Ok, so I dropped the ball blogging about the sports weekend. Here is your conclusion.
Idaho Steelheads vs. Utah Grizzlies – Friday
Opening night for the Steelheads. I absolutely love hockey (yet still can’t get a single NHL game on TV). There is nothing better than a live hockey game, well, except for a live Boise State football game, but I had already had one of those this week.
Being opening night and the ten year anniversary season for the Steelheads, they had a little pre-game on ice celebration. Ol’ JR Simplot was there as he was instrumental in getting the arena built and getting the team there in the first place. Plus, he lives right upstairs, so it was an easy commute for him. Boy, he is OLD. Tough old bastard. Great man, but he certainly looks like a walking skeleton.
Of course, the Governor was there. Risch, in an attempt to appear as ‘one of the people’ was out there in skates and a hockey jersey. Well, isn’t that cute. Until, that is, you realize that he is actually wearing figure skates. Doh. The people in our section got a good laugh when I pointed that out. What a typical politician putz move.
The Steelheads also debuted their new mascot. Aparently, the old mascot Bonk (click ‘what about bonk’) had to go since he looked like the old logo and we can’t have that now, can we? So, they roll out this thing that looks like Yogi Bear. A bear with a stupid looking grin on his face, wearing fishing gear and tackle. Horrible horrible mascot. I’m not an expert, but since our mascot is an ocean going rainbow trout that swims thousands of miles upstream to spawn, do we really want our mascot to be a creature that kills and eats hundreds if not thousands of those animals every year? Really? You guys really thought this through, didn’t you? Why didn’t you just make the new mascot spinning hydroelectric turbine blades and be done with it?
I will say the new logo, uniforms and colors really do look terrific!
All that being said, the game itself was terrific. Tight the whole time. A little extra-curricular activity after the whistle. A fight. Plus, we won on an overtime shootout. One of the most exciting moments in sports. Good time was had by all.
Boise State Basketball vs. Cascade College – Saturday
The final exhibition game of the Broncos was with another powerhouse program from Oregon. Where the previous team at least looked like a college basketball team, these guys looked like my high school team. As a matter of fact, they probably played like my high school team… if not worse.
The final score was 103-51. This team had less than 20 points on the board with 17 minutes to go in the game. I think the score at that point was something like 70-19. Unbelievable. I don’t know if you can learn anything about yourself when you play a high school junior varsity team like that. Hell, we looked like the friggin Harlem Globetrotters. Only without the bucket of confetti.
Well, perhaps we did not look exactly like the Globetrotters… you see, we had a number of breakaways in this game. On at least three separate occasions, dunks were attempted, and failed miserably. It was quite embarrassing. When you’re all alone on a fast break, you try to throw it down and get stuffed by the rim, that is a bad thing. In fact, one guy, the freshman Anthony Thomas got rim-checked TWICE. Coach, do your team a bit of a favor… set aside some practice time for some dunk training. These guys need it.
Steelehads vs Grizzlies – Sunday
Sunday finished off with a 4pm face off with the Steelies. This game didn’t have much in the way of physicality and was played really clean. Idaho had the lead after scoring in the second period and had the shutout until about 4 minutes left in the game. The goalie Silverthorn played really well, and saved our bacon more than once. Idaho won with a final of 4-1 and finished off a clean sweep of the visiting Utah Grizzlies.
They also polished off a perfect 5-0 for the home teams in my sporting weekend. Three total blow outs (one really fun, 2 not so much). An overtime shootout win and a solid domination to wrap it up. You might be thinking that I might be a little burnt out on sports. Of course, you would be wrong. All I can think is why can’t all weeks be like that?
Game on!
