Rodd’s Ramblings – Fall Sports Are Here

Aug 22

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Well here we go again! It’s time for another installment of Rodd’s Ramblings. We take a moment to look ahead to the upcoming seasons and to look back at a summer that was way too short.

This past summer was colder and much more windy than normal. Races at the Proctor and Superior Speedway’s were canceled on a regular basis due to rain and the local sports teams had to fight an extended period with no rain. In other words, it was a weird and freaky summer.

The fall sports season has arrived and we have all our local high school teams on the field, in the gyms and on the courts getting ready for their upcoming games. I, for one, can’t wait! For those of us who are well past our high school days, there is still the joy of watching the local teams compete as we cheer the athletes on who represent our schools and communities.

In Cloquet, the Lumberjack football team is coming off of their best season in years as they try to take
the next step to the state tournament. The Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels will look to reload again as they try to march back to the Metro Dome and Cromwell will strive for the Dome after missing out the past 3 seasons.

Carlton, ML-WR, Esko, Barnum and Cloquet all should have strong seasons in girls volleyball again and the girls soccer teams in Cloquet and Esko-Carlton should vie for the coveted state tournament once again. The Jacks were a shootout short of making the tournament last year!

As I drove around the area on Tuesday, I stopped in and caught a few minutes of the Cloquet football team practicing and then I watched the CEC girls tennis team. It was great to see Coach Steve Rickstrom out on the court working with the team and showing them the finer points of the game.

My plan is to hit all the fields over the next month and say hi to coaches and fans and to remind them of this great web site that we have put together. I would ask that as you scan through our site that you let other people know what we are trying to do–to give notoriety to our local sports figures both in high school and out.

In a relatively short amount of time, NSO has become a must visit location for local high school sports fans. We will be looking to provide you with wide ranging coverage of all local sports in a timely manner. Unlike a newspaper, we don’t have to wait until next week, or the next day to provide coverage of an event. Instead, we can update stories as soon as the game is done, or as soon as we are able to gather all the needed information. The idea of being able to read about the big football game, or the big hockey game, by the time you get home is staggering.

As NSO continues to grow there will be times where we ask for your help. Why? Because we want you to take ownership in the site and to feel that this site is yours as much as it is ours. Only when our readership takes a stake in the site will we begin to grow.

Finally, we are aiming to super serve our immediate region which includes all the teams in Carlton County as well as AlBrook because of its geographic location to Cloquet and the county. In time, we may grow to outlying areas, but for the most part we are looking at taking care of the people right here and making sure they are getting the attention they deserve!

Kerry Rodd can be reached at Kerry@northlandsportsonline.com