A big weekend for anyone associated with or rooting for the Monroe High School basketball teams starts today.
Most of the focus has been on the boys basketball team, which returns to the WIAA Division 2 state tournament tomorrow intent on defending its state championship.
But there's another team playing this weekend that deserves just as much attention. The girls basketball team is in the sectional semifinals today at 7 p.m. at Waunakee. The Lady Cheese are two games away from going to the state tournament for the second time in three years - they won the state title in 2006.
This is the fourth consecutive season Monroe has had a basketball team in the state championship - bringing home titles in two of the past three years. Perhaps 2008 will be a year both the boys and girls teams make state. Regardless, it's been an amazing run, indeed.
We wish the boys and the girls the best of luck, and hope the Swiss Cheese Capital of the World has plenty to cheer about come Saturday evening.
The fans will turn out in droves Friday afternoon to the Kohl Center to cheer on the Cheesemakers. They'll likely be sporting the Monroe red in a sea of support.
We hope a similar contingent of Cheesemakers faithful make the trip a little farther north than Madison today to hoot and holler the girls to a sectional semifinal victory.
Should the girls win today and the boys win tomorrow, fans faithful to Monroe basketball will get a double dose of fun Saturday. The boys would play in the early afternoon for their second gold ball in a row, and the girls would play at 7 p.m. at Janesville Craig with a state berth on the line.
Everyone who can should make the effort to get to both games. Janesville Craig is about a 45-minute drive from downtown Madison. We know Cheese fans travel well. Let's see it happen on Saturday.
No matter which games you attend, keep one thing in mind. It's great to be excited and back the Cheesemakers with chants and cheers, but do so tastefully.
Sportsmanship should be in the minds of every Cheesemaker fan all season long, but when it gets to this point in the season, when the elite teams are left, people who don't normally go to games come out to see what the fuss is about.
At this level, good sportsmanship is paramount. It's a must. A team can be as successful as possible on the court en route to a state or sectional title, but it can all be tarnished by fans who are constantly on the referee for borderline calls or badgering the other teams' players.
Everyone have fun this weekend doing your part to cheer on the Cheesemakers. The more games you are at, the better, but in the end, cheer with class.
We wouldn't expect anything less.
Most of the focus has been on the boys basketball team, which returns to the WIAA Division 2 state tournament tomorrow intent on defending its state championship.
But there's another team playing this weekend that deserves just as much attention. The girls basketball team is in the sectional semifinals today at 7 p.m. at Waunakee. The Lady Cheese are two games away from going to the state tournament for the second time in three years - they won the state title in 2006.
This is the fourth consecutive season Monroe has had a basketball team in the state championship - bringing home titles in two of the past three years. Perhaps 2008 will be a year both the boys and girls teams make state. Regardless, it's been an amazing run, indeed.
We wish the boys and the girls the best of luck, and hope the Swiss Cheese Capital of the World has plenty to cheer about come Saturday evening.
The fans will turn out in droves Friday afternoon to the Kohl Center to cheer on the Cheesemakers. They'll likely be sporting the Monroe red in a sea of support.
We hope a similar contingent of Cheesemakers faithful make the trip a little farther north than Madison today to hoot and holler the girls to a sectional semifinal victory.
Should the girls win today and the boys win tomorrow, fans faithful to Monroe basketball will get a double dose of fun Saturday. The boys would play in the early afternoon for their second gold ball in a row, and the girls would play at 7 p.m. at Janesville Craig with a state berth on the line.
Everyone who can should make the effort to get to both games. Janesville Craig is about a 45-minute drive from downtown Madison. We know Cheese fans travel well. Let's see it happen on Saturday.
No matter which games you attend, keep one thing in mind. It's great to be excited and back the Cheesemakers with chants and cheers, but do so tastefully.
Sportsmanship should be in the minds of every Cheesemaker fan all season long, but when it gets to this point in the season, when the elite teams are left, people who don't normally go to games come out to see what the fuss is about.
At this level, good sportsmanship is paramount. It's a must. A team can be as successful as possible on the court en route to a state or sectional title, but it can all be tarnished by fans who are constantly on the referee for borderline calls or badgering the other teams' players.
Everyone have fun this weekend doing your part to cheer on the Cheesemakers. The more games you are at, the better, but in the end, cheer with class.
We wouldn't expect anything less.
