The first half of the 2021 calendar was completed at noon Friday. These might be the most exceptional first 182 ½ days of a year for Minnesota sports in all of our lifetimes, and not due to high-profile success on fields and in our arenas.
When you consider the outlook in mid-November 2020, with Gov. Tim Walz and his consultants motivated by a late fall surge in COVID-19 to shut down high school football and volleyball, and to delay prep winter sports, and to keep arenas — even Minnesota's gift to Zygi Wilf, U.S. Bank Stadium — devoid of spectators … back then, seven months ago, such a first half of a new year could not have been imagined:
• The boys from Hayfield winning a first state basketball title in Class A and following that with a 26-0 run through Class A in baseball. The girls from Randolph winning the Class A softball title early in an afternoon in Mankato, and then monitoring as the Rockets' baseball team took a 15-inning, four-hour loss to New York Mills in the Class A semifinals in St. Cloud.
• The boys from Wayzata winning a state basketball title for the first time since 1959, when the tourney was one-class and that lake town wasn't even considered a suburb. And the girls from Rockford, the river-blessed burg just beyond our western suburbs, bringing home the school's first-ever state title as a team in any sport – in track and field – and getting a parade to mark the end of a 165-year drought.
• The boys from Prior Lake finishing as runners-up to Benilde-St. Margaret's in lacrosse, and the Prior Lake girls winning the lacrosse title over Lakeville South — thus, leaving a Lakers graduate from a mere 58 springs earlier to wonder, ''How did our little Irish village turn into a power in something we knew only as the Wisconsin home to Old Style, which was fairly cheap in 1963?''
• The Wild not starting until Jan. 14, facing only the seven opponents in a top-heavy West Division, running into an early COVID obstacle that shut 'em down, and yet finishing the 56-game season with a robust 75 points … and unveiling in the process, Kirill the Thrill, the team's first "gotta watch him'' talent since Marian Gaborik was a kid. Optimism now abounds, with a Wild fan base that always leans in that direction.
• The Timberwolves started on Dec. 23 and played the 72-game schedule with few glitches, other than in results. Gersson Rosas, the basketball boss, made up for the Jarret Culver blunder in his first draft, taking the right guy with the No. 1 overall pick, Anthony "ANT'' Edwards, and then landing another asset — Jaden McDaniels — late in the first round.
ANT and an involved KAT would provide a scintilla of hope, plus: It's Phoenix vs. either Milwaukee or Atlanta in the 2021 Finals. The claim here is that's a hint of long-term hope for constructed (not assembled) teams at last, in the NBA.
