About two years ago, I got my first-ever cell phone.
It was an iPhone. It was like going from a Model T to a Ferrari. Now I have an iPhone 5. It can do it all.
Well, almost.
It has everything a journalist these days needs - tape recorder, video, camera, flashlight, Internet and on and on. But I discovered the missing link Sunday morning while I was following along in church on my iPhone Bible.
During the middle of Bible study, my coffee cup ran dry. Caffeine is one of those things that keeps sports journalists going at this time of year during the many, many tournaments. Oh sure, it may come in the form of soda, energy drink or chocolate.
But I am old school - a devoted coffee drinker. The buzz around our church the last couple of weeks has been our new coffee maker. Rumor has it that it can make up to 18 gallons in an hour. If it is preloaded, push a button and you will have a gallon of coffee before you find a chair to sit down.
It is like getting your caffeine via NASCAR.
Then it hit me, when is my iPhone going to be able to make me a cup of coffee on demand? Until it can do that, I am now officially unimpressed. If I could only have a fresh cup of coffee right now, I am pretty sure I would never make another mistake in my predictions.
So until someone uncovers that fresh coffee application for my iPhone, you will have to put up with a cranky sports editor who makes mistake-filled predictions. And recently, I have made plenty of mistakes:
- Even though I got both team champions (Pierre in A and Parkston in B) right, my wrestling predictions were terrible. I picked only five of the 14 A champions correctly and 8 of the 14 B champs.
- In Class AA girls, I picked the four district champions correctly, and went 3-1 in the four regionals.
- In Class A girls, I was 13-3 in district picks and 5-3 in regions.
- In Class B girls, 11-5 in districts, 4-4 in regions.
- In Class AA boys, 3-4 in districts.
- In Class A boys, 11-5 in districts.
- In Class B boys, 9-7 in districts.
- All total, that is 125 predictions and 78 correct. That is 62.4 percent right.
And before I forget, in today's Scoreboard, see the basketball pairings for this week's high school girls' state tournaments; next weekend's Summit League tournaments (ticketmaster.com) in Sioux Falls; and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference semifinals/finals Friday and Saturday in Rochester, Minn.
Here are my picks for the boys' regionals:
Region 1AA: Yankton (6-14) at Brookings (16-6), 7 p.m. Tuesday. I pick Brookings. Sioux Falls Lincoln (11-11) at Watertown (11-11), 7 p.m. Tuesday. I pick Watertown.
Region 2AA: Sturgis (8-14) at Huron (14-7), 6 p.m. Tuesday. I pick Huron. Aberdeen Central (6-15) at Rapid City Stevens (9-13), 6 p.m. MST Tuesday. I pick Aberdeen Central.
Region 1A: Sisseton (16-6) vs. Aberdeen Roncalli (15-4), 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Webster Armory. I pick Roncalli.
Region 2A: Clark/Willow Lake (20-0) vs. Deuel (19-3), 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Swiftel Center in Brookings. I pick CWL.
Region 3A: Madison (20-2) vs. Dell Rapids (17-5), 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Elmen Center in Sioux Falls. I pick Dell Rapids.
Region 4A: Tea Area (19-3) vs. Dakota Valley (17-5), 7 p.m. Tuesday at Harrisburg. I pick Tea.
Region 5A: McCook Central/Montrose (17-5) vs. Platte-Geddes (15-7), 7 p.m. Tuesday at the West Central High School gym in Hartford. I pick MCM.
Region 6A: Miller (16-4) vs. Mobridge-Pollock (17-5), 7 tonight at Riggs High School in Pierre. I pick Mobridge-Pollock.
Region 7A: St. Francis (17-5) vs. Pine Ridge (13-8), 6 p.m. MST Tuesday at Kyle. I pick St. Francis.
Region 8A: Spearfish (17-5) vs. Red Cloud (18-4), 7 p.m. MST Tuesday at the Barnett Arena in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center at Rapid City. I pick Red Cloud.
Region 1B: Rosholt (14-9) vs. Langford Area (18-4), 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Aberdeen Civic Arena. I pick Rosholt.
Region 2B: Arlington (16-4) vs. Colman-Egan (8-14) 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Swiftel Center in Brookings. I pick Arlington.
Region 3B: Sully Buttes (11-11) vs. Potter County (21-0), 7 p.m. Tuesday at Wachs Arena in the Barnett Center in Aberdeen. I pick Potter County.
Region 4B: Canistota (21-1) vs. Viborg-Hurley (20-2), 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Tea. I pick Canistota.
Region 5B: James Valley Christian (20-2) vs. Kimball/White Lake (16-6), 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Mitchell Corn Palace. I pick JVC.
Region 6B: South Central (20-2) vs. Ethan (13-7), 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Mitchell Corn Palace. I pick South Central.
Region 7B: White River (21-1) vs. Oelrichs (20-1), 6 p.m. MST Tuesday at Wall. I pick White River.
Region 8B: Dupree (21-1) vs. Faith (19-2), 7 p.m. MST Tuesday at Scherr-Howe Arena in Mobridge. I pick Dupree.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News: jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.
Twitter: @jpapendick
