A Wild Night on Tuesday

The annual scramble to secure scouting reports,game tapes,make travel arrangements for high school football playoff teams began around noon Friday when the WIAA announced the pairings for the Level 1 games Tuesday.

As for the press,radio in particular,it is also a busy time. I know I get a little nervous as to where we will be going,what the facilities are like,how far do we have to drive,what time to leave,etc.

Well,this year we go to Arrowhead High School for the Parker vs. Hartland-Arrowhead contest. The Vikings last played the Warhawks in 2003 on a Saturday afternoon. I remember being down on the field before the game and Nick Hayden walked by. What a big young man. Hayden went on to the UW and is now with the Carolina Panthers of the NFL. Former Badger q-b Tyler Donovan also a Arrowhead grad. When you talk Wisconsin high school football,Tom Taraska and the Warhawks are always mentioned. Taraska has led the program for over 25 years and the list of playoff appearances,state championship appearances,are too numberous to mention. While "on paper",it doesn't appear Parker has much of a chance. Let's play the game and find out.
Looking at the brackets is interesting as well. Four Big 8 teams are in this quadrant that has Parker and Arrowhead. The Parker/Arrowhead winner will face either unbeaten Waukesha West or Madison West. Verona and Middleton could meet Saturday as well for the second time this year. (a game Middleton won easily). Sun Prairie is the lone Big 8 team in their quadrant and Madison Memorial is the lone conference team in their quadrant. I mentioned in a commentary that the WIAA would have a hard time with the pairings due to the 6 Big 8 teams in the field. They did as the pairings show.