Author: David Shama

The 13^th annual Gatorade-Timberwolves Shootout will offer six games involving teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota on Saturday, January 3 at Target Center.  In the past, 18 future NBA players have participated in the Shootout, including Timberwolves’ point guard Sebastian Telfair and forward Kevin Love, in addition to more than 180 Division I college athletes.  This year’s Shootout offers more than 15 players expected to play in Division I basketball programs.

Among the players to watch is Cloquet’s Chad Calcaterra, who was being recruited by the Gophers last season as a sophomore.  After the opening Cloquet-Pelican Rapids game (start time 10 a.m.), Osseo, featuring Sam Dower, a Gonzaga signee, plays Sioux Falls Roosevelt and Cody Larson, committed to Iowa.

Henry Sibley, with Wisconsin signee Mike Bruesewitz, plays Madison Memorial who has last season’s Wisconsin Associated Press Player of the Year, Jeronne Maymon.  Another Wisconsin team, Lake Geneva Badger, plays Hopkins, ranked No. 22 nationally in the USA Today preseason rankings. The Royals have four future Division I players, Royce White (Minnesota), Trent Lockett (Arizona State), Mike Broghammer (Notre Dame) and Raymond Cowles (Santa Clara).

White is a big name in the 2009 Gopher recruiting class and so, too, is Rodney Williams whose Robbinsdale Cooper team plays Eden Prairie, led by 6-6 senior forward Ethan Wragge, who has signed with Creighton.

The last game (8 p.m. start) has St. Cloud Tech, third place in Class 4A last season with four starters returning, playing Wisconsin powerhouse Manitowoc Roncall, 23-2 last season and 96-6 the last four years.

More on the Shootout at www.timberwolves.com

The Gopher basketball team survived some of the strangest officiating seen in awhile to beat No. 9 Louisville in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday.  The Gophers, led by Al Nolen’s 18 points, are 10-0 for the first time since 1976-77 and figure to be nationally ranked when the latest polls are released today.

Vikings place-kicker Ryan Longwell is a neighbor of Tiger Woods in Orlando.  He has played golf with Woods and also shared conversation with him at the golf range inside their gated community.  While there’s speculation that Woods may not be sufficiently recovered from his left knee operation to resume play next year, Longwell sees it differently.

“Yeah, I would be shocked if that were true,” Longwell told Sports Headliners.  “I know that he’s hitting irons and putting and hitting up to 100 yards right now.  So he’s still got a lot of time.  April is the Masters so he still has almost two and a half full months before he has to start getting in tournament mode where he has to start hitting more balls and stuff. …”

Longwell doesn’t think the left knee will be 100 percent until 2010.  He also said Woods, whom he talked to earlier this fall when the Vikings played in Tampa, won’t play in 2009 unless he’s ready to perform at a high level.

Nothing has developed but there was conversation earlier this fall about a Pete Sampras–Andre Agassi exhibition match in Minnesota.

Thunder general manager Djorn Buchholz said first team all-leaguer Stephen deRouex has signed with Montreal but that second teamer Ricardo Sanchez will be back for next season.  Typically seven to nine players on the 26 player roster don’t return from one season to the next.

The local USL soccer team has started its season ticket drive for 2009 with prices ranging from $65 to $375, and offers a $20 season pass to youth 20 and under.   More at www.mnthunder.com 

Clyde Turner’s eighth annual Kwanzaa, Christmas, Holiday Basketball Camp for youngsters starts today at Fairview Park in north Minneapolis.  The camp, which runs each day this week except on Christmas Day, teaches basketball skills and sportsmanship, and discusses Kwanzaa. Turner was the leading scorer on the Gophers’ 1972 Big Ten championship team.

Former Gopher national championship coach Murray Warmath, who turns 96 on Friday, will be hosted at a luncheon by former players and other friends on December 30.

Ron Stolksi, who has been coaching high school football for almost 50 years, will be back as Brainerd’s head coach next year.  Stolski is also the first full time executive director of the Minnesota High School Football Coaches Association.

Canterbury Park will host Claiming Crown for the ninth time in the event’s 11-year history on Saturday, July 25, 2009.  Patterned after the Breeders’ Cup, the $600,000 Claiming Crown consists of seven races offered at varying distances on both dirt and turf.

Safety Darren Sharper, 33, is in his 12^th NFL season and wants to play three more years.  “I want to be a three decade guy,” he told Sports Headliners recently. “I think that says a lot about a guy’s career if he can play in three decades and also play considerably well in three decades.”

There is an exception, though, to Sharper’s goal.  A starter throughout most of his career, he doesn’t want to play in the next decade as a reserve. “Nah, I never would be a backup,” he said.

Sharper thinks his performance is effective enough now to provide confidence he can extend his career for awhile.  If not, Sharper is prepared to accept a job out of football, rather than be a reserve.  “If push comes to shove, I gotta get a job,” he said.  “I am gonna take the job.  I ain’t no fool. …”

Sharper wants to become an NFL or college color commentator after football.  He’s appeared locally on Fox 9 sportscasts.  He also was a TV color commentator on NFL Europe games from 2004-2007.

The NFL career interception leader among active players with 54, Sharper has one interception this season.  That’s far off past years like the nine he had for the Vikings in 2005 or the nine with Green Bay in 2000.

“You know what?” he asked.  “It’s kind of weird this season and how it’s been going.  The opportunities haven’t been there as they have in the past.  I think I am playing solid football. Still playing at a high level.  Our season is going well. … When you’re in your 12^th year and you can still play on playoff teams that’s something you can be happy about because a lot of people aren’t playing, and if they are they aren’t playing on playoff teams.”