Brian's Wednesday Woo-hoo's

I haven't spouted off since last weekend's football championships, so first things first - congratulations to the 6 champions, including the 2 that I didn't pick. Fittingly, since I couldn't pick many 11A games right in the postseason, it stands to reason I'd miss the championship, too. I guess I either grossly underestimated Milbank or overestimated St. Thomas More. But you know, that's what made these championship games so great. We had a game with very few surprises (Howard 40, Emery/Ethan 16), a game that kept me in disbelief from start to finish (Milbank 34, STM 20), and one with an outstanding first half by the underdog, but an inevitable second half by the favorite (Washington 27, Aberdeen Central 10). There was a smashmouth mild upset between two perennial top teams (Hanson 20, Avon 16), and there was a nailbiter that went to the wire in maybe the best game overall for fans of offense (Hitchcock-Tulare 32, DRSM 28). And then, there was South Dakota's own Immaculate Reception. Our own LSU-Kentucky. What can you say about the fantastic finish that gave Winner their first championship in 20 years, which is hard enough in itself to believe? Congratulations Warriors - you made Central and Western SD proud!! I know that last play made it to YouTube, but has anyone seen it on ESPN this week? (I haven't, but I had hoped to.)

So now we turn our attention to State Volleyball Tournaments this weekend, where in my humble opinion, there is one interesting similarity across all classes. Each tournament field has clear-cut favorites, not one, but two, in each class. Aberdeen & Roosevelt in AA, Wagner & SF Christian in A, and Arlington & Warner in the B. However, if you know anything about volleyball, you know that nothing is for certain when you put 8 quality teams together in one tournament bracket. It should be fun to watch. Keep in mind, we'll have all White River and Highmore-Harrold broadcasts from the B (too bad they have to play each other in the first round) on KPLO, as well as all Mobridge-Pollock broadcasts in the A on Star99. Any one of these 3 teams are capable of making a lot of noise in their tournaments, so we wish them all the best of luck.