The Ipswich girls and the North Central girls basketball teams had an early common opponent the Sully Buttes Chargers. (Their girls are still coached by veteran coach Mark Seftner.) Ipswich was to open its season vs. the Charger girls on December 7 in the Tiger Den. The Thunder girls will play the Chargers on Friday, Dec. 10 in Onida.

Another interesting fact is that the Thunder and Ipswich will tangle on December 14 in a girls/boys format in Ipswich. Meanwhile the Tiger boys are to go on the road to visit Waubay/Summit on December 11 and the Ipswich girls will do likewise that same day vs. Hitchcock-Tulare. (The Thunder will also host a twinbill on December 11 vs. McIntosh in Bowdle.)

The Ipswich/Bowdle wrestlers also got their varsity season under way in Stanley County showing some positive outcomes vs. some quality opponents. They will then travel to nearby Faulkton on Saturday.

I'm guessing that Santa might be handing out some early high school sports-related Christmas presents and hopefully that will indeed prove to be true.

Now that we are getting sports underway again the weather has varied from one extreme to the other. So we will see if that early winter trend will continue. I guess that is how we obtain the averages.