I’ve been debating on whether or not I want to put Appleton United and Catholic Memorial/Pius in the penalty box this week. It would make for a very crowded box.

CMP and Appleton were participating teams in the Showdown in Titletown over the weekend. CMP lost their first game 5-2 to Madison Edgewood on Thursday night, and then fell to Superior 5-1 on Saturday. Appleton dropped their Thursday night contest 8-4 against Fond du Lac, and then were beaten 4-3 by Notre Dame Academy on Saturday. 

Normally, in a tournament setting, the two teams that lose their two games play the first game on Sunday morning. But on this Sunday, we received an email with a schedule change that essentially swapped the starting times of the third place and seventh place games. I thought it may have to do with traveling distances of the teams involved, but that really didn’t explain much. Then it dawned on me. The two losing teams play the early game on Sunday because that is usually the least desirable playing time. Kids never like getting up early, and parents are usually up late on Saturday nights at hockey tournaments, or so I am told.

On this particular Sunday, the least desirable starting time wasn’t the early morning game, but the 2:00 game. It so happened that this was also the starting time of a very big football game, in case you hadn’t heard. As it turned out, neither Appleton nor CMP was what you would describe as thrilled with the time change, and they agreed to just skip the game and go home. The tournament organizers from Notre Dame Academy did not like that decision, but had no way to force the game.

So my initial reaction was to put the two teams in the penalty box and chastise them for poor sportsmanship or something like that. After all, they had “earned” the right to be dumped on by losing their first two games. Suck it up and play the game. Tivo the football game. That’s what I was doing.

But the more I thought about it, the less it mattered. Who was really being hurt by their decision to drop their game? Nobody really likes playing the last-place game anyway. Notre Dame was out the referee fees they were contracted to pay, and the extra ice time they rented from the Resch Center. I’m not sure how much money they would have taken in selling tickets to that game, but the two teams could try to patch things up with NDA by sending them a check to cover the expenses. 

I don’t know what life lessons were learned by canceling a scheduled high school hockey game in order to watch a televised NFL conference title game. I do know it has been 14 years since the Packers played in one, and I had a real hard time trying to find somebody willing to skip that game to go watch hockey with me. So I can’t really blame or penalize them for choosing to skip the game. 

For their part, Notre Dame decided to keep the championship game at the scheduled 4:15 starting time, and leave the 2:00 slot open. That left it open for those of us in town to cover the games, to leave the Resch Center and go eat lunch. My son Bob was there with me to cover the games, so we went to a nearby Red Robin (required if you are from Antigo) and ate, had a couple of frosties, and watched the first half of said football game. After further review, it is confirmed: The Bears Still Suck.