Sports

Root, root, root for the home team... but which one?

By Matthew Semisch

06/17/2014

Allow me to share with you here one of my deepest, darkest secrets.

I mean, we know each other well enough by now that I can bring this up in my first-ever column for the paper, right?

I must admit I’m getting a bit emotional just at the idea of telling you about it, though. It’s just as well you’re not here at the Courant office to watch me write this.

Deep breaths, Matthew. Deep breaths.

OK, here’s the story.

I moved to Bottineau from Omaha, Neb., two months ago. Since then, several people I’ve met here have asked how the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Creighton University college sports teams are doing.

They weren’t to know, but I’m not the best person to have answer that question. I’m not especially fond of either the Cornhuskers from UNL or the Bluejays from CU.

I graduated in 2010 from one of the state’s other bigger colleges, the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Before graduation and even for four years after that, I covered UNO’s hockey team as a reporter for United States College Hockey Online.

The objectivity a sportswriter’s job requires, though, kept me from being an active fan of the Mavericks.

Omaha likes to consider itself a hub for college athletics and, to some degree, it is. It’s the permanent host of the NCAA baseball College World Series and occasionally hosts parts of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball and women’s volleyball  tournaments.

It’s branched out a bit, too. Omaha hosted the last two U.S. Olympic Team swimming trials and will do so again in 2016.
College sports are no less huge around the rest of the state. Most Nebraskans like to refer to Memorial Stadium, the 91,000-seat leviathan on UNL’s campus, as the third-largest city in the state on Husker football home gamedays.

Most people in the Cornhusker State - the clue’s in the state’s nickname - consider not being a Huskers fan tantamount to committing a mortal sin.

The same principle works with Creighton in Omaha, although to a lesser extreme.

At any rate, it’s not a principle I’d ever really subscribed to.
It’s fair to say, then, that my history of rooting for hometown teams is less than perfect.

Instead, the sports teams I’ve been rooting for have been - and still are - further afield.

When it comes to college football, Northern Illinois University is who I’ve been pulling for.

The reason: My youngest brother Tim plays for the Huskies and will be a senior tight end this fall.

My other big passion as a sports fan thus far in my adult years has been European soccer. I’ve been a fan of Manchester City FC, currently one of the top teams in the Barclays Premier League in England, since 1997 when I was a freshman in high school.

My being a Man City fan mostly came down to my adoration of the Manchester music scene back then. I also liked the team’s colors.

Now that I’ve settled in Bottineau, though, I’m making a better effort of pulling for the big sports teams closest to where I live.

What’s on my mind right now is college football. I can’t believe we’re fewer than 100 days from the the start of another season, but I’m excited to see what my Huskies can do.

As for behind whom I’m going to throw my support for college football in North Dakota, that’s still up in the air.

I will, of course, be covering the team at Dakota College at Bottineau. As for North Dakota’s two big NCAA Division I teams, North Dakota and North Dakota State, I haven’t yet decided who to pull for.

The whole UND-NDSU football dynamic is a curious case in my eyes. It might not be to you, but it definitely still is to me.

Creighton hasn’t fielded a football team since 1942 when all of its players were drafted to fight in World War II. Because of that, apart from various lower-level teams around the state, the Huskers are pretty much all Nebraskans’ pride and joy.

When it comes to UND and the Bison, there are arguments that I can appreciate that help both teams’ causes.

Bottineau County largely seems to be NDSU territory when it comes to football, and I’m sure there’s room left on the Bison bandwagon.

On the other hand, I have a tendency to throw my support behind underdogs. That label appears to apply well to UND’s football program these days.

This is where you all get to play a part. I’m on the market for a second D-I football team to pull for, and I’d love to have your input.

I invite you to e-mail me on the subject at courant1@utma.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @matthewsemisch.