Rods Friday Thoughts

Pierre will host Sturgis on Tuesday night in the first round of the high school playoffs. It will be a rematch of last year's first round game that Pierre won when Sturgis missed on an extra point attempt in overtime. Sturgis is led by Clint Wilson, a hard nosed running back that the Governor defense will have to key on. The Scoopers were not one of the teams on head coach Joe Kramer's wish list to play. And the 8th seed is not the best the Governors could do. If the Govs win on Tuesday, barring any upsets, Pierre would then play Sioux Falls Washington in the quarterfinal round at Sioux Falls a week from Monday. The Governors got the 8th seed because of Brandon Valley's win over Watertown last night. It gave the Govs a share of the ESD Conference title but also set the Govs with a not so desirable setup in the post season.

Darren Boyle's Weekly Words of Wisdom.......

I am tired this morning. Why, you ask?. Its because I was suckered in by the boys in purple again. I dont normally stay up to watch the entire Monday night game, but for some reason I has to see if the Vikings offense would finally wake up. They did, and put on quite a show for folks that were willing to sacrifice Tuesday's productivity. Its too bad the game ended the way it did.

I am crabby this morning. Why, you ask? its because I was suckered in by the boys in purple again. Usually when the Vikings look as bad as they did in the first half of a game, I assume that things wont get better. Last night it got better, long enough, for me to start believing that they could come back and win. OOPS!!! Looks like with the Moss trade the Vikings have their deep threat, and that opens up the rest of their offense. The defense rose to the occasion and kept the team in it until the end when you know who threw the pick six so I could go to bed. Get ready for twelve more games just like that one folks.

Heres a prediction for you, I would say that when the Cowboys and Vikings play Sunday, whichever coach loses is going to be looking for work. If the Cowboys lose, Philips will be fired immediately and Jason Garrett will be promoted. If the Vikes lose, Childress will be gone at the end of the season. Dont know if there is an assistant capable to take over during the season in Minnesota or if Ziggy has the guts to pull the trigger. But it will happen.

Dont forget about our coverage of high school volleyball tonight on 94 Country as I will be in Murdo, as Jones County will host Lyman. First serve will be around 8:00. Dont worry, I will be in a better mood by then.

Rod's Saturday Sports results

RAPID CITY, S.D. - The Pierre Lady Governor volleyball team lost a 4 game match to Rapid City Central on Saturday. The Lady Govs lost the match by scores of 29-27, 24-26, 25-16, 25-16. Amber Olson had a match high 17 kills to lead the Lady Govs offense as the Lady Govs and Cobblers split the first two matches before Rapid City took control to win the last two. On Friday night, the Lady Govs were swept by top ranked Rapid City Stevens 25-16, 25-14, 25-16. Pierre is now 4 and 10 on the season as they return to ESD Conference action later today when they host Brookings at Riggs High Gym. Brookings won the first match between the two squads. Varsity match time is scheduled for 6 p.m.



RAPID CITY, S.D. - The Pierre Lady Governor tennis team finished 12th scoring 226 points as the State High School girls tennis tournament wrapped up play on Saturday. Sioux Falls O’Gorman won to defend the team title as the Knights edged out runner up Rapid City Stevens by 8 points. Watertown finished a distant third. Megan Vockrodt had the highest finish in singles play for the Lady Govs as she lost in the semi finals and then settled for 4th place. Vockrodt and her doubles partner, Diedra Beck finished 6th in the number 2 doubles losing in the consolation championship match while Molly Burke and Alexi Gusso won the number 3 doubles consolation championship match for a 5th place finish for the Lady Govs top finishes of the tournament.



ABERDEEN, S.D. - The Pierre Lady Governors finished 4th and the Governor boys had a 3rd place finish at the ESD Cross Country meet run Saturday at Aberdeen. Aberdeen Central won the girls team title while Brookings won the boys team title. Rachel Propst led the Lady Gov effort with a 9th place finish in a time of 15:49. Courtney Ziebart had a 20th place finish while Allison Mientsma was 25th, Aspen Iverson 26th, Libby Gortmaker 37th and Ashley Zimmerman 39th for the Lady Gov best finishes of the day. Jenna Grossenburg of Yankton was the individual medalist with a 4 second victory in a winning time of 15:09. In the boys race the Governors had 2 runners finish in the top 10 with Weston Christensen finishing 6th in a time of 17:14. Aaron Propst was 7th for the Governors while Stephan Nielson finished 14th and Tyler Propst 15th. Roman Spaid had a 22nd place finish, Dylan Rath was 27th and Jebben Keyes was 30th for the Governors top efforts of the day. Nathan Hauge of Brandon Valley won the individual title in a winning time of 16:24 and 5 second victory. The Governors and Lady Governors will run in the 5 Star meet in Huron on Friday for their next action.


MITCHELL,S.D - The Pierre Lady Governors finished second at the state high school soccer tournament on Saturday losing the championship match to Rapid City Stevens 4-0. The Governors boys finished 6th losing to Rapid City Central 2-1 in the 5th place match.

Darren Boyle's weekly words of wisdom....My return complete with a "Smokey and the Bandit" reference.

Its been awhile..... Sorry, but I have had much to do and the farming season is quickly coming to an end so I have spent some long days in the tractor. And besides, I am a grampa now and that job totally ROCKS! So now its time to get you up to speed on some of my thoughts.

One of my favorite movies ever is "Smokey and the Bandit" Yes, Burt Renolds was cool back then, Jerry Reed wrote a cool theme song, and Jackie Gleason was a perfect Buford T. Justice. Could you imagine if anyone else played that part? The chase scenes were classic too. But the reason I still watch that movie whenever it is on tv is Sally Field, she made the movie for me cause I thought she was hot..... And as I have seen her other work over the years I have thought she was still a very attrractive woman. But just the other day, I saw her in one of her tv commercials and for the first time she looked old. I looked up her stats and I found out she was 64. 64 really? Not that she isnt still a stunner but 64?????. Then I thought of Brett Farve and his performance over the first two games this season and I came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, Brett is getting old. And as you see his body language on the sideline maybe he knows it too.

So the season rides on Sunday's game with the Lions. I dont care that it is only week three. Look at the schedule, a bye week in week 4 then they have the Patriots, Jets, Packers (twice) and the Cowboys coming up and if they dont get in the win column this week they may not for awhile. They should have beat the Dolphins and maybe this game wouldnt be as big, but they didnt, so it is. I have a bad feeling bout this game.

If the Vikings go 0-3 does Brad Childress make a qb change? Waht other changes should he make? Will he keep his job through the season if things dont improve soon? Will Michael Vick sign with the Vikings next year, and will he bring Tony Dungy along to coach? And 0-3 start and you will see rumors like these start to fly. I am just trying to get a jump on everyone. I have a bad feeling about Sundays game you know.

Two good football games this weekend. On Friday night Chamberlain and Platte-Geddes-Dakota Christian will renew their longstanding rivalry. Right now both teams would be in the playoffs but a loss for either team would hurt their playoff chances, it will be a 7:00 kickoff on KPLO. Saturday night, Stanley County and Mobridge will hook up in Ft. Pierre as they jockey for position in region 4 of class 11B. it should be a good game and we will kickoff @ 7:00.

Brian's Monday Quarterback

Well, Weekend #1 is past in high school football -- actually the SDHSAA calls it "Week 0" -- and judging by the scores from some of the games that were played, I think we may be in for a very interesting season. First of all, perennial 11A power West Central starts the season 0-1 after being upended by Harrisburg, who is also always tough, 21-19. If I'm not mistaken, that is the first regular season loss for West Central in the last 3 or 4 years. The defending 11A champions went down too, when Sisseton beat Milbank 42-20. Another team that is always good, Aberdeen Roncalli, also lost -- 28-14 to Redfield. And then the reigning 9AA champion, while they still won, did not do it as easily as they did at the end of last year. Howard averaged a whopping 59 points in four playoff games last season, but couldn't even muster half of that in beating Parker, who hasn't been very good lately, 28-8. I guess the point is, as seniors come and go, player turnover could be a big issue for a lot of teams this season (see Aberdeen Central), so maybe we'll see a little changing of the guard in some classes this year. I mean....Sturgis 27, Brandon Valley 13?? Are you kidding me?

However, as some things change, some may still be the same, or better for that matter. 11B champion Winner started strong, 34-0 out at Hot Springs. And the 9A champs, Hanson, but a mercy hurtin' on Marion as well. Closer to home, Herreid/Selby and Sully Buttes have reasons to be excited this season too, and they did not disappoint on Friday. Meanwhile, the Stanley Co. Buffalos went down to Martin and sweated out a 14-3 victory over Bennett Co. Both teams moved the ball in this one, but crossing the goal line was the hard part. The Buffs are expecting improvements from last year's 5-4 squad, but we'll see just where they're at when Winner comes to town this coming Friday. Region 4 in 11B still seems to belong to Winner, but Mobridge-Pollock looks to be very good again this season, even though they lost to Linton, ND, in a barn-burner, 34-28. As usual, Linton is no slouch, though.

On Saturday, I had the rare opportunity to take in a Governors game - rare because I'm usually following the Buffs on the same nights - and although the Govs lost to SF Lincoln, 29-22, I thought it was a very good game for Week 1. Lincoln looked like they were really executing their game plan well on offense, and while the Govs showed some real grit in coming from 22-6 down to tie at 22 in the fourth quarter, Lincoln responded for the winning score. But for what it's worth, the winning pass and catch on a fake field goal attempt were a little luckier than the rest of the winning drive for the Patriots. However, even though I'm rarely one to complain about officiating -- it's just fun to do sometimes, though, you know? -- I can't let this one go. If a receiver turns around to catch a pass and has to reach back around (or THROUGH) a defender who not only runs right into him before the ball gets there, but doesn't even turn his own head so much as to smell his own armpit....well, if you weren't there, I'll let you guess what blatant penalty was not called. By the way, if this potential game-changing play didn't occur inside the 5-yard line on a long pass play, I probably wouldn't even bring it up. At any rate, I'm just sayin'.......

Speaking of officiating, although I won't complain on this point, and also of fake field goals, Lincoln made good twice on fake kicks to complete passes. This brought up a topic of debate in my section of the stands about whether the holder on a place kick can have his knee on the ground as he takes the snap, only to get up make some other play. After all, if a high school (or college) player has possession of the ball, is he not in fact down by rule? Well, thanks to modern technology, I was able to Google the point as we continued to watch the game, and supposedly, there is an exception written in to the rule in question that does allow the holder to have his knee down, if a kick is simulated. On that note, however, this begs the question as to why two separate officiating crews called the holder down for that very reason on fake field goals, not once, but twice last year. Sometimes you wonder just how much different officials interpret different rules of the game. But hey, as a whole, those officials deserve a lot of credit for the job they do, so I want to make sure they know they have my appreciation. My only advice is to look up pass interference in the dictionary and pay special attention to the picture next to the definition. :oP

A couple of other tidbits:
My favorite NFL defensive player on my favorite NFL team -- if you don't know me well, that would be Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers -- now has insurance on, of all things, his HAIR! Actually, it's Polamalu who has helped Head and Shoulders sell so much shampoo ("Isn't it? Isn't it??"), so it was H&S who took out the one million dollar insurance policy on Polamalu's hair. As the AP says: "The insurance was obtained through Lloyd's of London, which did not reveal what must be done to Polamalu's hair for anyone to collect on the policy." Now, I don't know much about Lloyd's of London, but I do know for a fact that this is not the first head of hair they have ever insured. In a prime example of meaningless trivia that I tend to never forget, back in the 80's when Twisted Sister was popular for about two years, their lead singer, Dee Snider, also had a million dollar insurance policy taken out on his hair. See folks? Growing up watching MTV wasn't a TOTAL waste of time!

In baseball, as I have written this post, I have been watching the MLB Network's bonus coverage of the Dodgers-Phillies game in which Hiroki Kuroda flirted with a no-hitter. I always like it when they cut in to a Dodger broadcast because I get to listen to Vin Scully, who in my opinion is the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time. But I'm noticing something on this night that I've never noticed before that makes me think Scully is that much better than everyone else at what he does. For four innings I've listened to this broadcast, and I've realized the one thing that Scully does not have is a color analyst! How rare is that?!?! It's a FOX Sports broadcast - no color guy, no sideline reporter, just Vin Scully - and there is nothing boring about this broadcast at all! Heck, he probably does a full pregame and postgame show, too. I guess at age 81, you just let the man do it his way or no way.

And finally, Manny Ramirez is coming to the White Sox, which makes me think of a Metallica song called......"SO WHAT!" Metallica always introduces that song with a certain gerund word in the middle of the title phrase that also fits well in this case. :o)
That's enough for now......Peace!

Rod's Sunday Sports

Volleyball:
Pierre def. Douglas 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-17) to improve to 1-1 on the season. Rachel Hartman had 7 kills and Kaitlin Severyn had 6 kills to lead the Lady Govs. Sarah Lihs had 25 set assists. Pierre host Aberdeen Central on Tuesday night on RIVER 92.7 - FM. Match time is scheduled for 7 pm.

Football:
Sioux Falls Lincoln defeated Pierre 29-22 in the season opener for both teams. Lincoln quarterback Alex Schultz threw for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Jared Nielen threw for 55 yards and 1 touchdown while throwing 2 interceptions. Adam Deneke scored on a 68 yard touchdown run for Pierre as he rushed for 158 yards. Terelle Walker ran for a 66 yard touchdown and rushed for 95 yards. Nielen hit Travis Adney for a 19 yard touchdown. Pierre host Watertown Friday night at 7:30 pm on RIVER 92.7-FM.

Tennis:
Pierre finished 7th with 75 points at the Rapid City Invitational Tennis tournament. Sioux Falls O’Gorman won the team title. Molly Burke finished 4th at number 1 singles. Eileen Leong 4th at number 2 singles. Diede Beck won the third place match at number 4 singles. Emily Dix finished 4th at number 6 singles. In Doubles play, Leong and Dix finished 6th at number 1. And Burke and Alexi Gusso finished 5th at number 3 doubles.

Soccer:
The Pierre Governors and Sioux Falls Washington played to a 1-1 tie yesterday in Pierre while Washington defeated the Lady Governors 2-0.

Rod's Saturday Sports

Golf:
Pierre finished 4th yesterday at the Huron Invitational with a team score of 340. Willie Welch fired an 82 for the Governors best score of the day and only place winner.

Cross Country:
Pierre boys finsihed third at the Watertown Invitational. The Lady Govs finished 3rd. Indivisually, Libby Gortmaker and Courtney Ziebart finished 7th and 8th for the best finishes of the day for the Lady Govs. For the Governors, Steve Gordon, Tyler Probst, Aaron Probst and Stephen Nielsen finished 8th, 9th, 10th and 12th individually for the best finishes.

Soccer:
The Pierre Lady Govs lost to Sioux Falls O'Gorman 2-0 last night while the Governor boys got another win with a 2-0 shutout of O'Gorman. The Govs play Sioux Falls Washington at 11 a.m. this morning. The Lady Govs play Washington at 1 p.m.

Volleyball:
Yankton def. Pierre, 25-22, 23-25, 26-24, 25-14 in the season openere at Yankton. The Lady Govs host Douglas this afternoon. Varsity match scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Don't forget the Governors open the football season tonight hosting Sioux Falls Lincoln at 7 pm on RIVER 92.7-FM.