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Boy, what a game that gave the Barneveld girls basketball team the Division 5 championship Saturday. It wasn't until near the final few minutes of the game that junior sensation Rachel Slaney made a layup off a great screen (pick) play to give Barneveld their first lead of the game. She made the layup uncontested. Then she made another shot as well as two free throws and the game was theirs 38-34 over Wisconsin Rapids Assumption, the team they finished second to last year. It was a battle of a game with the last player standing being the winner! Barneveld plays in the Six Rivers East and won their conference as well as going unbeaten for the season!
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Then the Cuba City girls made it two in a row for the area conferences as the SWALâchampions topped Algoma handily 49-28. Former Highland athlete Jeff Pustina is their coach and his daughter Chloe is their point guard!
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Former employee and Country Today Editor Jim Massey drove me to Green Bay on Thursday and brother Patrick and I went to Saturday's championship games, staying for Barneveld's and Cuba City's wins. This was the first time since Pat's knee surgery that he had driven out of town. The knee got fairly sore, but after stopping a time or two both ways it felt better. But, by the time we reached the Chronicle office though, he was ready to not drive anymore that day!
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How about that UWâBadgers men's basketball game Saturday when they came from as many as 18 down to win?âWe were listening to it on the way back from Green Bay and I really never gave up on them even after being down 12 at halftime. They seem to put things together more in the second half and I figured that Oregon wouldn't be able to shoot the entire game like they did the first half. But, there were times down the stretch Oregon hung right in there and made a lot of people "sweat"!
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We received a note with an out of state renewal for George Maughan - from Irene (Maughan)âRasmussen (Fort Collins, Colorado). She wrote:â"Enclosed please find a check for $48.00 (Forty-eight dollars) for a 1 year renewal of the Chronicle subscription for George A. Maughan. He does look it over weekly, however I read a number of features regularly - front page, opinions, After 50, Spotlight and some obituaries. Congratulations on a comprehensive paper (even sports, which weren't there in 1962). I have to admit I do enjoy it, even local "town" news. Thanks for a regular diversion."
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It's kind of nice looking outside of the back door of the Chronicle office and seeing "no remnants of snow" in a lot of the area round (see photo above). Spring "sprung" last Thursday with the temperatures reaching near 50 degrees one day and were in the lower 40's another, but it's been pretty cold over the weekend with still some snow in the forecast. Temperatures could reach the mid 50's by this coming weekend, but there's some rain/snow in the forecast the end of the week It's not over yet!
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Here's anther girls basketball state tournament note. One of the referees in Friday night's Division 1 game between Oak Creek and Kimberly, Tommy Kaster, a Highland graduate and son of Tony (a former volleyball coach at Highland). The referees at the state tournament sure let the players bang each other around inside, nut a lot of hand-check fouls were called - those were of the main emphasis this season at all levels.
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Roger Huebner passed away on the 17th of March. He was Bob Buck's assistant football coach in the early 70's here at Dodgeville. He lived in Waukesha and his wife's name was Linda.