March madness has begun!
Forget March 19 for the official-unofficial start date for March Madness. In the Minnesota prep scene, it began before March even began, with the start of the winter sports championship season starting in mid-February.
Things are starting to heat up this week with the conclusion of the girls hockey season last weekend, this week is possibly the busiest time of the year for community sports editors. Boys hockey section semifinals are Tuesday (I’ll be at the Coliseum at the state fairgrounds), Boys swimming and diving and wrestling run Thursday through Saturday at different venues. Girls basketball begins its post season tournament on March 13 with boys hoops starting up its section tournaments a week later.
The Anoka, Blaine and Coon Rapids (ABC Newspapers) area has a lot ridding on the state wrestling tournament with many wrestlers challenging for state titles.
Stay tuned to ABC Newspapers for updates throughout tournament season.
I generally try to stay away from such things because it tends to give my age.
Can you remember when a person would ask when we were going to get snow and the answer was almost always – during the Tournaments.
Can you remember when most people in Central and North Central Minnesota could only get one TV channel – KCMT Ch 7 or KNMT Ch 12 which are now KCCO and KCCW.
Can you also remember when the pubic interest clause on their broadcast license meant that if enough people called in to request that a show or tournament be broadcast it was considered Public Interest and they would over-ride the network programming.
Now with that in mind, when was the last time any TV station in their broadcast area covered a State Highschool Tournament Game ???
I don’t pretend not to like NCAA or NBA Basketball but I would much rather watch Home Town sports, weather it be College or Highschool, over any game played by the other 49 States.
One last question, What ever happened to – Public Interest, The Tournament Snow Storms, and being able to watch my Home Town Team, WIN or LOSE, on TV ?
After all, some of us don’t have satellite or cable, nor a reliable cheap high speed Internet connection to watch the Minnesota State Highschool Tounaments.
Damian,
Thanks for the message.
I do remember a time when WCCO (Channel 4) in Minneapolis covered three winter sports state tournaments (boy’s hockey and basketball and girl’s basketball) with Ralph John Fritz and Mark Rosen on the lead. Growing up in the late 80s-90s I recall watching Bloomington Kennedy (the hometown team growing up) march to state in 1987 before the other Bloomington school started to dominate in the early 90s.
I think the days of having people petition for content are long gone almost by the same way of rabbit ears (TV set antennas) for numerous reasons. As technology evolves some things come to an end, like rabbit ears, but having the public actually call a station to air something, there is no way that would happen these days simply because of the money, advertisers and programmers have tied up in the predetermined shows. Channel 45-KSTC (Mediacom channel 12) does an excellent job of covering several of the state tournaments including Football, boys/girls hockey and boys/girls basketball . Something else worth checking out is Minnesota Sports Online where they broadcast live games over the internet in a very polished package. I’ve shared a press box with their broadcasters many times covering Rosemount football.
Thanks again for the comment!