PJ's Perspective: Park football to open season with Midnight Madness

For the second straight year the Park football program will kick off the season with a “Midnight Madness” practice this year. The festivities will begin at 11:15 p.m. Aug. 12 with a pepfest in the Park High School gymnasium, followed by a practice in Wolfpack Stadium at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 13. All supporters are welcome to attend the pepfest and practice. Concessions and spiritwear will be available during the evening’s events.

Cottage Grove’s Eric Rislove and Woodbury’s Joel Johnson will compete in the Culver’s Midwest Cup Golf Tournament - a team and individual tournament pairing the best players from the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The event is a Ryder-Cup Style invitational for amateur golfers, from the age of 25 and over. Players are chosen from the state golf association points list, with captains from each team determining who to invite and how the players will be paired against one another. The goal of the event is to become the premier amateur event in the Midwest.

Four Cottage Grove residents — John Jambor, Dan Weston and Jason and Jenny West — and two former Cottage Grove residents — Bob Simpson and Tom Vasterling — will help make up the team “RoadKill Warriors” in the upcoming 2012 Great River Ragnar Relay. The race, which will consist of over 320 teams running nearly 200 miles from Winona to Minneapolis, will come through Cottage Grove, using Park High School as an exchange, on Aug. 18.

Susie Scanlan, who has a number of ties to south Washington County, helped the United States win a bronze medal in the London Olympic Games recently. Scanlan, a St. Paul native, helped the U.S. fencing team defeat Russia 31-30 for the bronze medal in women’s team epee. Scanlan’s dad, Jerry, is a native of Cottage Grove and her grandparents still live in the area. She is also a relative of Cottage Grove Police Chief Craig Woolery. Susie Scanlan, 22, is a graduate of St. Paul Central High School and attends Princeton University.

Longtime Woodbury resident Dave Tentis, a Minnesota Golf Association Hall of Fame inductee, shot a 54-hole total of 214, which was 2-under par at the 3M Championship Champions Tour event last week.

Tentis, 50, was named to the MGA-PGA Hall of Fame in 2011 and is currently the Head Professional at Troy Burne Golf Course in Hudson, Wis.

He received a sponsor’s exemption from tournament director Hollis Cavner in order to play in the Champions Tour event – the professional league containing the best golfers in the world over 50. Bernhard Langer won the 20-year-old tournament and $262,500 with an 18-under-par 198 total.

Woodbury High School golfers Matt Hamilton and Matt Jordahl, both 2012 graduates, were selected to the Academic All-State golf team for the 2012 season. Hamilton and Jordahl were the only two seniors in Section 3AAA to receive this award at the 2012 Minnesota State High School League Banquet. Hamilton will attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jordahl will attend Iowa State University this upcoming fall.

Tags: sports, updates