The South Dakota State B Amateur baseball tournament begins tonight in Mitchell and runs through August 16. What began as an office pool has sprung questions about entering a bracket challenge.

You can now enter the bracket challenge free of charge by going here:
State B Amateur Baseball Tournament

All you have to do is register yourself and you can predict the tournament field. It’s free and there is no prize…..except pride….

When you click on the link above it will take you to a page where you select “State B Amateur Tournament”. Right above the tournament name click “Predict It” and you will be asked to register. Select your winners of the first round and click “Enter” at the bottom. It will then give you second round matchups and you can select those winners. Proceed until the bracket is complete.

Good Luck and thanks for entering!

It’s been a crazy last couple of days with Bo Pelini being introduced as the new head coach at Youngstown State and an audio tape being leaked by some coward that has gained attention everywhere. The South Dakota women’s basketball team has two games remaining on its five-game home stand. The Coyotes have been off from games for over a week during finals.

Here are some thoughts on everything.

1. Whether or not you are ok with the Bo Pelini audio being released and the content you have to admit it’s a pretty cowardly thing to do. 2. Someone, knowing how emotional Pelini is, saw a chance to make some money and they took advantage. 3. It’s fitting the audio had to be made public on the day Pelini was introduced as the 7th head coach at Youngstown State. 4. Many people don’t care for Pelini and this was a chance to hide but still take one final jab at the coach. 5. Pelini has a chance to make an impact right away at YSU. 6. The Penguins are already built into a playoff team and they would have made it this year if they didn’t collapse in the end. 7. Pelini is entering the best FCS conference in the country in the Missouri Valley Football Conference that has two teams playing in the semifinals this weekend. 8. Pelini will fit in well with an FCS program where he can focus more on coaching and less on media pressure.

9. South Dakota women are back on the floor tonight for a game when they host University of St. Mary. 10. The Coyotes have won five straight and hope this game serves as a tune-up before they host North Dakota on Sunday. 11. USD is receiving 27 votes in the latest CollegeInsider.com mid-major Top 25 poll. 12. North Dakota is one spot outside of the poll. 13. USD will play two teams currently in the mid-major Top 10 this season – Dec. 29 against No. 4 Chattanooga in San Antonio and No. 10 South Dakota State twice during the league season. 14. The Coyotes are 7-2 and are off to their best start under Amy Williams, who is in her third season.

15. I’m cheering for Todd Hoffner and Minnesota State in the D2 Football Championship on Saturday. He has been through a lot the last couple of years and to have a team walk out on him this spring only to bring them together and earn a spot in the title game is something special. 16. I interviewed Coach Hoffner on my radio show ‘On the John’ yesterday about the big game and his team. 17. The game kicks off at 3pm Saturday against CSU-Pueblo at Sporting Park in Kansas City, KS.

18. While I sat here and wrote this I listened to the audio that was released of Bo Pelini. 19. It isn’t nearly as bad as what I anticipated. In fact, it was not even close. 20. It’s really a guy being honest with his players and then the media blowing it up as something much bigger. 21. The audio has some shots at media for what has been written about the program and that is motive enough for someone to publish it and return the jab. 22. I would encourage you to listen to the audio and make your own judgment before we continue to listen to the Bo Pelini critics and get a different idea of what the content actually is. 23. You can listen to it here, courtesy of the Omaha World Herald.

24. I finally finished watching ‘How I Met Your Mother’. I had previously watched the first seven seasons but over the last month have watched the final two. 25. I have concluded that I am Ted. They say we will one day find “the one” and he did after chasing the one that he couldn’t have. 26. It’s funny how we can relate so well to movies or music or whatever else. Sometimes you feel like you watch a movie or show to see what could be your path. 27. Don’t look now, but Christmas is a week away. Holy crap I better get some shopping done. 28. My sister celebrated one year of having her nail shop open in Cozad, Neb. If you are ever passing through there and need the service look up Tip-Toe Nail Salon. She will take care of you. 29. It finally snowed a decent snow in the area. I am a winter guy. I hate the wind but I love the cooler weather and I don’t mind the snow. The ice, on the other hand, not cool. 30. I end every radio show with “Win today before you worry about tomorrow”. Sometimes we get so caught up in future results or potential outcomes that we fail to see what is right in front of us. Enjoy everything while it is right in front of you and while you can. There will be a day when it leaves your life or you no longer have it and you should assure yourself you did everything to enjoy it while you could.

That’s it for today. I will ramble again sometime soon.

P.S. – Now that HIMYM is over, what is a show I should getting addicted to on Netflix?

There’s a story about a coach. This coach followed a journey, but it was no ordinary journey. He became a head football coach in 1999 at Wisconsin-Eau Claire. After a league title and five seasons ranked in the Top 25 this coach moved on to Vermillion, SD where he spent two season as Offensive Coordinator for the South Dakota Coyotes. In 2008, the coach had a chance to run a program again and was introduced as the head coach at Minnesota State University. In 2012 the journey hit a road block and a nightmare began. In January 2014 the coach was hired as a football coach at Minot State. Three months later a court ruled he could have his old job back. He took it. The coach is Todd Hoffner and his Mavericks are about to play for a national championship. Continue reading →

You’ve heard, I’m sure, a few times the Royals are into the postseason for the first time since 1985. Of course, that was a World Series championship against the I-70 rivals. It’s been a long time. And for Royals fans, the past five years we have listened to “experts” talk about the talented minor league system the Royals have put together. We have seen guys like Gordon, Hosmer, Moustakas and others have tremendous success in Omaha and struggle when they get to the big club. Then, it finally started to come together. The Royals have put together a solid rotation, they have one of the best 7, 8, 9th inning setups in all of baseball and the lineup has been able to do enough.  Continue reading →

For some reason I apparently abandoned this blog. I didn’t  forget about it because I think about it quite often and I actually think about posting something, but most of the time I am probably just too lazy. The last post on here was in March of 2013, which, if you are keeping count, was 18 months ago. I am actually going to make an attempt to update this thing more than once every year and a half. No promises, because who knows what will happen. I was asked once to do a blog so some people who are interested can keep up with what I am doing so I will attempt to do that, especially when women’s basketball season rolls around and I get the opportunity to travel with the USD women’s basketball team. Stay up to date on out trips here. Thanks for checking out my blog and I will make an effort to get it back on track.

Apparently I took a hiatus from this blog. I don’t know if many people read it. I do know a few posts have received an unbelievable number of responses, views, etc. I can’t thank the people who read this regularly, occasionally or rarely enough. This thing was started as a simple place to share thoughts or sometimes I find it easier to deal with things by writing about it. I have not received many views the past few months and I shouldn’t have because apparently I took a break from blogging. So why the break?

The break was unplanned and a short time before my last post I was frequently updating on different things. It was basically a break that happened because of life. So here is an update:

In the spring I was contacted about a job opening. I didn’t apply for it. I decided that if someone contacts you it is worth a listen. So I did. After conversations with this potential employer I didn’t feel it was a fit and was content with staying in Chadron, where I felt like I had unfinished business. I was asked to make a trip to the new place and at least check it out and I did. Things clicked. I learned more about the opportunity I would have and realized it was the next step in the dream I began chasing many years ago. The nice thing about the new place was it would give me the opportunity to have a Sports Talk show, something I haven’t done since college. After much thought I decided it was the move that I was supposed to take and life turned to a new direction.

Leaving behind Chadron was not easy….not in the slightest. I will explain more at a later blog.

I moved to Yankton, SD in July and began work for 5 Star Communications as the Sports Director for Classic Hits 106.3 and ESPN Radio 1570. The job allows me to focus on sports, do a sports talk show, cover a DI university (USD) and do play-by-play of high school sports, among other things. It has been an exciting last few months and each day I realize the move was the right one for me.

There will come a time when you have to make a decision about moving or something big in your life that you will have to decide on. The only advice I have is to look at the big picture. Through the scope I thought staying in Chadron was the best thing for me. In the big picture this move appears and feels like the right one.

It’s a challenging job, but what dream chasing job isn’t?

I’ve also joined the station team for the YankTON challenge. We are working hard to drop some pounds and get in shape. It has definitely been disheartening at times and tough, but you just gotta get your mind right and get after it. It’s the first step to completing a Triathlon that I still think I will attempt very soon. (Stay tuned for that).

So life has changed and it drove me away from the blogging world, but I will work to get back to updating this thing with thoughts on sports and life…….because that is my life.

Life is crazy. It gives you crazy challenges and then makes everything okay. Then before you know it the good is gone and you are back to the way things were, but there still is good. Is that confusing? It has to be one of the most confusing things that make sense. But that’s life. If we could figure it all out then it wouldn’t be any fun. Continue reading →

It would have been the most exciting thing to find in an Easter egg on Sunday for Gopher fans – Trevor Mbakwe returning to play another season at Minnesota. But whether or not he is returning remains a mystery, despite hints on Easter Sunday. Continue reading →

The day is February 15, 2012. As the afternoon speeds by I get on the computer to respond to a mention on Twitter. I glance up to the corner and see the numbers 9,998. As I send a reply and the eight rolls over to a nine I begin to realize that I have hit a milestone. There have been 10,000 entries in my Twitter life. This is a special moment. Blood, sweat and tears have poured into my Twitter success, or lack thereof. As I pondered what to submit as this memorable tweet I decided that 140 characters simply wasn’t enough. So I decided a blog would be the way to express myself with the milestone moment. Is it cheating? No. It’s using your resources! Continue reading →

Morningside head coach, Jamie Sale, instructing his team in a timeout with 15 seconds remaining. Morningside held on for a 72-70 win.

The second session was similar to the first session today in Sioux City. One game got out of hand and one was tightly contested. In the third game of the day it was Northwestern (Iowa) all over Indiana Wesleyan, 79-58. Northwestern gained control over the game early and never looked back. The fast paced tempo was too much for the Wildcats. The Red Raiders were led by 17 points from Allison Hulst, while LeAnn Douglas led IWU with 14. Both teams struggled from the free-throw line as Northwestern was 13-24 (54%) and Indiana Wesleyan was 9-17 (52%). Indiana Wesleyan ends its season with a 29-6 record. The Red Raiders improve to 33-1 and will play Monday evening in the semifinals. Continue reading →

Well another trip is in the books as we are on the return trip home from Columbia, Ky. Again this week I got behind on staying updated here so I will attempt to talk about four days. Columbia is a 15-hour drive for us….we have two more trips to the same area, oh boy. This was an interesting trip because we were off to see a team playing for just the second time in program history and searching for its first win. Continue reading →