From the Sideline

Fledgling Harriers Making Headway

2008-10-06T10:32:00.008-05:00

Mount Michael's youthful Cross Country runners are continuing to progress as the season ripens. A couple of weeks ago they finished 2rd at the Nebraska City Invitational and then after a middling race at Kearney they came in 4th place at the challenging Syracuse Invitational. Freshmen Thomas Feichtinger the leading runner for Mount Michael all season finished 3rd as an individual. Recent newcomer junior Sean Murphy was the Knights #2 runner followed closely by his classmate Charles Dudek and then sophomore Ryan Fuxa.

This Friday the Knights return to Pioneer Park in Lincoln, where the Waverly Meet was peviously held, for the Conference Meet.

Oh the Agony!

2008-10-05T11:41:00.003-05:00

Victory was within the Knight's grasp. They tasted it; then it was gone.

The Mount lead 20-13 with about 1-minute to go when the Nebraska City Pioneers began a 75-yard drive which culminated with a touchdown and 2-point conversion that ended the Knight's hope for their 1st win of the season.

It had been great to see the offense moving the ball and the defense breaking into the backfield. It was fun to watch and I'm certain it was much more fun to play in than the preceding games. It just didn't end perfectly. At least the pain of loss wasn't wasted on a team to whom a win would hold little meaning. Nebraska City needed their first win also. They're happy.

It is time to get ready for South Sioux City.

Gridiron Stuggles Continue

2008-09-20T15:03:00.004-05:00

The Knights downward spiral continues as the Columbus Lakeview Vikings punished the Knights with a 49-7 pounding.

In the first quarter the Mount Michael defense made a strong showing holding the Vikings to short possessions. Then things fell apart.

The highlight of the night for Mount Michael was picking up the seasons first offensive touchdown on a pass form Jake Rauterkus to Ed Ridder.

Next Friday the Knights travel to Springfield Platteview. Platteview lost to Gross Catholic 31-3 last Thursday.

Cross Country
The Mount Michael cross country team finished in 9th place at the Waverly Invitational. There will be a bit of a shuffle next week in the varsity as freshmen JV runner Sean Murphy finishes with a time in the JV race that would of placed him 3rd amongst the Mount Michael varsity.

Young X-C Team Progressing

2008-09-12T15:00:00.000-05:00

At the Wahoo Invitational, the second meet of the year, the Mount's cross country team put in another good performance with a 7th place finish. Freshmen Tom Feichtinger led the Knights with an 8th place finish with a time of 17:56. Senior Aaron Menzel was next for the Knights followed closely by Charles Dudek, Then Ryan Fuxa, Will Duffy and Austin Kramer.

The Mount Michael junior varsity team finished in 1st place with 24 points. Leading the Knights was sophomore Bennett Milliken, freshmen Jared Bourek, and juniors Alex Kramer and Josh Cox.

The 6th spot on the varsity squad continues to be fluid as Jared Bourek's JV time allows him to leap frog Austin Kramer onto the varsity.

Next week the Knights will participate in the Waverly Invitational. The competition will be tough featuring several traditional Class B power house teams. The race will be run at Pioneer Park in Lincoln which to a top notch course.

Look for the Knights to continue to perform well and keep your eye on those 5th and 6th positions on the varsity. There are a lot of Knights competing for those spots.

A slide show of the runners is available on the Cross Country Schedule Web Page

Same Story Round #2; Now for the Rest of the Season

2008-09-06T13:31:00.018-05:00

Yep, Pretty much as most expected, the Knights opening season match-ups with Top Ten teams weren't very pleasant. The Ralston Ram's got off to a 30-0 first half lead and then coasted to a 37-0 victory. The only real highlight of the game was blocking the first exta point.

I've seen Mount Michael teams suffer worse. In neither of their first two games did they call it quits and stop trying. That is a good thing to see in a team.

At this point the Knights schedule eases a bit. Next up is 1-1 Wahoo who defeated Roncalli to start the season and fell to Syracuse by seven points last week. Wahoo is a very solid team but nothing like Gross and Ralston. It will be interesting to see how the Knights bounce back after two big losses.

Sometimes the "mental" part of the game is a bigger challenge than you might think. How does a team believe in themselves when success has been infrequent. Do they have the heart it takes to shake off the past and move on? The rest of the season is laid out before the Knights as a big question mark waiting to be answered. It will be interesting to see how the Knights respond.

Game Stats courtesy of Scott Lindgren

Badger Week for JV & Reserve Teams

Monday the Junior Varsity opens their season against the Bennington Badgers. Thursday the Reserve follow suit trying to bounce back after being disappointed with their performance against Roncalli.

Cross Country Heads to Wahoo

The Knight's Cross Country team posted decent results at the Plattsmouth Invitational. Freshmen Tom Feichtinger led the Knights to an 8th place finish. The only senior running varsity, Aaron Menzel was the Mount's #2 man. Competition for varsity spots is wide open with a number of runners jockeying for positition. Time Trial #2, Sophomore Bennett Milliken, will spend the year leading the JV. As a transfer student he isn't eligiable to compete the first semester.

Tennis Stuggles in First Match
The Knights fall to Waverly 2-7.

Newcomers Shine in Time Trial

2008-08-29T11:36:00.006-05:00

The cross country team's top six "Varsity" has been established. Leading the way in the time trial were freshmen Thomas Feichtinger and sophomore transfer student Bennett Milliken. Feichtinger is the first freshmen in history to win the Knight's annual preseason competition. His time is also the top time any freshmen has posted.

Milliken's time ranks him 10th on the sophomore all time chart. Two other runners made the all-time charts with freshmen Will Duffy and Jared Bourek tying for 7th at their grade level.

Besides Feichtinger and Milliken the starting varsity spots fall to senior Aaron Menzel, sophomore Ryan Fuxa, senior Jeong Woo Lee, and junior Charles Dudek.

The "Varsity Six" are a tight pack all running within 17 seconds of one another. Placements are likely to change from week to week. The gap between the newly established varisty runners and the top JV runner is almost a minute. It will be interesting to see if any of the JV can dislodge a varsity runner from his prime spot during the season.

For detailed results checkout the Cross Country Schedule in the Black Zone Sports section of the school's webpage.

Rough Start to the Season

2008-08-29T10:51:00.005-05:00

The Knights Football season got off to a painful start as The #6 rated Gross Cougars hammered the Mount 41-0.

The Knight's offense struggled to make much progress on the ground making only 12 yards on the night. Turning to the air, Mount Michael gained 90 yards but had 4 interceptions 2 of which were returned for touch downs.

There were moments that showed potential particularly a drive near the end of the 1st half. The brightest spot for Mount Michael was the punting of senior Steve Anderson who averaged 43 yards on 4 punts.

Next week will be another tough game featuring the #4 Ralston Rams. for the Knights first home game. Everyone is invited to the tailgate party sponsored by the Booster Club before the game starting at 5:30 at the Elkhorn Middle School Stadium. Good will offerings are appreciated and will go towards the education of the Anderson brothers whose father suffered a severe spinal injury this past summer.

Thank you to alumus Scott Lindgren for Game Stats
.

Internal Competition to Drive X-Country Season

2008-08-27T08:00:00.002-05:00

The Mount Michael Cross Country team will see lots of competition for spots on the varsity squad. The Knights return 4 runners with varsity experience in Charles Dudek, Ryan Fuxa, Jeong Woo Lee, and Aaron Menzel. All four should be favorites to grab a spot on the varsity squad again but with no one individual being a clear number one runner the internal competition should drive runners to improve on a steady basis.

At this time it looks like Juniors Josh Cox, Austin and Alex Kramer should be in prime position for jockeying for varsity positions.

According to Coach John Gathje the freshmen class has "some good athletes who could turn into good runners". So they might very well figure into the mix also.

In looking at the coming season Coach Gathje said "We have a hard working group who are willing to make some sacrifies to be a good team. It makes it easy to coach when you have good kids."

Knights Have Solid Depth; Good Potential

2008-08-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

The Mount Michael Knight's Tennis program is over flowing! With over 60 players out for the sport, depth is not a problem.

The Knights do though only return 2 Lettermen, namely Pat DeWald and Joe Hoffman. "Hoffman and DeWald have improved immensely over the summer." said Coach Andrew Dunlay. At this time they are competing for the #1 singles position.

Some of the other players to watch for are Joel Hotovy, Dominic Antonelli, Paul Huss, Luke Weitkemper, Pat Scheer and Grant Parr. Lots of others including freshmen are on the cusp of competing on the varsity level. The pressure is on to perform well.

Class B Tennis has no obvious favorite to begin the season. According to coach Dunlay, "The Knights have a lot of really solid players on the team that have the chance to do really well, but, they are going to have to work hard and give it their all to make it happen."

Young, Experienced, Knights Look For Improvement

2008-08-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Knights enter the 2008 campaign after two consecutive one win seasons. No one is talking about championships this year but there is plenty of well deserved optimism to start off the season. The Knights have plenty of experience with 25 lettermen and seven starters returning on both sides of the ball. Five senior starters from last year will anchor the team. Despite the experience level, the Knights are still young with lots of sophomores and juniors playing in key positions. Senior leadership will be an important element to a cohesive squad. Keeping everyone together and healthy is important. As always in a small school every player is important and spots will need to be filled throughout the year.

The Knights schedule is particularly top heavy at the start of the season with highly touted Gross to start the season followed by Ralston and a strong Wahoo team.

Look for the Knights to develop and improve in every game. With a focused effort and hard work the Knights should be competitive by the time district match ups begin. Schuyler is the early favorite in the district. The talent in the district should be pretty balanced and it would be no surprise if the district champion is not determined until the final week of competition.

More Photos From Preseason Practice

1982 Football Championship

2008-08-14T21:18:00.001-05:00

A little flash back to start the school year.

The pace around school is hectic as everyone scurries to get ready for the opening of the school year. I did have time today though to get permission from Omaha's WOWT channel 6 to post a report they produced of Mount Michael's 1982 Football Championship. Someone gave me a copy of it on an old VHS tape.

It was a bitterly cold night in the low teens. Some teams postponed their championships until the following afternoon because of the weather.

In the 1st Round Mount Michael had defeated McCook 21-0 in one of the hardest hitting games I've ever seen. In the second round the Knights beat Lincoln Pius X 28-0. The previous week Pius had met up with Elkhorn and beaten them. The Elkhorn coach was quoted as saying how he'd "Like to see the team that can beat Pius" Well......

The final game, which is seen in this video was against O'Neill. Legend has it that the O'Neill paper reported the next week that the loss was due to having the wrong kind of shoes.

Thank you to WOWT for permission to use this Sports Report

I'm waiting on Lincoln's KOLN to see if they will grant permission to use their report.

Check out the school's "Black Zone" Sports History Section for more archival photos, videos & the like.

Eureka! "From the Sidleline"

2008-08-13T05:34:00.000-05:00

Why does inspiration have to come at 4:00 am? One of the great gifts of growing older is that sleep becomes tenuous. So as it happens, I'm startled into wakefulness this morning with the phrase "From the Sideline" throbbing into consciousness as a blog. No sense avoiding the inevitable, after tossing and turning for an hour I'm up at 5 o'clock and setting up a new blog. So it begins.