There were few in Trempealeau County who didn’t know him, or know of him. Residents of Whitehall, Wisconsin, remember the basketball coach and teacher well. Basketball players throughout the Dairyland Conference remember him. Referees from decades of games probably feared him, or at least his temper when calls didn’t go his way. His name was Ken Stellpflug. He passed away in July.

Friday night’s football game brought the worry of most athletes’ parents to my wife and I - watching our child get hurt.

Can you imagine coaching a high school football team to a 14-0 conference record and still not be illegible to make the playoffs? That’s exactly what happened to the Whitehall (Memorial) High School Norsemen football team in 1979, my junior year.

It is a small world…I received an email recently from a player who’s football game I photographed 20 years ago for the Fergus Falls Daily Journal.

That’s no Gatorade or Powerade recipe for a sports drink. I’m sure my coaches weren’t thinking of e-coli bacteria, deadly viruses or poisoning when my teammates and I at Whitehall High School in Wisconsin, had to chug water during a break from football practice using an outdoor hose faucet and our football helmets. Looking back [...]

Remember the days of watching those Patriots games on your television, or with a small battery powered tv. The reception was as snowy with static as the weather on the field. You wrapped aluminum foil around the tips of the rabbit ears antenna and pointed them in different directions to pick up enough signal to see the outlines of the players.

Should a state athletic association of public school sports be allowed to sell rights for one media to cover a high school event, and ban another? That’s exactly what the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association is trying to do.

What does Manny Ramirez, an eight-track tape and a penny have in common? They’re all worth about the same amount - valueless.
The Dodgers offered Manny $25 million for one more year. What would they get in return? A homerun-hitting cry-baby who throws tantrums in the dugout, walks at his own pace on the field and shoots his [...]

Is the thrill of victory in your blood? Not in mine. I got my ____ kicked this weekend by both my wife and son. I couldn’t hit a bucket if it was right in front of me!

No, I didn’t grow up in the “Wild, wild west,” or a third world nation - just a small town in Wisconsin, where nobody thought twice when seeing a teenager carrying a cased rifle to school. I will always be an athlete of the woods, weather carrying a gun, or a camera.