High School Football is Back

Hey everyone...

A few items today:

--How about them Hawaiians! Their comeback against Curacao in the Little League World Series will go down as one of the greatest championship comebacks in LLWS history. You can bet ABC was absolutely loving that ending (oh, oops, maybe not - because the game went into extra innings, they had to drop national coverage and move the game to ESPN2. Sucks for all those people without cable...)

--Looks like our Twins made a nice run. But now that they're 5 1/2 back to the Yankees, let's just forget about the playoffs and enjoy September for the great races elsewhere in the league. I mean, just look at the NL West. Will someone PLEASE play .500 ball??

--New from the Lake Conference in football: because there are 11 teams in the conference now, there will be one non-conference game each week - most schools in the conference will play a school outside the league for the first time in many years. And most of the opponents will come from the Classic Lake Conference - for all you history buffs, the Classic Lake was the original Lake conference way back in the 50s and 60s. The Edinas, Eden Prairies and Bloomingtons of the world played each other all the time, but that isn't the case anymore. Well, thanks to the unbalanced leagues, get ready to renew some old rivalries...

It all kicks off with a real good matchup this Friday, when the new Lakeville North, two years removed from a state title, travels to Mounds View to play the Mustangs, who will be a top-ranked team this year largely because of their U of M-bound quarterback. Other top non-conference games on the schedule include defending state champ Minnetonka driving to Apple Valley on October 14 and top-five contenders Eden Prairie and Wayzata doing battle in EP on Sept. 23. Another game circled on my schedule? Park of Cottage Grove, a cellar-dweller in the Suburban East in recent years, will visit Lake doormat Kennedy on Sept. 30.

For all you Bloomington residents, my partner and I will be announcing our first football game of the season this Thursday - Kennedy hosts Chaska that evening. Check it out on BEC-TV, channel 16 locally.