Maresh returns to Champlin Park

Sam Maresh joined fellow Champlin Park football alumni on the sideline for the Rebels' season-opening game last week -- only two months after heart surgery that has put his U of M career on hold.

He visited practice early last week and spent time with the defensive coaches. Head coach Mike Korton, a busy man on game nights, said he did not realize Maresh attended the game until afterward.

Maresh was one of the "15 to 20" alumni Korton shook hands with after the game -- a 29-20 loss to Coon Rapids in which the Rebels defense was repeatedly exploited down the middle.

"I just shook his hand and thanked him for coming, just like I did with all the other guys," Korton said. "I didn't have much to say. They just looked at me and said, 'It'll get better, coach.'"

The season's first report of vandalism -- such as it was -- came in early on the morning of last week's game between Hutchinson and Glencoe-Silver Lake in Glencoe. In the dark of night, somebody from somewhere tiptoed onto the football field and went to work.

They strung toilet paper all over the bleachers, but then became a bit more inventive. Plastic forks were stuck into the grass, forming a large letter H (let's see, what word begins with an H? Happy? Hustle? Howdy? Hmmmm). "There must have been a thousand forks out there," Glencoe-Silver Lake football coach Scott Tschimperle said.

The Glencoe-Silver Lake girls' tennis team noticed the new touches when they arrived for practice Friday morning. They began cleaning up, others pitched in and the place was in perfect condition for that night's football game ... except for a stray plastic fork on the sideline.

Two quarterbacks -- one veteran and one rookie -- made their marks in Week 1 and hope to do the same tonight.

After Hopkins senior Sean Borman passed for 307 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-30 victory over Owatonna, he said, "This gives a lot of other teams a little bit of discomfort." The Royals play at Edina tonight in a matchup of passing attacks. If Hopkins can give Edina enough discomfort to win, the Royals will become a team to watch.

Glencoe-Silver Lake sophomore Kylen Anderson was named the starter only a few days before the opener against Hutchinson, but he directed the Panthers' ground-oriented offense well in a 20-7 victory. The Panthers play at Dassel-Cokato tonight.

• Some Waconia students park in the lot behind the south end zone for home games. When the Wildcats score or convert a big play, students blow airhorns and rev truck engines.

Last week, in a 30-7 loss to Orono, the noise was a problem. Waconia converted a 4th-and-6 near the end of the first quarter, causing the engines to roar. The noise angered coordinators in the press box, who could not communicate with the coaches on the sidelines.

• According to staff members at Hamline, site of last Thursday's opener between St. Agnes and Hibbing, the lights at Klas Stadium are controlled from Iowa. They were set to come on at 7:26 p.m. "Who controls the scoreboard, Nebraska?" someone in the press box quipped.

Several writers contributed to this report.