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End of season ramblings

By Michael Trzinski, 03/08/13, 11:15PM CST

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Things that flow through the gray as the year ends

As I had mentioned to a friend (yes, I do have friends) a week or so ago, it seemed like the season flew by. That is strictly from an end-of-the-year perspective, which is all I have right now.

Back in early November, the first practices were just starting and the state tournament seemed eons away, although the actual calendar time was slightly less than four months.

The Thanksgiving tournaments became the Christmas tournaments; the Christmas tournaments became the January tournaments; and then the January tournaments became the regionals and sectionals.

Before I knew it, I did my best Peabody and Sherman impression and set the date/place on the Wayback Machine for February 28 / Madison, WI.

I arrived in Mad City a day early to attend the State Tournament / Player of the Year banquet. As always, it is great fun meeting the players, coaches, and parents at this ceremony.

Then, it was time for the tournament to begin.

In the three days of hockey at The Clamshell (AKA the Alliant Energy Center), we saw some great games.

Whitefish Bay (WNS Storm) performed well in its state debut (well done, Maco and company!), although they lost to eventual state champs Eau Claire Memorial in Quarterfinal Thursday action.

Verona pulled off the upset of the decade as they knocked out #1 ranked and favored Notre Dame 5-2 in the semi-final round.

The aforementioned Old Abes finished what they started and took their second state title home to Eau Claire.

On the girls side, Onalaska got a small measure of revenge as they beat defending state champ Central Wisconsin Storm in the semi-final, only to lose to defense-minded Hayward/Spooner in Saturday's finale.

The boys' championship game that would follow the girls' game marked the end of the regular season for us.

For me, I watched over 2,500 minutes of hockey (49 games for those too lazy to break out the calc), put over 5,000 miles on Jed's odometer (a poor Mountaineer, barely kept the family fed), and spent over $750 at the pumps, all to cover high school hockey.

I like to do my end-of-year accounting out loud; not for your benefit but for mine. There are parents out there that put on far more miles than I do and I won't even begin to compare out-of-pocket expenses.

My daughter is a good player, but not THAT good...

Following her and getting a chance to see another two dozen games gives me a pretty good chance to see many teams and players compete.

I believe I have a pretty good knowledge of the game, but even more, I treasure the friendships that I have made through this wonderful sport.

Hockey is an unusual game in that it seems to be an especially close-knit community. Everybody knows everybody. Who needs six degrees of separation? With hockey it is two degrees.

State tournament is like a class reunion, but it happens on a yearly basis. And it never gets old!

We are wrapping up the season, posting all-conference and all-state teams. The Senior Class Tournament is only two weeks away, and the Minnesota NIT is five weeks away.

Things slow down after that, but there is always hockey news to pass along.

Is this a great sport or what?