Back on the Blogosphere

No.  HSGN did not go out of business.  The reason for the long gap between entries is that the day after the last post, the author of this blog was delivering flyers for a north Minneapolis company in Bloomington and he fell on the ice in a driveway and broke his right wrist.

Surgery was done in March, causing HSGN to miss the state boys hockey tournament due to recovery.  But due to a very sore wrist, it was too difficult to type stories for both basketball tournaments and the spring sports season was also time for the wrist to heal.

Now that the pain has departed, here's a list of the Top 10 Highlights of the Winter and Spring High School Sports Season.

10.  Though downtown St. Paul was hit with a snowstorm (causing the blogger to take Metro Transit), the Breck Mustangs and the Edina Hornets took home the Class A & AA girls hockey championship trophies.

9.  What a season for west metro area boys hockey.  The Orono Spartans won the Class A title and the Minnetonka Skippers sailed to the Class AA championship.

8.  Head coach Justin Morris ended his coaching career on a high note when he led the Lyle/Austin Pacelli Athletics to the Class A girls basketball championship.  Morris commuted from Omaha to Austin where his wife works and it got to be too much so he stepped down following the season.

7.  There was hope in New Hope for the Cooper Hawks as the girls basketball team brought the Class AAA championship trophy down Winnetka Ave.

6.  St. Croix Valley sports fans had reason to celebrate as the Stillwater Ponies won two state titles in a 10 day span.  First was the Class AAAA girls fastpitch softball title.  Second, played on a Monday afternoon due to heavy rain in the Twin Cities, the Ponies baseball team headed to Target Field and beat the Minnetonka Skippers to with the state Class AAAA championship.

5.  To quote a hit song by Lou Christie "Lightning is striking again."  That refers to the Eastview Lightning girls basketball team who went 32-0 to win their first Class AAAA championship since 2014.

4.  High school baseball fans who waited out a four hour 20 minute delay got to see one of the great individual performances in state tournament history when Seth Halvorsen hit two home runs and struck out 16 batters to lead the Heritage Christian Academy Eagles to the Class A title.

3.  One of the greatest dynasties in state boys basketball history came to an end in the Class AAA semifinals when the Columbia Heights Hylanders ended the DeLaSalle Islanders six year championship reign.

2.  A fabulous finish in the Class AAAA boys basketball championship game as Daniel Oturu's last second jam led the Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders to the state title over the Apple Valley Eagles.  Oturu will be wearing maroon and gold this fall since he will be playing for the Gophers.

and....

1.  Highlight or lowlight?  April 14, 2018 will be remembered as the day of the massive snowstorm that paralyzed Minnesota.  The heavy snow put the spring sports season on hold and meant that baseball and softball teams had to play doubleheaders so that the season could be completed by the time section play began in late May.

So those are the highlights. HSGN is up and running again.