My colleague Les Knutson just wrote his latest “Blast from the past” column (in the Nov. 18 issue) about his experiences covering the fall prep sports scene for the Daily Globe this year.

Whereas Les has witnessed countless fall seasons around here in the past, this fall season was my first ever.

Below I’ll share some of my impressions based on what I saw while covering this year’s area fall sports.

First off, this wasn’t only my first high school sports season as a Daily Globe staffer, it was my first high school sports season in the USA.

I spent my high school years at Yokohama International School in Japan, and the closest I came to American high school sports culture was when we played against the high schools on U.S. military bases. Let’s just say that before covering my first assignment for the Daily Globe that I’d never been to a high school sporting event with cheerleaders before (something I had in common with the Jackson County Central football team’s kicker Marcelo Rinaldi, of Brazil, who I had the great fortune to meet and write about my second week on the job).

One of the first things that struck me when I started the job down here, besides the presence of cheerleaders, is that I didn’t know hardly as much as I thought I did about American football.

Watching the high school games around here was the closest I’ve ever come to the game — striding the sidelines with a camera and getting the heck out of the way when a running back or wide receiver crashed out of bounds. Once I even picked up the ball after a successful PAT and kicked it back to a referee.

I found out why it’s such an addicting sport. I saw my share of blowouts, but also some nail-biters — the last being Luverne’s 7-6 loss to Caledonia in Rochester on Nov. 12. I talked to coaches and heard them talk about the “I,” without ever really grasping what the “I” actually is. I’ve been in locker rooms with teams after a season-ending loss, and still saw players looking to the positive side of things.

In the driving snow in Rochester during the Luverne/Caledonia game, I stood there urging the Cardinals to pull through and keep their season alive, because I didn’t want the football season to end. It’s going to feel like a long wait until next football season.

The other sports that I spent the majority of my time following this fall were soccer, volleyball and cross country.

I spent my very first night in Worthington at Trojan Field covering the WHS girls’ soccer team, and followed every one of their games until their playoff exit, whether from the stands at Trojan Field or through a lively phone call with head coach Smitty Ektnitphong when they were on the road.

The Trojan boys’ soccer team’s season stretched out a bit longer, and I was at each of their playoff games, urging them to make it all the way to the top. Unlike football, soccer is a sport I’ve had plenty of experience with in the past, and the level of play Juan Flores, Michael Singsaath and company exhibited was much too high for them to be eliminated before the section championship game.

I’m looking forward to seeing the next incarnation of both the WHS girls’ and boys’ teams next season in the aftermath of the graduation of this year’s star seniors.

I’ve been tasked with coming up with the Daily Globe’s all-area volleyball team, and it has been a nightmare of an assignment. I’ve been so thoroughly impressed with the level of volleyball that is played around here that it doesn’t seem fair to have to choose a finite number of players to select for this honor.

You can ask sports editor Aaron Hagen, but I was legitimately giddy leading up to the volleyball section tournament. I would say I was definitely more excited to follow the volleyball tournament than I was to follow this year’s MLB postseason (were the Twins even in it? It hardly feels that way).

Again, I was hoping for our teams to keep winning and keep the volleyball season going on and on, but all too suddenly it too was over.

I only made it physically to two or three cross country meets, but I was blown away by the talent exhibited by the runners around here — it’s hard not to be when in our coverage area we have multiple runners who qualified for the state championships and a state championship team.

I ran into my fair share of confusion with brothers and sisters aplenty competing on the same team, and was lucky not to end the Adrian girls’ cross country team’s hopes of a championship after they posed in a human pyramid when I asked if I could take a team picture. I was happy firstly that they didn’t fall, and then that they actually went ahead and won the state championship four days later.

It’s a pity I never got down to Iowa to meet them, but I was also able to establish a long-distance correspondence with Leah Seivert and Amy Dreessen, two of Iowa’s best up-and-coming cross country runners, who both had unbelievably successful freshman seasons for the Sibley-Ocheyeden girls’ cross country team.

I’m an avid golfer, but had never anticipated going to a golf course for anything other than playing golf. Now every time I’m on a course I’ll subconsciously be watching out for cross country runners emerging from behind the trees.

I’m sad to see the fall season end, but the good thing is that another season is on the way. I’ve already had my first taste of basketball and hockey season, but I’ve never been to a wrestling meet or any sort of gymnastics competition, so the new experiences aren’t over for me for the year.

For anyone reading my articles, I ask for your patience as I continue to learn on the fly.

When you look at the entire history of Minnesota professional sports, the results haven’t exactly been glamorous.

In hockey and basketball, Minnesota is better known for having its teams leave the state than for winning championships.

The Minnesota Twins provided a bright spot with two World Series titles in 1987 and 1991, but those were almost two decades ago, and the Twins have ceased to be a relavant factor in postseason baseball ever since.

However, even if the Twins, Wild or (somehow) the Timberwolves win a championship, the biggest thorn in the side of Minnesota professional sporting history will remain.

We are celebrating 50 years of Vikings football this year, but the most notable aspect of those 50 years has been the absence of a single championship.

Somehow, this is the year the Vikings’ futility is all supposed to end. It is no secret that the Vikings are taking a ‘Superbowl or bust’ attitude, no matter what it takes.

Pay millions to an over 40 quarterback? Well, it might give us an edge, so we have to do it. Bring back a potential hall-of-fame wide receiver with attitude issues? Well, we’ll put up with it if it helps us win.

Well, the problem now is that the Vikings are sitting at 2-5. None of the sacrifices they have taken this year to win it all seem to be paying off.

This season’s struggles are painfully obvious for Vikings fans. First, the excuse was that Favre missed too much of training camp. Then, there were too many injuries. Then, that Moss needed to learn the playbook.

The latest pot-hole in this tumultuous season was the release of Moss on Monday, an unusually blatant sign of frustration by the organization, and a sort of capitulation that this may not be the year afterall.

The question really is, why is it that the Vikings MUST win now? What is so special about this year compared to the past 49?

An obvious answer would be that this is Brett Favre’s last year. Maybe. But the real reason, and the reason that Favre is wearing purple and gold at all, is that the Vikings want to win in the Adrian Peterson era of the franchise.

We’ve seen this kind of logic in Minnesota before. The Twins’ two World Series championships came in what some would consider the ‘Kirby Puckett era.’ Now the pressure in mounting for the Twins to win the World Series in the ‘Joe Mauer era,’ to reward him for signing a long-term deal.

For the Vikings, the ‘Adrian Peterson era’ pressure cooker is on a much higher temperature.
It all began when AP fell all the way to seventh in the 2007 draft.

The Vikings have always had a slew of capable players, but were desperate to find a super-star.

They (thankfully) missed out on JaMarcus Russell, and were even more fortunate not to bite into the Brady Quinn hype. In part they were able to get Adrian Peterson with the seventh pick because of a questionable injury record, in part because no-one knew he’d turn out to be the star he would become.

Back in 2007 the Vikings knew they’d gotten lucky, but they didn’t realize that they had finally acquired their superstar.

Ever since, the cogs have kicked into full gear. Now that they possessed a weapon as potent as Peterson, the Vikings were confident they could finally win that elusive superbowl.

The problem with the game of football is that careers can be ended with a single tackle — this is something the NFL has particularly emphasized this year. The Vikings didn’t know how long AP’s wheels would hold up, so the desperation set in.

Should they wait for Tavaris Jackson to develop into a quality starting option? They decided they didn’t have time. They decided that only the most accomplished quarterback in history would do, regardless of his age.

Last year was supposed to be the year the Vikings won it all, and Favre performed well enough to have the fans believing nothing short of a Superbowl ring would do. Of course we know how that turned out.

It was all still ok — Brett decided to come back for one final season. For real this time.

With most other NFC teams struggling as well, it isn’t impossible that the Vikings will turn it around this year. But are they good enough to win a Superbowl? I’m not good enough to make that argument.

So what’s the next step? The Adrian Peterson era continues, and the the pressure cooker is reaching dangerous levels.

If they don’t win the Super-bowl this year, the year it was finally supposed to happen, then when will it happen?

With Los Angeles setting its sights to luring a franchise, and Zygi Wilf taking a ‘Do it, or else’ philosophy with the state of Minnesota in terms of building his team a new stadium, the question may turn out being “Will it ever happen?”

The thorn is being driven deeper into the sides of Vikings fans, becoming more painful by the second.
The Vikings are running out of time this season to start easing the thorn out and potentially removing it for good.