Column: Behind the Mic, Aaron Worm

I just want to say thank you to the wonderful people from the Albert Lea Tribune for letting me write a column for the last year and a half.

My only other experience with writing for a newspaper was back in high school, when in my senior year I had a weekly story in my hometown newspaper, the Montgomery Messenger.

I have enjoyed it immensely from sharing personal stories to giving my two cents when it comes to different sports topics. I have had readers stop by the radio station to debate or comment on what I have said in previous columns.

Again I have truly enjoyed writing this column. I bring this up because this will be my final column.

With this being the start of a busy season of covering sports on the radio, and chasing around a 4- and 6-year old at home, there is just not enough time in the day.

So let me wrap things up with some thoughts.

 

The Twins

I trust Twins general manager Terry Ryan. It didn’t seem much of a shocker to trade Denard Span. But, when the Twins moved Ben Revere last week it seemed strange to move both centerfielders in the offseason. When healthy and playing to their potential, the middle of the lineup for the Twins, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Josh Willingham are a pretty good core group. The Twins need pitching, and lots of it. Besides Scott Diamond, I don’t know who else is a sure thing for the rotation in 2013. The Twins organization seems to want to keep the payroll under 100 million a year — last year they opened the season with a payroll around 94 million. The Twins are going to try to get better with youth, especially since about a quarter of their payroll is tied into No. 7.

 

The NFL

There are a lot of things I love about the NFL including the fact that there is no powerhouse team right now in the league, especially in the NFC. Making the playoffs has to be the mind set of teams like the Packers, Bears, Cowboys, Seahawks and others including our Vikings. The Vikings have one of the greatest running backs of all time in Adrian Peterson, and a way above average defense, that they could cause some problems for teams in the postseason. The problem is making the playoffs and I think the Vikings have to win their last three games, which I don’t think is going to happen.

 

High school sports

This winter high school sports season is off to a great start for many area teams. The Albert Lea wrestlers are ranked sixth, and destroyed Winona and Austin to kickoff the conference schedule.

The Tiger girls’ basketball team won just four games last year, and is off to a 2-2 start. The Alden-Conger girls’ basketball team, is unbeaten at 3-0, and the NRHEG girls’ hoopsters are ranked No. 2 in Class 2A and are off to a 3-1 start, led by Junior Carlie Wagner who has scored more than 30 points in each game so far.

If you haven’t gotten out to a local high school event in a while, I recommend it. There are a lot of talented athletes in our area.

Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season, and I will see you on the radio.

 

Aaron Worm is the Sports Director at KATE RADIO.