Just My Opinion - by Mary Kilen
Is It Spring? Not Likely Yet
As I write my column on Monday, I’m staring out the window wondering where my nice weather days went. The sky has been cloudy most of the day, the “breeze” has picked up, and there are some of those nasty white flakes in the air. The temperature was dropping throughout the day. It was much nicer when I came to work this morning than it was throughout most of the day.
The roller coaster will continue this week with temperatures heading back up into the 50s by Thursday. Then comes the weekend and the possibility of a storm. They’ve been hemming and hawing about what to expect since last week. It seems like this could be one of those storms that Tom Schrader used to talk about. It could be lots of snow or it could be a “nothing burger”. As it gets closer, they seem to be trying to pin it down more, but we all know that these systems can change just like that. Right now it sure sounds like the storm will track to the east of at least us.
North Dakotans are used to this. We know that the season meter being shared on Facebook is pretty accurate. Although I saw it for the first time about two weeks ago, it still seems pretty accurate.
The chart starts with winter at the top, with false spring below that and an arrow that says “you are here”. It is followed by second winter; is it spring yet; nope, another winter; the pollening; and actual spring.
Although we may all want to think it is spring, it’s not quite there yet. The first day of spring this year is Thursday, Mar. 20. The calendar will officially tell us it is spring, but we all know Mother Nature has a mean streak when it comes to the end of “winter” in North Dakota. Eventually we will all start to feel confident that the weather is going to turn, but until then, don’t put your boots, coats or shovels away.
Tournament Time
I spent time watching both the Class B and Class A girls’ state basketball tournaments last weekend. The games were great, but I was frustrated yet again by not being able to just watch all of the games without paying for an additional streaming service.
It is hard for any television network when you have two tournaments going on at the same time. WDAY at least has the option of their streaming service for the rest of the games.
While I understand and can even agree with the three class basketball system, I wish there was a way to give each of them their own weekend. It is hard if you are a fan that wants to attend the tournaments. With action spread between two cities across the state from each other, you have to make a choice.
I know that the biggest challenge to giving them separate weekends is the lack of weeks in the season. If you have kids in school, you know that fall starts with cross country, volleyball, football and girls’ golf. Those seasons are still in the postseason when practices are ready to get underway for girls’ and boys’ basketball, and wrestling. They are wrapping up and kids are hitting the ball fields, track and boys’ golf. Next year, it will get more complicated for the fall seasons as volleyball splits into three classes as well.
That being said, I enjoyed watching the games on WDAY. We settled in on Saturday to watch the third place and championship games. Unfortunately, if you were waiting to watch the Class B third place game, it was well into the game before the Class A championship game got over.
Congratulations to our area teams for their finishes at state tournaments. The Kenmare Honkers wrapped up a great season with a second place finish and Mashae Miller was named the Senor Athlete of the Year.. The Berthold Bombers wrapped up their own great season with a third place finish and their coach Denver Deaver was named the coach of the year.