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Thursday, May 1, 2008
One Never Knows...
St. Paul, MN
By: Tim McNiff, KARE Channel 11
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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A new group of tomorrow’s stars are already taking center stage and this is your best, and most affordable, opportunity to see them do their respective thing.
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I vividly remember years ago reading Sid Hartman's column in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune about a St. Paul kid who would periodically play baseball with the U.S. National team, with kids 2-3 years older than he was, yet he was considered the best catcher in the country for that age group. Sid said the kid had a rocket for an arm and could hit anything thrown at him. From time to time Sid had updates on the kids' progress and so it was with great anticipation that I finally got to cover this kid when I was a sports anchor/reporter for KARE-TV.
"The kid" is, of course, Joe Mauer who now anchors home plate and the pitching staff for the Minnesota Twins. I can't recall the particulars as I saw Mauer play a number of times when he was attending Cretin-Derham Hall, but I'll never forget the excitement at seeing how big he was and how he made it seem like he was already in a different league than the rest of the players on the field. Mauer homered, caught and lived-up to every bit of hype that preceded him. During Joe's career at CDH, I saw him win a state championship in baseball, earn a scholarship offer to Florida State as a football player, be recognized as the best quarterback in the nation by Gatorade and reduce Gopher recruit Maurice Hargrow to tears on the basketball court as a member of the Raider basketball team.
My point is not that I had a great job. I mean I did, and I enjoyed the heck out of it, but what I'm getting to is that one never knows what, or rather who they'll see when they attend a high school sporting event. As an intern in the KARE-11 sports department, I covered a lanky… no, make that gangly kid from St. Thomas Academy who went on to win a silver medal in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He then went on to become the first Minnesotan to ever win a gold medal when he won the 200-meter butterfly in the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia. To see Tom Malchow grow from an awkward prep phenom to best in the world was truly amazing. And the best part was that, just like in the case of Joe Mauer, Malchow was still basically the same person when he was on top of the sporting world as he had been as a prep athlete.
Natalie Darwitz burst upon the scene as a 6th grade puck phenom in Eagan, while Krissy Wendell, who had first come to the nation's attention while playing catcher in the boys Little League World Series, re-appeared when she made the transition from boys hockey to the girls game at Park Center High School. It was hard to believe that two such dominant hockey players could be in the same state, at the same time, but there they were and it was awesome! They seemed to be playing a game within a game, a game of "anything you can do I can do better." It was a rivalry/relationship that continued through their careers with one earning a Patty Katzmaier Award as the most outstanding player in womens college hockey, the other a championship-winning goal and tournament MVP honors at the U of M, and of course on to the Olympic stage not once, but twice for both players.
Of course these athletes are the exceptions rather than the rule, but you never get to see the exception if you don't go to watch. We are fast approaching the end of another school year and of course, the athletic season that goes along with it. We have already witnessed the domination of Eden Prairie's football team, seen the girls from St. Paul Central gain a measure of revenge in the state basketball final and Apple Valley... well, be Apple Valley on the wrestling mat. Already names like Destin McCauley and Eric Devos are recognized as state champions, even though one has just started high school and the other won’t get there until the fall.
A new group of tomorrow’s stars are already taking center stage and this is your best, and most affordable, opportunity to see them do their respective thing. The best part? Being able to tell everybody else that you saw them first, that you knew that some day they'd become the superstar that they grew into. And all the other great kids you'll see, and the outstanding competitions you'll witness along the way, will be a wonderful bonus for simply taking the time to take it all in. But hurry, this year's almost over, and while next year may prove to be every bit as entertaining, it can never be the same.
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