Talkin' Sports, Madison-Style: The Weekly Recap

Just like the Twins’ offense as of late, I’m a little late in showing up with my blog posting this week. But unlike the Twins, I don’t think I’m capable of cranking out a Grand Slam and hit for the cycle!

Just as we finally get some good weather here in Madison, one of DSU’s conference rivals is calling it a season. Valley City State University has cancelled all of its sports seasons, effective tute d’ suite. Can’t say I blame them, though. For as much as we’ve heard about Fargo getting socked with flooding this spring, Valley City, North Dakota has taken a pretty big hit. So big of a hit, in fact, that the school ended its year early due to all the flooding and as such, cancelled all the sports seasons. So my thoughts and prayers are going out to the folks up there and we look forward to playing our Viking brothers and sisters next year.

Speaking of DSU, spring football practice is underway. New head coach Josh Anderson is running his team through drills three days a week up until the first week in May. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Josh a couple of times and I’m impressed by him. He seems like a real go-getter and I think you’re going to see some interesting things from the Trojans over the next few years. I’m wishing him the best of luck, even if he did throttle my Dell Rapids Quarriers back when I was in high school!

The Madison spring sports seasons are now in full-swing. The Lady Bulldogs took fourth in their invitational last week. The girls have some good experience in the first two positions but are still a little young on the rest of the team. But considering they played Vermillion to within one stroke a few weeks ago in a dual means they may be young, but they have a lot of potential and talent.

Another team dealing with the youth issue is the tennis team. The top-flight player for MHS is a sophomore and Coach Sims still has quite a bit of youth on this year’s squad. But the boys will continue to improve and mature, especially when playing some of the top Sioux Falls schools early in the season. And with a talented middle school group waiting in the wings, things could be very exciting for the Madison netters over the next few years.

The MHS girls track team is showing how it could contend for the state title this year. Coach DeCurtins is pretty excited about the talent he has coming back from last year’s third place team and if they can avoid that cursed injury bug, we could see the first non-gymnastics girls’ state championship since the 1995 volleyball team. The boys will continue to show improvement all season long-- already the Dogs have qualified one athlete and one team for the State track meet next month. Don’t forget to cheer on the teams this season at the Barker Relays!

Finally, some thoughts on the USD-SDSU rivalry being renewed… as you may have heard or read, the Summit League has formally invited the University of South Dakota to join them in a few years. Until then, the Coyotes will continue to be in Division-One purgatory, same as the Jackrabbits a few years ago. But unlike the Jacks, the Yotes have some certainty that they will have a permanent conference home in a few years. As a Jackrabbit fan and proud SDSU alum there’s only one thing I have to say about USD’s fairly easy transition to Division One athletics and finding of a conference home…

You’re welcome.

All smarminess aside, I’m looking forward to a revival of the SDSU-USD rivalry in the Summit League. I think it’ll be a win-win-win for every one… A win for SDSU because they have a conference rival that’s a 2-hour bus ride away that can guarantee a lot of excitement and a lot of gate revenue for basketball… a win for USD for the similar reasons, not to mention the stability of being in an established conference… and a win for the Summit League because it brings a long-established rivalry into the fold which can help the conference build some positive exposure as well as further shake off the tag of being “Father Flannigan’s Home for Young and  Wayward Division One Schools.”

Of course, the rivalry won’t extent to football right away, especially since SDSU has its dance card full for the next few seasons. I just hope the State Legislature doesn’t get an over-inflated sense of self and try to mandate the two schools play in football like some states do with their Division One schools. For starters, the State House and Senate have about as much business poking their nose in how these schools set up their football schedules as I do telling my mom how to make her world-famous baked potato soup… you just keep your mouth shut and let the experts do their jobs. And secondly, with all the other stuff that these folks have to do in the span of 40-days, college football should be DEAD LAST on the priorities list… unless it’s to approve building a new Coughlin-Alumni Stadium!

Well, I’ve gone on longer than I should have—again! Have a good week and remember the words of Carlos Mencia… “If you ain’t laughin’, you ain’t livin’!”