The year that pretty much everyone wants to end, finally is.
Soon enough we'll find out if the countless wishes will come true or if the next year takes us deeper into the rabbit hole.
But before the next 365 begin, here's a look back at what 2020 held.
As eight of the last nine seasons have, the year began with the coach, quarterback & numerous other players for NDSU raising the championship trophy. It feels like a lifetime ago but may go down as the best of all the championships because of the meteoric rise that Trey Lance had in the wake of the win.
Some have already called 2020 the Year of Trey Lance. It's a bit grandiose, but there's also some truth to it. We'll only have to wait a few more months to find out just where he lands in the hierarchy of the top quarterbacks - currently projected as a group of five for the first round of April's event.
#8 came just days after the Purple knocked New Orleans out of the playoffs again!(!!) It included a performance by Kirk Cousins that has been used by some fans as proof that he can rise to the moment, when it matters most - even though the next week against San Fran was a disaster.
With those outcomes Football took it's usual backseat, as much as it ever does at least.
The reigning champs from the SHAC went 13-3 in league play before returning to the Premier Center where they faced the in-state rivals in the championship. With the talent & pedigree on the roster they stormed past the birds, 89-53. With the victory they became one of only 13 teams to qualify for the tournament before the cancellations. In a year with so much loss it still hits differently because NDSU could have made it to the third round of the tournament and brought the university as much attention as anything has.
But such was the year.
As those national events fell under the ax, it became clear that it was only a matter of time before state level ones would also come to a screeching & untimely end. It will make for great debate fodder for years to come.
It won't be exclusive to the tournament, either. Years from now people will debate who could have & would have won the state tournaments in the Dakotas and Minnesota. It became the norm but those days in mid-March were the first time when plans and procedures changed almost by the minute before the events were deemed unplayable. And firsts are the most difficult to forget.
There's also a different sting with the loss of the 2020 state basketball championships. There may never again be a senior class with as much talent as the last one had. Grant Nelson & Boden Skunberg are making that much clear with what they're already doing at NDSU, while several more moved onto college teams at the D2 & D3 levels.
Before the state tournaments were cancelled, the region & conference events were able to run their course. The East boys came down to Sheyenne & Davies, with the Mustangs coming out on top. On the girls side, Davies played their to & through the championship, defeating Red River. As for the region 1 tournament, Central Cass knocked off the juggernaut from Kindred while Richland took care of the boys from Casselton.
Those early cancellations lead into the complete shutdown of the Spring sports. I referred to it as death early on in the process and in the Biblical sense it sort ending up that way. The slumber was only slightly interrupted by the draft in April and the 10-part series about Jordan's last run in Chicago. It was far from what those months usually hold but desperate sports fans were taking whatever they could get.
Then Summer came and adjustments began to be implemented.
The Legion Baseball powerhouse Post 2 began the season knowing that they wouldn't be able to repeat the national success of the previous year. That didn't stop them from taking advantage of the talent that they had. They played their way to a four loss season from the beginning of June to early August. It culminated with their second straight state championship.
A national narrative continues to be that Baseball is of decreasing interest to young fans but the amateur level locally keeps ascending. With Matt Strahm & Andy Young still early in their professional careers, players coming up will have every bit the example for themselves that the Football, Basketball & Hockey players do so the renaissance may continue well into the next decade!
Professional Baseball also pushed through the ordeal with shortened seasons and the attendance restrictions that have also become normative.
Following another change at manager, Fargo put together an okay season but wasn't able to make it as far as the 2019 club did, despite being one of only six teams in the association to take the field and being able to play far more often at Newman.
The Twin Cities team had another strong regular season but as proof that not everything changed this year, they fell as flat as a piece of Lefse in the postseason.
Before they could disappoint again though Football returned. We've all seen & heard the hemming, hawing & indecisiveness of the college conferences & state governing bodies but North Dakota started the high school season on time and despite some hiccups, made it all the way through to championship Friday.
Sheyenne capped a great two-year run with another championship game appearance but couldn't get past Bismarck Century for the second year in a row.
As they always do, the four football championships came on the heels of North Dakota state soccer.
Despite being the most dedicated to prevention, Sheyenne's soccer team go hit three times during their season. The third time prevented them from fielding their undefeated varsity squad in the state semi-finals. The JV did their best but they weren't ready for that stage. I went with it then and hold to it now that the decision by the Activities Association created the ultimate asterisk to the championship that there may ever be.
To the East of the river, Moorhead also put together great days on the pitch. Lead by NDSU-bound Olivia Watson, the Spuds went undefeated into the postseason but then fell victim to Brainerd 1-0 in the first round of sections. Likewise, the Moorhead boys had a spotless regular season. They kept it going through two rounds of the playoffs but a championship match against Maple Grove was where their season ended.
Which left Minnesota football & volleyball as the final sports of Fall.
You could say they were fashionably late but teams in the area made the most of the time that they had!
Barnesville wasn't able to continue their streak of state tournament appearances but they conquered all their opponents by an average of 29 points. A little closer to home, D/G/F also went undefeated in dominating fashion.
As great as those teams managed to be, they couldn't hold a candle to what Kevin Feeney's team did. It's not an exaggeration to say that they scored at will regardless of the team across from them. Like Barnesville also didn't get to return to the Twin Cities but due to their dominance were recognized as this year's state champs by several outlets. Add it to the list of sports topics that people will discuss for years to come. As one that got to see them a few times I'll defend that state title award to anyone who would try to discredit it.
As for Volleyball, the Spuds were also able to finish their season with a win before the dead-period began on November 21. With only three losses they also may have earned a spot at the big event.
Back on the ND side, West Fargo's team cruised through the EDC and made it all the way to the state championship. In the title game Bismarck Century again proved to be the rock blocking the road to the trophy.
It wasn't all high school sports in September, October & November though.
Along with the aforementioned failure by the baseball team, October brought Trey Lance's showcase game against Central Arkansas. Whether it was rust or the pressure of the spotlight (or both), it was not his finest afternoon. The team got the win and the scouts got a bit more film to dissect but otherwise it wasn't all that I thought it could be.
The namesake Purple have gotten plenty of dissection here and the points don't need to be belabored, but mercifully the season will be done in a few days!
Then, before the snow would come for the season, basketball was back.
After the nine month hiatus the Howl returned to the court and some of the early returns from their latest #1 overall pick have been promising. It's a guards league and he's already shown flashes that he could become the best player on the roster. The rest of the league will adjust to his moves but as a reserve this season he'll have ample opportunity to learn and produce against inferior talents. Whether the team is able to put it together and win 30-40 games is hard to say as this time but they're a better team now then they were in March & I see no reason why they won't keep ascending through the next 68 games.
On the local front, North Dakota State's women have been a revelation in year two under Jory Collins. Prior to the seasons I said that if either of the squads go to 10 wins this year it would be something special. Well, the women are half way there before the conference season has even started. They will almost certainly eclipse their 11 wins from last year in a third less games. However this year turns out for them, they've proven to be well set for years to come!
The men on the other hand have struggled to get Ws so far. They've gone against some of the best in the country and showed that they could be in the mix for the three-peat but closing games out has been an issue so far. Riding a nearly two-week long break into the conference schedule, there could be something different coming on Saturday but we'll have to wait a little longer to find out!
If there's one thing that spanned from Winter to Winter it's the high-level recruitment that a couple in the area got this year. Starting in the Summer with self-made videos and then the highlight kicks from 50+ during games, Emmet Kenney earned the opportunity on the field to continue his education at Stanford. Prior to Kenney's meteoric rise, Enderlin's junior big-man Joe Hurlbert started getting offers from coast to coast and the "power 5" conferences have come a callin' on the prairie. There are also the last-minute inquiries by major college programs about players who are on their way to NDSU but it's those two improbable stories that will go down as the best from this past year!
It's been a long year, we all know that. Far longer than one piece can adequately capture but even in the limited amount sports helped provide a distraction this year, the escapism that we all want & need sometimes. I've heard a disturbing amount of wishing for the future even though at this time last year no one knew what was coming. I stick to sports like 95% of the time across all the platforms but even as I look back & think back on what the last 365 days held I can't ignore that worse things may be in store for us in 2021, so I would advise not to wish the days away, as hard as they have been.
Since you made it this far, here's the picture of the year
From the salute at midfield instead of the traditional post-game handshakes to the quarterback in the foreground spending his last moments on the field where he became a star, none of the images more accurately captures so much of what the past year included.
Komen