By John Millea MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
Tydan Storrusten, the three-sport star who led Pelican Rapids to the Class 2A boys’ basketball championship, has made a college decision.
Storrusten has accepted a full-ride basketball scholarship at Division II Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D. Tydan was a candidate for the Minnesota Mr. Basketball and Mr. Football awards and also plays baseball. He will play basketball only at Northern State, where Don Meyer is the winningest coach in NCAA men’s basketball.
Storrusten averaged 25 points to help the Vikings complete a perfect basketball season, and he scored 34 in the state championship game against St. Bernard’s.
Showing posts with label JOHN MILLEA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JOHN MILLEA. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
PREP PLAYER GETS EXTRA INNINGS AFTER HEART ATTACK
By John Millea of the Minneapolis Star Tribune
Mike Spillman of Cannon Falls is back playing baseball, after a heart attack nearly killed him.
Mike Spillman was finally back in action, playing high school baseball after months of waiting for doctors to give him the go-ahead. In his first at-bat of the season earlier this month, the junior from Cannon Falls lashed a run-scoring double against Kasson-Mantorville. He later advanced to third base, sliding headfirst into the bag.
"When he did that, the fans were gasping," Cannon Falls coach Bucky Lindow said.
The fans weren't gasping at Spillman's speed. They were gasping because he has a pacemaker in his chest.
It's quite a story: A teenager collapses, is brought back from the brink of death and returns to playing the game he loves.
Seeing Mike on the baseball field is a relief for his family. The hard part came in September, when he nearly died.
"I don't even think about it, because he's safer now than he was without the pacemaker," Penny Spillman said of her son.
Mike, 17, collapsed in the school gym during a pickup basketball game. Gym supervisor Ross Peterson, who is a physical education instructor, and students Joel Willenbring and Demetre Growette administered CPR. A police officer quickly arrived on the scene and used the school's automated external defibrillator to jolt Mike's heart into rhythm.
"They brought me back," Mike said quietly last week, sitting in the home dugout at John Burch Park in Cannon Falls, located between the Twin Cities and Rochester.
An ambulance took him to the local hospital and a helicopter transported him to St. Paul Children's Hospital. He was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that forces the heart to work harder than normal.
The disease affects an estimated one in 500 Americans and is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in people under 30. Doctors told Gary and Penny Spillman that only one in 10 people with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy survives cardiac arrest.
Basketball player Hank Gathers of Loyola Marymount University died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 1990, and the disease claimed the life of Reggie Lewis of the Boston Celtics in 1993.
The Spillmans have no family history of the disease, and Mike's parents and three older siblings have all been tested and cleared.
Doctors barred Mike from playing basketball because of the stress it would put on his heart. He gave up football a couple of years ago, and it's out of the question now. But when he was cleared to play baseball, "You should have seen the smile on his face," Gary said.
Mike wears a lightweight protective shirt under his baseball jersey. The shirt, designed for in line skating, provides padding over the chest.
"If I take a line drive or a one-hopper into my pacemaker, it won't damage anything," he said.
The pacemaker, which also is a defibrillator, was implanted beneath his skin above the heart. Mike said
the pacemaker usually kicks in when he's in deep sleep and his heart rate slows. The defibrillator provides a backup system in case of cardiac arrest.
Mike, who plays third base and first base, is a heads-up ballplayer, Lindow said. "He's one of those guys who really understands the game," he said.
Spillman has received great support from his friends. While he sat out the basketball season, the rest of the team wore wristbands with the word "Moo" on them, an ode to the Spillman family dairy farm and Mike's nickname: Milker.
"He's no different [with the pacemaker]. He's still Mike," said classmate and baseball teammate Dan Venn. "He's a good kid. He's fun, he likes being goofy, but he works hard and does everything he should."
Mike is involved with a program called Anyone Can Save A Life, administered by the Minnesota State High School League and the Medtronic Foundation. His story is one of several on the website www.anyonecansavealife.org. The public relations commitment is important to him.
"He told us, 'I don't want to read about the next kid who goes through this,'" Gary said.
Mike has been warned to stay away from large magnets or large collections of magnets, which could disrupt his pacemaker. The only such place he could think of is a store at the Mall of America that sells only magnets. His buddies don't mind giving him a hard time about it, either.
"They say they're going to buy me a gift certificate," he said with a smile.
Mike Spillman of Cannon Falls is back playing baseball, after a heart attack nearly killed him.
Mike Spillman was finally back in action, playing high school baseball after months of waiting for doctors to give him the go-ahead. In his first at-bat of the season earlier this month, the junior from Cannon Falls lashed a run-scoring double against Kasson-Mantorville. He later advanced to third base, sliding headfirst into the bag.
"When he did that, the fans were gasping," Cannon Falls coach Bucky Lindow said.
The fans weren't gasping at Spillman's speed. They were gasping because he has a pacemaker in his chest.
It's quite a story: A teenager collapses, is brought back from the brink of death and returns to playing the game he loves.
Seeing Mike on the baseball field is a relief for his family. The hard part came in September, when he nearly died.
"I don't even think about it, because he's safer now than he was without the pacemaker," Penny Spillman said of her son.
Mike, 17, collapsed in the school gym during a pickup basketball game. Gym supervisor Ross Peterson, who is a physical education instructor, and students Joel Willenbring and Demetre Growette administered CPR. A police officer quickly arrived on the scene and used the school's automated external defibrillator to jolt Mike's heart into rhythm.
"They brought me back," Mike said quietly last week, sitting in the home dugout at John Burch Park in Cannon Falls, located between the Twin Cities and Rochester.
An ambulance took him to the local hospital and a helicopter transported him to St. Paul Children's Hospital. He was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that forces the heart to work harder than normal.
The disease affects an estimated one in 500 Americans and is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in people under 30. Doctors told Gary and Penny Spillman that only one in 10 people with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy survives cardiac arrest.
Basketball player Hank Gathers of Loyola Marymount University died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 1990, and the disease claimed the life of Reggie Lewis of the Boston Celtics in 1993.
The Spillmans have no family history of the disease, and Mike's parents and three older siblings have all been tested and cleared.
Doctors barred Mike from playing basketball because of the stress it would put on his heart. He gave up football a couple of years ago, and it's out of the question now. But when he was cleared to play baseball, "You should have seen the smile on his face," Gary said.
Mike wears a lightweight protective shirt under his baseball jersey. The shirt, designed for in line skating, provides padding over the chest.
"If I take a line drive or a one-hopper into my pacemaker, it won't damage anything," he said.
The pacemaker, which also is a defibrillator, was implanted beneath his skin above the heart. Mike said
the pacemaker usually kicks in when he's in deep sleep and his heart rate slows. The defibrillator provides a backup system in case of cardiac arrest.
Mike, who plays third base and first base, is a heads-up ballplayer, Lindow said. "He's one of those guys who really understands the game," he said.
Spillman has received great support from his friends. While he sat out the basketball season, the rest of the team wore wristbands with the word "Moo" on them, an ode to the Spillman family dairy farm and Mike's nickname: Milker.
"He's no different [with the pacemaker]. He's still Mike," said classmate and baseball teammate Dan Venn. "He's a good kid. He's fun, he likes being goofy, but he works hard and does everything he should."
Mike is involved with a program called Anyone Can Save A Life, administered by the Minnesota State High School League and the Medtronic Foundation. His story is one of several on the website www.anyonecansavealife.org. The public relations commitment is important to him.
"He told us, 'I don't want to read about the next kid who goes through this,'" Gary said.
Mike has been warned to stay away from large magnets or large collections of magnets, which could disrupt his pacemaker. The only such place he could think of is a store at the Mall of America that sells only magnets. His buddies don't mind giving him a hard time about it, either.
"They say they're going to buy me a gift certificate," he said with a smile.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
HIGH SCHOOL BOARD'S HASTY VOTE ON TRAVEL IS REVERSED
FROM JOHN MILLEA, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
The issue of out-of-state trips initially was tabbed only for discussion. After a discussion period, it was rejected.
For a few minutes Thursday morning, major changes were approved for high school sports in Minnesota: a ban on out-of-state travel and new limits on practices, scrimmages and jamborees.
But then parliamentary procedure came into play and nothing changed after all.
Cost-cutting was a major theme during the Minnesota State High School League board of directors meeting in Brooklyn Center. But most of the economic measures were listed under the "discussion" segment of the agenda, not the "action" category. That's where the confusion began.
After a proposal was approved to stop out-of-state travel and limit off-school practice sites, scrimmages and jamborees, a recess was called. When the board reconvened, a series of parliamentary maneuvers was taken and in the end, the previously approved changes came up for another vote and were defeated.
"We had a discussion item we were trying to move to an action item," said board president Mark Kuisle, athletic director at Rochester Century. "We got bogged down, where we voted on it before we made it an action item. So we went back and cleaned it up. Once we did that, the board decided we want a little bit more input and to clean up the verbiage."
The board will revisit that proposal in June. Several other major policy shifts will be topics at that meeting, including:
• Having basketball drop from four classes to three, wrestling and golf from three to two, and eliminating most consolation-round events in team and individual sports. The board asked MSHSL staff to study those possibilities as ways to save money for the MSHSL and schools.
• Moving the golf season from the spring and making it a summer or fall sport.
The board also discussed extending spring sports seasons a week or two deeper into June as a way to avoid bad weather and keep athletes and coaches/teachers from missing too much class time.
The board approved previously announced changes in class and section assignments for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, and also voted to institute background checks for officials and referees. Under the new policy, applicants to become registered officials cannot have been convicted of a felony crime involving: a minor at any time; the use, possession or sale of a controlled substance within the past 10 years; the use or threatened use of violence against a person within the last 10 years; a sexual offense within the last 10 years; gambling within the past 10 years.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, background checks are currently done in Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Rhode Island.
The issue of out-of-state trips initially was tabbed only for discussion. After a discussion period, it was rejected.
For a few minutes Thursday morning, major changes were approved for high school sports in Minnesota: a ban on out-of-state travel and new limits on practices, scrimmages and jamborees.
But then parliamentary procedure came into play and nothing changed after all.
Cost-cutting was a major theme during the Minnesota State High School League board of directors meeting in Brooklyn Center. But most of the economic measures were listed under the "discussion" segment of the agenda, not the "action" category. That's where the confusion began.
After a proposal was approved to stop out-of-state travel and limit off-school practice sites, scrimmages and jamborees, a recess was called. When the board reconvened, a series of parliamentary maneuvers was taken and in the end, the previously approved changes came up for another vote and were defeated.
"We had a discussion item we were trying to move to an action item," said board president Mark Kuisle, athletic director at Rochester Century. "We got bogged down, where we voted on it before we made it an action item. So we went back and cleaned it up. Once we did that, the board decided we want a little bit more input and to clean up the verbiage."
The board will revisit that proposal in June. Several other major policy shifts will be topics at that meeting, including:
• Having basketball drop from four classes to three, wrestling and golf from three to two, and eliminating most consolation-round events in team and individual sports. The board asked MSHSL staff to study those possibilities as ways to save money for the MSHSL and schools.
• Moving the golf season from the spring and making it a summer or fall sport.
The board also discussed extending spring sports seasons a week or two deeper into June as a way to avoid bad weather and keep athletes and coaches/teachers from missing too much class time.
The board approved previously announced changes in class and section assignments for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, and also voted to institute background checks for officials and referees. Under the new policy, applicants to become registered officials cannot have been convicted of a felony crime involving: a minor at any time; the use, possession or sale of a controlled substance within the past 10 years; the use or threatened use of violence against a person within the last 10 years; a sexual offense within the last 10 years; gambling within the past 10 years.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, background checks are currently done in Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Rhode Island.
Friday, April 18, 2008
CODY SCHILLING SIGNS WITH AUGUSTANA
According to John Millea of the Minneapolis StarTribune, Cody Schilling signed a letter of intent to go play basketball at Augustana College in Sioux Falls South Dakota. Cody Schilling is Minnesota’s all time boy’s basketball leading scorer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
.jpg)