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Peterson: Contracts too large for pro athletes

Take a look at some of the salaries being paid to today’s professional athletes and you have to wonder if it’s case of them being overrated or overpaid. Now, I know the year is 2019 and everything has an exorbitant price tag. Take a look at your next grocery bill — or the sticker price on a new car or truck — and you’ll know what I’m referring to. The most glaring example that comes immediately to mind are baseball salaries. And our local big league favorite, the Detroit Tigers, is one of the prime examples. Sure, I know that the $30 million annual salary paid to ...

Peterson: A definite case of mind over matter

Some years ago, there was a basketball player at Bergland High School by the name of Neil Kalember. A smooth lefthanded shooter, Kalember helped the Vikings to a couple of district titles and a berth in the U.P. regional finals as a sophomore. But early in his senior season, Kalember suffered a broken arm and missed the entire campaign While we had been opponents, I hadn’t seen him until many years later at Lake Gogebic while vacationing. We got to reminiscing about our past days on the court and I asked him about the season he lost to injury. “It was the longest winter of my ...

Karnosky: Running hockey rentals is hard

When my family first moved to Houghton in the late summer of 1983, my parents, who did not grow up with the sport, but instead fell in love with it while falling in love with each other during their time at the University of Wisconsin, bought season tickets to Michigan Tech hockey games. In that first year, I got to see Brett Hull play for Minnesota-Duluth, I also had the chance to see Tom Kurvers, Norm Maciver and Jim Johnson on that Bulldogs squad. Wisconsin had the likes of Tony Granato and David Maley. North Dakota featured Perry Berezan and Rick Zombo along with future Bulldogs ...

Local is focus for FU football/Paul Peterson

There’s an old saying that the family that sticks together stays together. That particular philosophy has been adopted full-bore by the Finlandia University and Hancock High football teams. The Lions are hoping to gain the support of Hancock sports fans — and those in the Copper Country — with a six-game home schedule this fall. “We consider the entire four-county area as our main area for recruiting,” Lions coach Travis Wiltzius said earlier this year. “We hope that playing six games at home in 2019 will help in that respect.” Wiltzius, who went winless in his ...

Football season here again

It seemed like just yesterday that the football season came to an end. But here we are again with another season upon us. The high school grid season gets underway Thursday night with a couple of games on the schedule. The most interesting one locally is the meeting of L’Anse and Hancock at McAfee Field. Both teams have hopes of reversing their fortunes from a year ago, but more on that later. With the exception of Calumet, which was undefeated in the regular season, 2018 was not a good one in the Copper Country. Hancock, which went to the playoffs in 2017, lost a number of ...

That time of year

With the sounds of whistles blowing, coaching shouting, and feet hitting the turf or gym floor, it can only mean one thing: fall sports season. Last weekend saw some of the area high school volleyball teams take the court for preseason tournaments. Credit goes out to both Calumet and Lake Linden-Hubbell for strong showings as both took second in their respective invites. Thursday marks the opening of the high school football season. Calumet, L’Anse, Hancock, Houghton and Ontonagon all hit the turf that night with the Lakes joining the fray on Saturday. Calumet, of course, is ...