Practice Begins for 2022 Fall Sports Season

 It's a sign that summer is heading toward the homestretch when high school athletic teams throughout Minnesota open fall sports practice Monday, August 15.  

Teams in football, soccer, volleyball, cross country, girls swimming and tennis get ready for competition.  Here's when St. Louis Park's teams open up their season.  

The first out of the gate is girls tennis as the Orioles host the Hopkins Royals on Tuesday, August 23 at 4:30 PM.  

A new era begins in boys soccer on Saturday the 27th as Anson Opara, who takes over the coaching reigns from Chato leads the Orioles in their season opener against a tough nonconference opponent the perennial power Wayzata Trojans at 3 PM.  

Also on the 27th, the girls soccer team heads to St. Paul for a noon game against the Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders.  

Both the boys and girls teams will be in action on Tuesday, August 30 at Hopkins with the boys underway at 5 PM and the girls at 7 PM.  There's a home opener doubleheader on Thursday, September 1 with the girls hosting the Minneapolis South Tigers at 5 PM and the boys hosting the Eden Prairie Eagles at 7 PM.  

But wait.  There's more action on the 27th as the volleyball team heads to Bloomington to face the Kennedy Eagles at noon.  They will head up Brooklyn Blvd. to face the Park Center Pirates at 7 PM on the 30th and their home opener will be against the St. Paul Harding Knights on September 1 at 7 PM.  

The following night, Friday, September 2, the Oriole football team opens its 2022 campaign as they host the Simley Spartans at 7 PM.  Earlier in the day, the cross country teams will run in the Rosemount Invitational.  

Moving into the next week, the girls swimming diving teams open their season in Waconia on Thursday, September 8 at 6 PM.  A week later on the 15th is their home opener against the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights, also a 6 PM start.  

Get ready for plenty of exciting fall sport action.  

HSGN Reviews NBC's Password Revival

This week, Password returned to NBC 33 years after Super Password was the last show to air in the 12 PM ET time period and 13 years after the show's last incarnation Million Dollar Password.  

HSGN did watch the premiere episode and it did some good points and bad points.  

First, let's look at the good points.  The basic set design is back with the two teams on each end of a table and a podium for the host in the middle.  As for the game, it's back to the original version of Password with a few modifications.  

The scoring system has been slightly changed from the first two versions.  Instead of 10 points for guessing the password on the first clue, the top value is reduced to six.  The first team to score 16 points (25 in the original) won the game.  Two games won the match and a chance to play the bonus round.  We'll get to that in a moment.  If both teams are tied at one game, then the contestants pick up signaling devices and are given clues to another word, which resembles Password Plus and Super Password.  The first player to identify the word wins the match.  

Looking at the bonus round, the contestant stands at a podium and 10 words arranged alphabetically like Alphabetics in the later Password runs.  The contestant picks a celebrity, which is regular Jimmy Fallon or in the first episode Jon Hamm and they have 30 seconds to guess as many passwords in the time frame.  Then the second celebrity plays using the words that have yet to be played.  If all 10 words are guessed before time runs out, the contestant wins $25,000.  less than 10, and it's $1000 per word.  

Now for the bad points.  Keke Palmer had no business hosting a show like Password.  She's way too loud and the best way of putting it, her style of hosting is like original host Allen Ludden on steroids.  If you saw Leslie Jones hosting ABC's version of Supermarket Sweep, she was also a screamer.  Palmer fits that description well.  But does the audience have to be so loud.  It was the type of audience that would be attending a rock concert instead of a cerebral word game.  

To sum it all up, it was great to see Password on TV again, the way it should be played but it would be a better show if they got a host like Anderson Cooper or Al Roker who didn't scream all the time.  It's your call.  Give it a shot on Tuesday nights or watch the earlier incarnations on BUZZR and YouTube.  

NBC's Last Soap Opera Moves to Peacock

 "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives."  

Those words began each episode of the long running NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives but after 57 years and more than 14,000 episodes, the last sand will go through the hourglass on September 9 as the network will move the show to its streaming service Peacock beginning September 12.  However, it will available to premium subscribers who pay a $4.99 per month fee.  

The switch to streaming marks the end of an era for NBC.  The network, which has been home to soaps such as Another World, The Doctors and Sunset Beach will have none on the air.  

The main reason for the switch is declining ratings.  Days of Our Lives is the lowest rated of the four surviving soap operas, trailing CBS's The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and ABC's General Hospital, the longest running of the daytime soaps.  

Days of Our Lives made its debut on November 8, 1965, replacing a short-lived Canadian produced serial Moment of Truth.  The show struggled in the ratings for three years and was on the verge of cancellation but it gained viewers and by January 1975, it moved to 1:30 ET, which was a problem time period for the last seven years due to the departure of Let's Make a Deal to ABC.  Three months later, Days of Our Lives expanded to an hour and it's been that way ever since.  

There have been many cast members over the show's 57 run, including several who went on to greater success on other shows.  They include Deidre Hall, who starred in a Sunday family drama that featured a young Shannen Doherty, Our House; Jed Allan, who hosted Celebrity Bowling; Alison Sweeney (still on) hosting The Biggest Loser and Charles Shaughnessy, who later played Maxwell Sheffield in the sitcom The Nanny.  

Days of Our Lives has built a solid fan base that includes a number of celebrity fans.  Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall was known for calling recess so he can catch up on the latest doings in the show's fictitious town of Salem.  Actress Julia Roberts and a former aide to then president Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky.  Can the fan base sustain itself when it moves to Peacock?  

HSGN Turns Six August 1

 To quote the title of an AA Milne classic anthology of poems Now We Are Six, that's how many years HSGN will be on the blogosphere Monday, August 1.  

HSGN was started after the author's previous website examiner.com went out of business in 2016.  Since then, there have been more than 700 posts on high school sports and game shows, focusing on St. Louis Park games, since the author of this blog is a long time public address announcer for Oriole athletic events.  

One of the big highlights of the last high school sport season other than writing about St. Louis Park or state tournaments was the volleyball match between two perennial small school powerhouses, the Southwest Christian Stars and the Mayer Lutheran Crusaders in the Stars home gym in Chaska.  Before a packed house, Southwest Christian defeated Mayer Lutheran in five sets.  It was a very well played match and it showed that Minnesota, thanks to the perennial success of the University of Minnesota and Concordia University volleyball teams has become a hotbed just like hockey.

Now for some highlights on the high school front.  Larry McKenzie, who coached the Minneapolis Patrick Henry Patriots to four consecutive state Class AAA titles and added two more when he moved over to Minneapolis North, retired with 481 wins.  He also had a stint on the bench at Holy Angels.  

Kristofer Hokenson, who helped lead the St. Louis Park baseball team to their first state tournament berth since 1952 and will play next season for head coach John Anderson at Minnesota, is playing for the Northwoods League's Minnesota Mud Puppies.  They are the road team of the Thunder Bay Border Cats, due to COVID travel restrictions.  Hokenson the StarTribune Metro Player of the Year has played in 11 games and his batting average is .194.  He has struck out nine times in 36 at bats.  It takes awhile to adjust from high school to college baseball and hopefully he will have a successful college career.  

A sign that summer is  starting to wind down.  Fall sports practice begins in two weeks.  HSGN will have dates for St. Louis Park teams opening games around that time.  

The Passing of a Game Show Pioneer

 Before Wayne Brady asked the audience "Who wants to make a deal?" and Steve Harvey turned the syndicated version of Family Feud into a hit, he was the first African American to host a game show.  

On July 7, Adam Wade, who hosted the short-lived CBS game show Musical Chairs, passed away at the age of 87.  

Musical Chairs featured four contestants who competed to complete the next line of lyrics sung by Wade or a musical guest.  Among the guests who appeared on the show were a young Irene Cara, Search for Tomorrow star Mary Stuart and groups such as The Spinners, The Tokens and Sister Sledge.  Also appearing was kids show host Shari Lewis.  Let's not forget Derek Smith and the Musical Chairs Orchestra.  

In some instances, instead of contestants trying to choose the next line, they were asked a trivia question. 

The show was created and produced by Jerome Schnur and Don Kirschner.  The show's announcer was then WNBC-TV sportscaster, who also worked for NBC,   Pat Hernon.  

Three rounds were played on each show and the contestant who had the lowest score in the third round was eliminated.  Their chair was pulled back, just like the MTV game show Remote Control more than a decade later.  There were two different bonus rounds and in some shows, the winning player had their earnings doubled.  

Unfortunately, the show was a ratings flop and CBS canceled the show after 16 weeks.  But the show's cancellation wasn't all bad news for Wade.  He met his future wife Jeree on the show and in 1989, they were married.  

A footnote on Wade.  He made an early game show appearance in 1960 on the original version of To Tell the Truth after he had a couple of hit songs The Writing on the Wall and Take Good Care of Her.  He also worked with Dr. Jonas Salk on the polio vaccine.  

But for 16 weeks in 1975, Wade was a game show pioneer when he came on stage and sang the last line of the show's theme song "Let's play a game of Musical Chairs and give ourselves a round of applause."  

Busy Week for St. Louis Park Teams in State Tournaments

 St. Louis Park area teams competed in state tournaments this week as the Oriole baseball team made their first trip to state in 70 years and three Benilde-St. Margaret's teams took home medals.  

First up was the St. Louis Park baseball team's first trip to the state tournament since 1952 as they faced the Maple Grove Crimson in the Class AAAA quarterfinals on June 14 at CHS Field in St. Paul.  The Orioles took a 1-0 lead on Kristofer Hokenson's RBI that scored Stanley Regguinti in the top of the first inning but the Crimson, playing in their ninth state tournament, scored twice in the second and third innings to keep the Orioles from playing for the Class AAAA title.  St. Louis Park was plagued by three errors, including Ben Farley's error that would add a run to Maple Grove's ledger and the Orioles were sent to the consolation bracket with a 5-2 defeat.  

Things did not get any better the next morning at Parade Stadium in Minneapolis in the Battle of the Parks as St. Louis Park was routed by the Park of Cottage Grove Wolfpack 10-0 in a game shortened to five innings due to the 10 run rule.  The Wolfpack put the game away with eight runs in the third inning and Jackson Tessman pitched a one hitter and struck out nine batters to end the Orioles season.  But there is a bright spot to the Orioles state tournament run.  Hokenson was one of seven players nominated for the Mr. Baseball award that goes to the state's top player.  

If you're a Benilde-St. Margaret's fan, the news is better.  Both the boys and girls lacrosse teams and the baseball team competed in state tournaments and brought back to campus trophies and medals.  Starting with the girls lacrosse team,  the Red Knights beat the Gentry Warriors in the quarterfinals 8-7 and lost to their Metro West Conference rival the Chanhassen Storm in the semifinals 11-8. BSM was not finished as they faced the Rosemount Irish in the third place game and Maggie Gtaczyk scored a hat trick to lead them to an 8-7 victory.  

As for their male lacrosse counterparts, the Red Knights would win their second consecutive state title.  BSM had no problem with the Moorhead Spuds in the quarterfinals as Carsen Brandt scored four goals and assisted on two others to lead them to a 19-4 win.  Brandt would help BSM earn a championship berth with seven assists as they beat the Stillwater Ponies in the semifinals 15-10 and set up a rematch with the Prior Lake Lakers.  The Red Knights would win the championship trophy on Mitch Dokman's overtime goal 10-9.  

It all leads to the week's top highlight as the BSM baseball team took home their first Class AAA title trophy. In the quarterfinals, BSM capitalized on four Winona errors to beat the Winhawks 4-1.  The Red Knights battled back in the semifinals with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to beat the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks 10-8.   Facing the top seeded Mankato West Scarlets, the score was tied at three son the game went into extra innings.  The Scarlets failed to tally in the top of the eighth inning.  In the bottom of the inning, Tomas Lee singled and Sam Monk lined the ball off the left field wall to clinch the Class AAA championship.  Caleb Koskie, son of former Twin Corey Koskie pitched six and one third innings and struck out 12 batters.  

A big week for St. Louis Park area teams.  There were highlights.  There were lowlights.  And that concludes the high school sports season in Minnesota.  Fall sports practice begins August 15.  

2022 Class AAAA State Baseball Tournament Preview

 2022 MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS AAAA BASEBALL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

                                  (Games played Tuesday, June 14 at CHS Field, St. Paul)

10:00:  Park (Cottage Grove) vs. Farmington (Seed 1)

 1:00:  St. Louis Park (Seed 5) vs. Maple Grove (Seed 4)

 4:30:  Sartell-St. Stephen vs. Stillwater (Seed 2)

 7:30:  Chanhassen vs. Andover (Seed 3)

Examining the Field:  The opening game of the Class AAAA tournament is a rematch of last year's Class AAAA final as the Park of Cottage Grove Wolfpack faces the defending Class AAAA champion Farmington Tigers.  The Wolfpack, in their fifth trip to state, have won eight of their last nine games and that includes a victory over the Rosemount Irish in the Section 3 final.  The Tigers, in their third trip to state have been the dominate team in Class AAAA this season and got a two hitter from Hunter Frost in the Section 1 final against the Lakeville South Cougars.  Two of their three losses have been to South Suburban Conference rival Lakeville North.  Can the Tigers remain in the hunt to bring their second straight title trophy down Highway 3?  

Next up is the St. Louis Park Orioles, in their first state tournament since 1952 battling the fourth seeded Maple Grove Crimson.  The Orioles were seeded second in Section 6 and bounced back from a loss against the top seeded Hopkins Royals to take home the championship trophy.  The key to the Orioles season has been the one two pitching punch of Kristofer Hokenson and Stefano Giovannelli.  Giovannelli pitched a no-hitter in the first section game against the Minneapolis South Tigers.  They will have a difficult task ahead in the Maple Grove Crimson, playing in their ninth state tournament.  The Crimson won a pair of one run games in the Section 4 tournament and beat Andover 3-2 in the regular season.  Can the Orioles set up a showdown with Farmington or will Maple Grove dash their hopes of a state title?  

The third game of the day pits the Sartell-St. Stephen Sabers and the second seeded Stillwater Ponies.  The Sabers, in their fifth trip to state, were seeded six in Section 8, beating the top three seeds St. Michael-Albertville, Rogers and Elk River.  It gets tougher for the St. Cloud suburb as they face a tournament tested Stillwater Ponies, playing in their 11th state tournament.  This season, they have scored more than 10 runs in 11 games and are 10-1 in that department.  The Ponies have a legitimate shot to end Farmington's title reign.  

Wrapping up the day's festivities is the Chanhassen Storm and the third seeded Andover Huskies.  It's the first trip to state since 2015 for the Storm since 2015 and they beat the fourth seeded Shakopee Sabers to head to St. Paul.  The Huskies are in their second consecutive state tournament and look to build on last year's third place finish.  In four section games, Andover has outscored the opposition 25-0.  It's been a great year for the growing Anoka County metropolis, winning section titles in boys and girls hockey.  Can they add another trophy to wrap up the school year?  

Be sure to drink plenty of fluids if you head to CHS Field on the 14th.  It's going to be hot and it's not just the action on the field.