We're Getting To Playoff Time

People have their own time markers for when the seasons change. Sure, there are the actual calendrical dates, there are particular rituals, there can be family events such as birthdays. In Minnesota, it's the High School sporting finals - the State Boys High School Hockey Tournament and the State Boys High School Basketball Tournament.

The tournament is televised - one game in the afternoon,
another in the evening. It gets higher ratings than any
other show over that weekend, and tickets are very hard
to come by. It's extremely popular and some great hockey
gets played. 

I'll be the first to also acknowledge that the Girls Tournaments of the above sports are also hard fought and great to watch. But when I'm looking for my seasonal change, it's after the two separate Boy's Tournaments that our seasons seem to switch out. It's not me - it's Mother Nature.

Some national stars have come from both the hockey
and the basketball tournament player rosters. 

The Hockey Tournament will be held on March 2-5. It is televised and the final days are usually sold out. That's more than 18,000 tickets sold for each game! It's extremely popular here.The Basketball Tournament will be held on March 9-12 and is almost as well attended.

The classes are split into schools under a certain population, and those
over. In earlier days, they allowed all teams to play each other and
little Warrod ended up winning it all over some giant schools. But
now it is split into two different sections. 

Why mention these tournaments? Well, because the Basketball Tournament usually signals the end of serious snow for us. We might have small snows for a while yet, but no more of the huge ones that can snarl things up badly. So I'm looking forward to Spring. We're almost there.

Here, the players from Edina converge after having won the
tournament. Pure joy! 

It's been a really mild winter for us, even our cold snaps haven't lasted longer than a week. We're experienced in bundling up and probably will have at least one more cold snap this season. But we can tough it out. Yesterday was so warm that I went to the restaurant wearing a heavy sweater. For the thousands of fans in the stands watching Minnesota spank Chicago in outdoor hockey, they had a really comfortable day in the 30's F for the game - AWESOME!

It was really fun to have outdoor hockey in Minnesota again. The
final score: Minnesota Wild 6, Chicago Blackhawks 1. SCORE!!!

So as I finish getting ready for swimming this morning, I'm looking at my calendar. It might say February, but my heart is already looking ahead to spring. Happy Monday to All!