The year that was 2009 was quite an adventure here in the Monroe Times sports department. From following numerous teams to state tournament berths to trying to reach a new nightly deadline, which was implemented back in the spring, sports reporter Mark Nesbitt and I have barely had time to sleep.
Trying to pick the top 10 local sports stories from the past calendar year was even harder. Together, we came up with 21 stories we thought were worthwhile, then allowed the entire office to vote.
The top story, Monroe boys basketball finishing second at state, was the runaway winner. From there, the rest of the top four was a little harder to discern.
Most of us agreed on nearly the entire top ten, with only a few selections in the lower half getting bumped around.
At No. 10, Nick Patchen carried Albany to the Kohl Center for wrestling. His effort earned 56 points in our office's not-so-sabremetrics points system.
No. 11? Black Hawk volleyball's conference dominance with 55 points.
Twelfth on our list was college recruits. The Times has watched four female athletes sign letters of intent to play sports at major colleges. We even saw another, J.J. Panoske, withdraw a verbal commitment to play Division I men's college basketball.
My personal sleeper, which finished just 14th in the voting, was New Glarus boys basketball team's epic triple-overtime loss to Cuba City in the Division 3 regional final back in March.
The Cubans featured arguably Wisconsin's top player, Evan Richard, and coach Jerry Petitgoue, who has racked up over 750 wins in his 40-year coaching career. The Knights had a senior dominated squad that could run and shoot, and were an outright fun team to watch.
The game itself featured one clutch shot after another. Richard scored 47 points and Ryan Bright scored 27 for New Glarus - including six 3-pointers. Twice Cassidy Flannery appeared to have ended the game in the waning seconds with fast break layups, and both times was called for controversial charges.
There were 50 fouls in the game, and six players fouled-out, including four of the Knights' starting five.
After the game, Flannery told me "We left it out on the floor." And that they did.
I have witnessed a lot of sporting events in my young life, including hundreds, if not thousands, of basketball games (between watching from the stands or from the bench), and I have never once seen any game as great as that. To make everything even more awe-inspiring, I didn't even show up to the game until the final two minutes of the third quarter - I had driven from Verona to Evansville after Monroe's boys team knocked off Edgerton.
Despite my continuous stumping in the office for a top-10 vote, the game was left off the list. But here it is anyway.
As for what is ahead in 2010? No one knows, which is the true beauty of high school sports. That fact alone has me smiling into the future.
- Adam Krebs is the Monroe Times Sports Editor and can be reached at sportseditor@
themonroetimes.com or at 328-4202 ext. 33.
Trying to pick the top 10 local sports stories from the past calendar year was even harder. Together, we came up with 21 stories we thought were worthwhile, then allowed the entire office to vote.
The top story, Monroe boys basketball finishing second at state, was the runaway winner. From there, the rest of the top four was a little harder to discern.
Most of us agreed on nearly the entire top ten, with only a few selections in the lower half getting bumped around.
At No. 10, Nick Patchen carried Albany to the Kohl Center for wrestling. His effort earned 56 points in our office's not-so-sabremetrics points system.
No. 11? Black Hawk volleyball's conference dominance with 55 points.
Twelfth on our list was college recruits. The Times has watched four female athletes sign letters of intent to play sports at major colleges. We even saw another, J.J. Panoske, withdraw a verbal commitment to play Division I men's college basketball.
My personal sleeper, which finished just 14th in the voting, was New Glarus boys basketball team's epic triple-overtime loss to Cuba City in the Division 3 regional final back in March.
The Cubans featured arguably Wisconsin's top player, Evan Richard, and coach Jerry Petitgoue, who has racked up over 750 wins in his 40-year coaching career. The Knights had a senior dominated squad that could run and shoot, and were an outright fun team to watch.
The game itself featured one clutch shot after another. Richard scored 47 points and Ryan Bright scored 27 for New Glarus - including six 3-pointers. Twice Cassidy Flannery appeared to have ended the game in the waning seconds with fast break layups, and both times was called for controversial charges.
There were 50 fouls in the game, and six players fouled-out, including four of the Knights' starting five.
After the game, Flannery told me "We left it out on the floor." And that they did.
I have witnessed a lot of sporting events in my young life, including hundreds, if not thousands, of basketball games (between watching from the stands or from the bench), and I have never once seen any game as great as that. To make everything even more awe-inspiring, I didn't even show up to the game until the final two minutes of the third quarter - I had driven from Verona to Evansville after Monroe's boys team knocked off Edgerton.
Despite my continuous stumping in the office for a top-10 vote, the game was left off the list. But here it is anyway.
As for what is ahead in 2010? No one knows, which is the true beauty of high school sports. That fact alone has me smiling into the future.
- Adam Krebs is the Monroe Times Sports Editor and can be reached at sportseditor@
themonroetimes.com or at 328-4202 ext. 33.
