better. “If we get the final decision right, then it is doing what is best for kids,” he said. “I recommend we keep it in perpetuity for hockey. It did everything we expected it to do and more.”
Kevin Merkle, the associate director in charge of dance team, said the state tournament drew a record 9,000 on Saturday. “It’s continuing to grow.” This year they had limited reserve seaing for fans of teams competing. “We had people standing two, three hours and then running for seats. It was chaos.”
For boys’ basketball, there was a great crowd Saturday night for the Class 3A and 4A finals, Merkle said. Both 4A teams had strong student followings. … There were also some great crowds for the third-pace games. “There was standing room only for the first two games,” he said. “… It was a great atmosphere.” … He said that was great to see. “Sometimes we wonder if we should play those game — it would be a lot easier for us if we didn’t,” he said.
Chris Franson, the league’s IT director, said there were 275,000 hits on the league’s web site for scores and highlights on Friday’s Class 1A and 2A boys’ hockey semifinals.
Over and out,
The Prep Czar

Have you done your spring cleaning yet? I’m trying to do mine — at work. And as I do, I am still finding quotes and notes I had used sometime during the winter season. Yikes.
Here are some of them:
Braham boys’ basketball coach Bob Vaughan: “I bet we spend more time with in-bounds play than any team in the state of Minnesota. We do. We spend an inordinate amount of time, both offense and defense. We want to gain an advantage.

Area meetings, they call them. They have become a tradition. Dave Stead, the executive director of the Minnesota State High School Leauge, and several other members of his staff go out each fall and spring to talk to athletic directors and other school reps about present and upcoming issues.
One such meeting was held April 18 at the Crowne Plaze in Brooklyn Center. That’s a long pass away from the MSHSL building. A good place to stop by and take notes.
Here’s what we learned:
* The league is going to put out a CD on hazing. There seem to be a few incidents each school year. The most publicized recently involved the Burnsville girls’ hockey team, which initated new members last fall in a way school officials disapproved of.
* Stead said the league has not seriously considered charging for the cross-country state meet at St. Olaf College in Northfield because it would impossible to put a fence around the campus. “We assume some state tournaments will lose money,” he said, “and others will make money. Overall we are in pretty good shape.”
Revenues from the volleyball state tournament, for instance, were substantially up last fall. “The only thing we can figure out is we had some new teams and the year before the tournament was held Veterans’ Day weekend,” he said.
* The league’s Representative Assembly will meet on May 18 at the Crowne Plaza in Brooklyn Center at 9 a.m. to consider several amendments. One would allow football players to put on helmets and shoulder pads from the first day of preseason practices.
Another adds possession of “drug paraphenalia” to the bylaw which prohits athletes from using alcohol or drugs.
A third amendment would add boys’ lacrosse to the list of sports sanctioned by the league. The 16 region committees split, 8-8, on whether to advance this amendment to the assembly which usually would kill it. “But the [high school league’s] board advanced it anyway,” Stread said, “because some regions voted no on the amendment simply because they had no teams.”
Stead said there are 54 boys’ club teams now, and 14 to 18 girls’ varsity programs — actually that number is 22.
Will adding boys’ lacrosse become a Title IX issue? Stead said not necessarily. First you have to look at proportionality. Or the percentages of boys and girls playing sports. How close are those numbers? A school also could be in the clear if it can show a history or adding girls’ sports.
Schools can get in trouble, Stead said, if girls have interests and they are not being met.
Will boys’ lacrosse cost the league additional money? That’s uncertain, Stead said. The league has to conduct a tournament only if there are 32 teams, then they would have a four-team state tournament. And it could show a profit perhaps.
* Another big issue the Representative Assembly will consider next week is what to do with girls’ dance team. Coaches seem to be split 50/50 on whether to continue fall programs or not.
“Some schools in greater Minnesota don’t want fall performance seasons,” Stead said. “Other are saying if we eliminate the fall season, what will those kids do? 4,000 girls will have nothing to do.
“That’s not true. If the [dance team] amendment passes, it will just mean that [dance team] head coaches can’t work with [their teams] in the fall,” Stead said.
Another intriguing question about dance team is its status in schools. Stead asked the ADs at the area meeting in Brooklyn Center how many considered the activity a sport? Only three of a 100 or so raised their hands.
“If all the pieces look the same in dance team as in hockey and football, it is a sport and can be counted for gemder equity,” Stead said.
* Craig Perry, an associate league director, said at the same area meeting that paperless transfers are coming for the 2006-07 school year. He also said the high school league is looking at creating a coaches education program in Minnesota. Should there be mandatory, yearly quizes for coaches? he asked.
He also said coaches can coach their own players only during two periods: in season and in the summer, from Memorial Day to July 31, if they get a summer waiver.
Perry also offered this advice for ADs:
* “Any time a basketball coach is at an open gym, you have to make sure he does not have a whistle or clipboard nor is he diagramming plays.”
* “Boosters should stay out of renting facilities for captains’ practices.”
Over and out,
– Prep Czar

Back on April 30, the Mr. and Miss Basketball awards banquet was held at the Minneapolis Marriott West, which happens to be in St. Louis Park. I had trouble finding it. So, as I walked in, emcee Don Shelby, the Ch. 4 newscaster, mentioned by late arrival.
Thanks Don. Other than that he did a good job. He interviewed all 10 finalists, asking them what basketball has taught them or what their favorite basketball memory was. Here is what each said, in part:
* Cameron Rundles, DeLaSalle: “Responsibility is key and that’s what you get out of basketball.”
* Jessica Miller, Holy Angels: “Never give up. In life you will have your ups and downs.”
* Jillian Schurle, Hopkins: “Making it to the state championship game three years in a row. Not man teams get to do that.”
* Isaiah Dahlman, Braham: “The first one [of three Class 2A state titles] was my best basketball memory.”
* Kelly Jo Mullaney, Breck: “Basketball has definitely taught me to persevere through life.” Then she wished her father, ex-Minnesota Vikings lineman Mark Mullaney, a happy birthday.
* Ryan Wittman, Eden Prairie: “You are not going to succeed in everything you do. And, when you don’t, you have to work harder.”
* Bryce Webster, St. Thomas Academy: “[Basketball] brings a lot of joy to friends and family.”
* Jenna Smith, Bloomington Kennedy: She said basketball taught her “to work hard and never give up.” Best memory? “Winning the first state title [in girls’ basketball in 2005] for her school.”
* Cory Johnson, Duluth East: “When [his Greyhounds] made trips to the cities for games, we had a lot of good laughs on the 2-1/2 hour rides.”
* Anna Bjorlin, Hermantown: Her best memory was “going to state my freshman year and getting to play at the Target Center. That’s an awesome court.”

Dahlman and Smith, as most people expected, received the big trophies. “A week ago my coach [Bob Vaughan] told me to write a speech just in case,” Dahlman said, “but I never did.” Then Dahlman thanked Vaughan for letting him play as a ninth-grader.

At the banquet, it was announced Ken Lien is retiring as the chair of the Mr. Basketball Committee after 30 years. That committee has eight members. Ex-Fridley coach Pat Barrett is the chair of the Miss Basketball Committee. … One thing Barrett said I didn’t know. A coach has to nominate a player for her to be considered for Miss Basketball.

Other basketball notes:
* The Inner City All-Star Basketball Classic, which has most of the Twin Cities’ top black players, will be held on Sunday, June 18. Game times are 3 and 5 p.m. The girls’ game is first. Last year it drew a full house at the Gangelhoff Center, which is on the campus of Concordia- St. Paul.
* Eden Prairie boys’ basketball coach Keith Erickson, who came back a second time to coach the Eagles for four seasons, has retired.
* Rockne Johnson, the father of boys’ finalist Cory Johnson of Duluth East, was also a Mr. Basketball finalist in 1975.
* Franz Boelter, Faribault Bethlehem Academy boys’ basketball coach and a leader in the coaches association on 18 minutes halves this past season: “It has gone over well. Obviously the majority of coaches did not know how it would go. It was an adjustment. You’d be 10 minutes into the half without a timeout when you are used to eight-minute quarters and a break. But I anticipate it will stay.”

Over and out,
The Prep Czar

The state record for the longest softball game was in sight when the Spring Lake Park softball team took the field on Wednesday and visiting Cooper came up to bat,
On May 2, the two teams had played 22 innings before darkness stopped the game.
Panthers coach Lori Lightbody said the game probably should have been stopped after 21 innings. But they were trying to finish it.
Eight days later, they did in a state tournament atmosphere. It took just one inning.
But you probably know that. All four TV stations were there. So were both Twin Cities dailies and at least three community newspapers.
An unreal turnout. A Ch. 5 reporter even interviewed both coaches before the game and then started talking to the fans, looking for relatives in the stands.
It was not hard to find them. The grandmother of the Cooper shortstop was in the first row, on the Cooper side. And she told him to talk to Rachel Roberts’ mother, sitting behind her.
Roberts was the starting pitcher for the Hawks when the May 2 game began and she went all the way until the game was stopped. And she was back in the middle of the pitcher’s circle — there is no mound in softball — on Wednesday.
There are a lot of intriguing individual stories surrounding this game, which Spring Lake Park won 2-1 in the bottom of the 23rd inning. But you probably already know that. This game was the second story — behind the Twins — on Fox 9’s 9 p.m. news. Randy Shaver on Ch. 11 closed his sportscast with a short clip on how the game ended.
Roberts was one of the game’s top stories.. She had 30 strikeouts. Which, according to several longtime coaches, has to be a state record. Unfortunately, nobody compiles state records in softball. The only softball records kept are those for state tournaments. The single-game record in a state tournament game is only 20, by Lindsay Mamer of Mankato Loyola in a 1-0, 10-inning victory over Mt. Lake/Butterfield-Odin in 2001.
Twenty also happens to be how many strikeouts Spring Lake Park pitcher Randi Thompson had. Thompson changes speeds well and got her only strikeout on Wednesday on a changeup.
Roberts? She’s an intimidating presence who overpowers batters and is the reason for much of the Hawks’ success this season.
The suspended game was originally scheduled to resume at 4 p.m. on Wednesday — 15 minutes earlier than the time the game originally began. “We want to make sure we have enough light,” jokingly said Dave Alto, Spring Lake Park’s athletic director.
But there was a hitch to that schedule.
Roberts was taking a battery of tests to earn her International Baccalaureate diploma. She would not be finished until 3:30 p.m. or so.
So the athletic directors of the two schools agreed to push the starting time back to 4:30 p.m. — or, Hawks coach Erin Brown said, to whenever Roberts arrived and was ready.
Her family is driving her to the game, Brown said, several hours before the game..
“She’s the first person up and an integral part of our lineup,” Brown said. “… She was going to get there as soon as possible. But it’s a lot of stress for her.”
Roberts even suggested to Brown she could rush through her tests, held at a church near Cooper in New Hope..
Brown, a first-year coach, advised her not to. “[The tests] are important stuff,” Brown said. “If you get to softball late hopefully, they will understand. Our AD told theirs that we will start the ame when Rachel is prepared to hit and is definitely warmed up,”
By 4:15 p.m., when this reporter arrived, Roberts was at the game and throwing.
Roberts is undecided on a college, but has talked with school officials at Hamline.
“I feel my self getting real anxious,” Brown said in the same phone conversation early Wednesday afternoon.
But she was determined not to show her anxiety. “Hopefully my calmness rubs off on the team,” she said, “and they not lose the feeling they had: ‘We got to win this game.’ We wanted to get on the board right away.”
Thompson, a junior, made sure that didn’t happen.
She got Roberts, who teammates call Bobo, on one pitch. Roberts flew out to center. Emily Rasmussen, the next hitter, struck out on three pitches. Kelsey Thingvold walked on a 3-2 pitch, but Bridget Fyle popped out to the second baseman to end the half inning.
Spring Lake Park’s first hitter, Katie Walsh, coaxed a walk off Roberts on a 3-2 pitch. Kelsey Luedtke, on her second try, put down a near perfect bunt that hugged the first base line and was picked up about 15 feet from the plate.
The sacrifice got Walsh to second base and she moved to third, with still only one out, on a passed ball. Catcher Liz Moore, the Panthers’ top hitter, was up next but managed only a grounder back to the pitcher.
Roberts picked up the ball and looked to third base where she saw Walsh off the bag maybe 10-15 feet. Roberts faked a throw once as Walsh tried to scurry back, then threw. Too high. The ball went off the third baseman’s glove into foul territory down the left field line.
Walsh quickly got back up and headed home, sliding when she got there. Catcher Tracy Sheunemann dropped the throw home, but it probably didn’t matter. Walsh appeared to get there before the ball.
The outcome means that Spring Lake Park and Cooper flip flop near the top of the North Suburban Conference standings. Cooper, which was tied with Totino-Grace for first place, drops to third with a record of 9-6 overall, 7-2 in the conference. Spring Lake Park (11-3, 8-2) moves into second place.
This was the only regular-season game scheduled between the two teams, so both wanted to make sure it was played to a conclusion.
The Panthers’ victory ensures they will have a winning season for the first time since `1996.
The longest game
When this reporter heard about the 22-inning suspended game between Cooper and Spring Lake Park, it took only a couple of calls to find out about the longest. Call that luck.
Former Eastview coach Matt Percival, still the president of the state coaches association, steered me in the right direction. He said he had heard two longtime coaches talking about a 26-inning game and both were still active.
Eagan, coached by Sandy Ulrick, beat host Richfield, coached by Kim Niederluecke, 4-3 in 26 innings. Ulrick is now Sandy Hillyer and coaching at Lakeville South. Niederluecke is still at Richfield.
The Lake Blue Conference game took five hours. Richfield was rated No. 1 in the metro area at the time, Eagan No. 7.
In the eight inning, Wildcats pitcher Courtney Dully, a sophomore, told Ulrich not to worry, she had 30 innings in her arm that day. Dully pitched 25-plus innings, had a no-hitter through seven and gave up only three hits.
But when she threw three balls to the first Richfield hitter in the 26th, Ulrich replaced her with her sister, senior Amber Dully who got the save.
Tracy Carey pitched all 26 innings for the Spartans and gave up 13 hits.
The winning run in this game was unearned. Kristi Ligman got on base on a error, moved to second on a bunt, to third on a wilde pitch and scored on Amy Hamper’s single.
Eagan parents at the game started circulating a piece of paper, so people there could write down their memories from the game. Here are a few of them:
* Sandy’s 2-year-old nephew saying, din-din, din-din
* adult teams stopping by before their games, then stopping by after their games
* JV players wondering what Mom would say ‘cuz they were so late
* Sandy’s Mom asked Sandy why she didn’t send the runner on third. Sandy replied, “That’s why I coach and you sit in the stands.”