Rainy River won a national championship, Littlefork-Big Falls sent a softball team and a dominant football team to state and the Falls Broncos filled Bronco Arena again with a 23-win season. Oh yea, and Falls High School will now always hold graduation on a Sunday. Why? Because of sports, and there were plenty of memorable moments to talk about over the past 366 days (Remember, it was a leap year).

Another year has come and gone on the local sports scene and the memories created will last a lifetime for some. I was privileged to be there for it from many different perspectives. Many of the games I called on Bronco Radio. More often than not, however, I would be sitting at this desk following a game, collecting my thoughts to write the game story. Being a varsity assistant in two sports gave me another set of eyes to look through.

When Jim asked me to write this story (because he didn’t arrive until early September), I first had to collect the information from the past year. State tournament teams and top individual performances are always at the forefront, but there are so many other moments for me from the unique perspectives I have. Every game I broadcast or wrote about, every game or practice I coached is a memory. This list is not meant to be all inclusive and is far from perfect:

• When the Falls Bronco baseball team defeated Hibbing in the first round of the section tournament at Scheela Field it created an impossible situation for three seniors. Despite the efforts of Falls athletic director Don Rolando, the section committee — as part of the Minnesota State High School League — refused to change the time of the game against Cloquet, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at Wade Stadium in Duluth. That made it impossible for Matt MacKenzie, Kyle Potter and Matt Harder to play in the game and be able to walk down the aisle with their classmates at graduation. MacKenzie and Potter played in the game, while Harder stayed behind to be at graduation. In past years the section committee had been willing to work with all area schools to avoid situations like this. The Falls School Board later passed a resolution moving graduation to Sunday afternoon.

• Longtime Bronco football coach Stuart Nordquist was inducted into the MSHSCA Hall of Fame on October 4. I was there with 50 other family members, coaches and former athletes to share in his honor. Nordquist is one of the last of a dying breed of coaches who stay in the same community 35 years while passing the test of time. Many coaches have come and gone during his time. In this era of instant gratification, many times we lose our perspective on what high school athletics are all about. Nordquist will always serve as a reminder that kids and coaches do what they do because they love it.

• Fund raising. Booster clubs have long been a staple of Bronco athletics. Because of their efforts, new basketball backboards were purchased for the school and outdated equipment for recreation football was replaced with new and safer equipment to name just two examples. But the fund raising efforts of the Bronco baseball team for a trip to Florida added a new perspective. With direction from Superintendent Don Langan, the team went about working there way to their goal. Bronco players washed windows at local businesses, mowed lawns, painted fences and worked on numerous other projects throughout the summer, but something else happened along the way. People in the community connected with the kids. So much so, that I heard many compliments, especially from the seniors in the community, about the great kids from the team.

I have always preferred to talk about team accomplishments and I had many highlights from that perspective in 2008:

• Bronco boys hockey — The Broncos’ 23-4 season, the best since 1971-72, stands out, but what I will remember is the passion in which they played the game every night. My admiration for them only grew the night they lost in the section semifinals to Hibbing. They weren’t afraid to show that it hurts to lose, and that is always what defines greatness in a team.

• L-BF football (pictured above) — When I think of this team I think of single-mindedness. This team, which advanced to state for the second straight season and finished 11-1, realized the season does not begin in August. The time they put in at the weight room and preparation in the offseason led to their utter domination during the season and section playoffs. Senior Gage Klemetsen was also named to the Associated Press All-State honorable mention team for his efforts at running back.

• RRCC women’s hockey — The Voyageur women won the American Collegiate Hockey Association national championship by defeating the University of Minnesota Duluth 6-4 in Bensenville, Ill. to cap off a 20-2-2 season.

Sarah O’Sullivan picked up tournament MVP honors, while Jackie Cumber, Stevie -Lee Langford, Melissa Calder and O’Sullivan were named to the All-Tournament team.

• L-BF softball — The team made another trip to the state tournament by winning two straight games against Mesabi East. This accomplishment just added to the run of excellence displayed by girls athletics at L-BF in this decade. Senior Kelly Hams was also named to the All-Tournament team.

• The Rally — The Bronco girls softball team used a 15-run rally to surpass and eliminate defending champion Esko from the section softball tournament.

• Bronco football — Less than a week after finding out about a scheduling gaffe against Duluth Central, the Bronco football team found itself on the road for a section quarterfinal game for the first time since 1985.

The Broncos had lost to No. 2 seeded Eveleth-Gilbert 43-28 on Sept. 26. The Falls trailed the entire game until the last minute when Jacob Casareto scored from 1-yard out. The Falls prevailed 24-21.

• L-BF boys basketball — The Vikings averaged 75.3 points a game and finished 16-8 overall. They won 10 out of their last 11 games before falling to state-bound Chisholm in the section tournament.

• Bronco girls hockey — The Falls finished 13-13-1, marking the first year the squad finished .500 or better in nine years of the program.

Individual game accomplishments and career records also have their place:

• Joe Baron, Ames Bryant, Martin Murcia and Raph Gelo finished 21st for the Broncos at the Class A state swimming and diving meet in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

• Gelo — as the Class A defending state pole vault champion — finished second in ’08 with a jump of 14 feet, 6 inches, while fellow senior Eric Solo finished ninth in the discus with a toss of 145 feet, 5 inches. Freshman Alicia Hendrickson represented the girls well, finishing 14th in the pole vault with a jump of 8-6.

• Travis Phillipe was the co-champion of Section 7AA and competed in the state golf meet for the Bronco boys, while Maria Porter represented the Falls girls. Phillipe, who also won the Junior Championship and the Men’s Club Championship at the Falls Country Club over the summer, finished tied for 55th at state, and Porter finished tied for 27th.

• Bronco junior Stephanie Christianson finished eighth at the section cross country meet to qualify for her third state meet, where she finished 94th in Class A. As a team, the Bronco girls finished one point short of qualifying for state behind Crosby-Ironton and Esko.

• Casareto’s record-breaking, three home run performance on May 5 helped the Broncos baseball team win 14-2 over Virginia. I personally enjoyed a press box seat for this one on Bronco Radio. It was just one of the Broncos’ highlights during a Arrowhead Conference championship season.

• The career accomplishments of Bronco Sam Sherwood and Viking Kelly Hams in basketball. Sherwood scored her 1,000 career point with just seconds to play in her final home game on Parents Night. Sherwood became the sixth girls player in school history to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau. Hams finished an outstanding career with 1,569 career points, which is second in L-BF school history behind Andrea Millerbernd.

• Bronco boys basketball player Aaron Skoglund was selected for an area AAU basketball team and participated in a nationwide tournament in Orlando, Fla.

These are many of the biggest memories of 2008. I wish I could’ve been there the night Nora Lindberg, battling cancer for the second time, surprised everybody — including daughter Sara — by coming to the final home swim meet of her daughter’s career. The support and sacrifice shown by families of athletes never ceases to amaze. Parents may never hear a word of thanks until years later, but I have never met a kid who didn’t need your support.

I’m not going anywhere in 2009, and I hope you can all come along for the ride wherever it takes us.