Plenty of excitement from state tourney

Over the course of my career I’ve covered a number of significant events, mostly news stories.
I’ve covered the President being sworn in, have covered people being sentenced, broken news about murders taking place in town, to name a few things.
But last week, I had the opportunity to do something I never thought I would; I covered the Dodge County Wildcats as the team won its first ever state championship.
Growing up in Rhode Island, hockey wasn’t a major sport. People liked it, and the Friday night games at the rink in town was a great place to go on a date in high school, or meet up with friends, but it’s not a hockey state.
Going into the state tournament I’ve never been to one, but I’ve been told by many of my Minnesotan friends and my wife that this was a big deal.
Everyone who told me that wasn’t joking.
I covered all three games at the Xcel Energy Center, and every game the atmosphere grew more and more intense, and along with each game came more and more Wildcats fans eagerly awaiting to see their team win a title.
There was plenty of student excitement at the games too. By far there were more fans from Dodge County than any of the other teams they played had.
While at one of the games I was sitting with some of the K-M administrators and it was discussed how there have been only three sports from the school: wrestling, baseball, and softball that have won state titles.
While it’s not only a K-M team, add the Dodge County Wildcats to the list.
To me that was one of the most eye opening things. I think we all take for granted how successful many of the area teams are, but it was a reminder there is only one team who wins the state title each year at the state tournament out of many teams.
Only a small percentage of the student athletes in this state win state titles each year, and it’s something to celebrate!
To celebrate the success of the local student athletes we will be coming out with a special souvenir type special section on March 12.
Inside, it will contain stories including ones about how excited original players to the program are about seeing a state championship, along with lots of photos taken by our talented photographers.