In the Huddle

This is our 4-month-old English Springer Spaniel puppy, Maizy.

We have not had a puppy for 20 years and are pleading insanity to bringing this one home!

We keep telling ourselves she will be a wonderful dog . . . someday.

This is how we all felt on a Sunday afternoon after all of the grandchildren went home!

Parents: Kim & Bob Smith Aberdeen

PET OF THE WEEK RULES:

Everything must be sent to me by email at jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.

Photos must be sent as jpgs.

Mark each photo clearly with the pet’s name.

Tell me something about your pet that I can use to describe her/him/it. Be clear.

More than one pet can be submitted at a time.

If they want, nominees can include their name and where they live. If not, I will just include the information about the pet(s).

Any kind of pet can be submitted, cat, dog, reptile, sheep or otherwise.

A charter bus, owned by School Bus Inc., was returning to Sioux Falls from a wrestling tournament in Spearfish at around 11 p.m. Saturday.

The bus was transporting 31 wrestlers from Sioux Falls O’Gorman and Roosevelt High Schools.

The bus driver lost control on the icy road surface 2 miles east of Mitchell along I-90.

The bus went into the median, but the driver was able to keep the bus upright.

There was no damage and no injuries.

Mitchell City Transit sent four buses to pick up the occupants of the charter bus.

They were transported to Mitchell Hotels for lodging after arrangements were made by the Sioux Falls School District.

The bus will be removed when conditions improve.

The University of Alberta made history Friday when around 1,200 students, faculty and staff gathered to hurl squishy red balls at each other.

Although it will be several months before officials from the Guinness World Records verify it, organizers say the noon-hour dodgeball game in the Butterdome was the largest the world has ever seen.

The group shattered the former record of a 450-person game and easily reached its goal of attracting over 1,000 players

Some Aberdeen residents went to St. Petersburg, Fla., for the Jan. 23 memorial service for former Aberdeen Pheasants manager Bob Flori (1929-2009) at Al Lang Field.

Flori played baseball all his life and managed from 1964-2007, including in Aberdeen from 1995-97 and the Sioux Falls Canaries in 1998. His 1995 Pheasants set a national minor league regular-season record for winning percentage by going 56-13. In 1996, his Pheasants again had a remarkable record of 54-24.

Aberdeen loved Flori, and he loved Aberdeen. At Flori’s request, the main picture his family used for the memorial service was Flori in his Aberdeen uniform.

Flori died on 09/09/09. Nine is the number of baseball: nine starting players, nine innings and the bases are 90 feet apart. Nine was the number worn by perhaps the game’s greatest hitter, Ted Williams.

Here is the program from the memorial service:

University of Sioux Falls football coach Kalen DeBoer has resigned.

The Milbank native will become the offensive coordinator at Southern Illinois.

USF won its second straight NAIA national championship last fall, and third in four years. In five years as the head coach for the Cougars, DeBoer had a 67-3 record and led USF to the NAIA title game the last four years in a row.

Former Northern State assistant coach Dale Lennon is the head coach of the Southern Illinois Salukis in Carbondale. Lennon had a very successful program at the University of North Dakota before taking over the Salukis.

Southern Illinois won the Missouri Valley Conference last year with an 8-0 record while South Dakota State was second at 7-1.

New Northern State coach Tom Dosch was an assistant at Southern Illinois the last two years.

South Dakota State senior Garrett Callahan (Seneca, Ill., No. 20) led the Jackrabbits with 17 points and moved into the school’s top 10 in career in an 84-60 win over Southern Utah on Thursday at Frost Arena in Brookings.

Callahan has 1,369 career points. Senior teammate Kai Williams (Regina, Saskatchewan, No. 23) is in 12th with 1,331 career points.

What makes the duo unique is that all their points came as Division I players. The Jacks host Missouri-Kansas City in a unique doubleheader Saturday in the 38th annual Pork Classic. The women play at 5 p.m. and the men at 7:30 p.m. The pre-game barbecue will start at 4 p.m.

Here are SDSU’s 1,000-point scorers:

1. Mark Tetzlaff (1982-85) 1,932

2. Lee Colburn (1970-73) 1,822

3. Austin Hansen (2000-03) 1,815

4. Steve Brown (1975-78) 1,534

5. Don Jacobsen (1959-61) 1,488

6. Jermaine Showers 1993-96) 1,399

7. Bob Winzenburg (1979-82) 1,395

8. Jason Sempsrott (1994-97) 1,390

9. Chris White (1991-92) 1,380

10. Garrett Callahan (2006-) 1,369

11. Dave Thomas (1970-73) 1,355

12. Kai Williams (2006-) 1,331

13. Ben Beran (2003-06, 08) 1,285

14. Derrick Schantz (2000-04) 1,283

15. Kurt Meister (1995-98) 1,281

16. Ron Wiblemo (1972-75) 1,272

17. Mark Schultz (1983-86) 1,259

18. Andy Moeller (2001-04) 1,216

19. John Thomas (1967-69) 1,178

20. Cullen Ober (1987-90) 1,163

21. Tom Rops (1993-96) 1,147

22. Guy Mackner (1967-69) 1,114

22. Randy Suarez (1987-89) 1,114

24. Kent Hyde (1956-58) 1,098

25. Ryan Naatjes (1991-93, 95) 1,096

25. Chris Stoebner (2000-03) 1,096

27. Steve Lingenfelter (1980-81) 1,091

28. Casey Estling (1997-2000) 1,084

29. Sid Bostic (1962-64) 1,079

30. Gene Zulk (1967-69) 1,073

31. George Schroeder (1973-76) 1,066

32. Pete Leiferman (1990-93) 1,043

33. Jim Sutton (1955-57) 1,035

34. Merlyn Smith (1957-59) 1,028

35. Jeff Booher (1989-92) 1,018

36. Jim Walker (1979-80) 1,012

37. Bill Cartwright (1986-89) 1,010

38. Cory VandeWettering (1991-94) 1,009

39. Virg Riley (1953-56) 1,008

40. Dennis Wommeldorf (1968-70) 1,006

1. The World Guinness Record for the most players in a single dodge ball game is expected to be knocked out at the University of Alberta in Canada today. The school expects to have 1,200 or more players in its game. The current record is 450 players in a game held by SDSU (San Diego State University).

2. A win at Brookings Saturday means the Aberdeen Central wrestling team would earn its second outright Eastern South Dakota Conference title in a row. Before last year, AC’s only title was in 1973. The ESD started wrestling in 1965.

3. Friends from all over the state have contacted me this week about the sports news coming out of Aberdeen this week. The headlines drawing all the attention were the impressive Northern State football recruiting class and the new hockey team.

4. Maybe this would have been some kind of copyright infringement, but I would have called the new Aberdeen team the Hot Wings.

5. If the weekend weather forces more sporting events to be called off, schools will be running out time and dates to make up sporting events.

6. The PC men are still in the hunt for a conference title. With six league games left, however, I would classify the weekend homecoming games at 7:30 tonight and 5 p.m. Saturday at the Strode Center as must wins.

7. Congratulations to the Aberdeen girls’ varsity hockey team for winning the league championship. The Cougars are playing in a tourney in Bismarck this weekend.

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver/kick returner Percy Harvin added the 2009 Pepsi Rookie of the Year Award to an accolade-lined rookie resume today. Harvin was selected by fans, who decide the award with online voting, out of a talented group of finalists that included Green Bay Packers LB Clay Matthews, Houston Texans LB Brian Cushing, Baltimore Ravens T Michael Oher and Buffalo Bills S Jairus Byrd.

“This is a tremendous honor and I want to thank all the Vikings fans and NFL fans who took the time to vote,” Harvin said. “This really does mean a lot and I appreciate the support. I also have to thank my teammates and coaches who helped me out so much this season and put me in positions to succeed.”

Harvin was also named the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year, Pro Football Weekly Offensive Rookie of the Year and was selected to the Pro Bowl as a kick returner, though he did not participate.

He joins teammate Adrian Peterson (2007) as the only other Viking to be the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year and is the first wide receiver to garner the honor in its 8-year history. He was nominated as the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week seven times throughout the season, winning twice, after stellar performances against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers in Weeks 8 and 9.

Selected with the 22nd overall pick last April, Harvin was quickly able to transfer the play-making ability and explosiveness he demonstrated in helping Florida win a pair of BCS National Championships to the NFL level. He set Vikings records with 2,081 all-purpose yards and two kickoff returns for touchdowns in 15 games during the regular season.

The elusive and speedy wide receiver led NFC rookie non-kickers in scoring with eight touchdowns and 24 receptions on third down. Harvin tied for the rookie lead with 60 receptions, good for 790 yards and 6 scores. He also rushed 15 times for 135 yards to set a Vikings franchise record for rushing yards by a WR.

Harvin ended the regular season ranked fourth in the NFL with a 27.5 kickoff return average despite teams largely kicking away from him throughout the second half of the season.

PEPSI ROOKIE OF THE YEAR WINNERS
Jeremy Shockey, N.Y. Giants…………………………………. 2002
Domanick Davis, Houston Texans…………………………… 2003
Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers……………………. 2004
Carnell Williams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers………………….. 2005
Vince Young, Tennessee Titans………………………………. 2006
Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings………………………. 2007
Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens………………………………… 2008
Percy Harvin, Minnesota Vikings…………………………… 2009

Here the final Minnesota Vikings stats for the season:

Final Vikings stats.pdf