February 7, 2017

AS I SEE IT

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

While the NCAA’s men’s college basketball March Madness hasn’t yet set in, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t great basketball action coming in North Dakota.
For North Dakota Class B basketball fans, the road to the State Class B Tournament begins this week with the girls district basketball tournaments being played across the state. And for anyone who hasn’t experienced the fun and the excitement of those tournaments, you definitely don’t want to miss out on the great basketball action.
This year, Watford City’s new Rough Rider Center has been selected as the site for not only the District 15 Girls Basketball Tournament, but the Region 8 Girls Basketball Tournament as well.
Other than The Well at Williston State College, the Rough Rider Center is probably the very best basketball venue in western North Dakota. And if you haven’t yet been to the RRC, this will be a perfect opportunity to not only attend the upcoming tournaments, but to get a look at this marvelous facility.
The district tournament action begins on Thursday, Feb. 9 and will see eight teams (Lewis & Clark-North Shore, Mandaree, New Town, Parshall, Trenton, Watford City, Williston Trinity Christian, and White Shield) competing to become one of the top four teams that will advance to the Region 8 Tournament, which will be held on Feb. 20, 21, and 23.
Class B basketball draws some of the best crowds of any high school sport in North Dakota. And this year’s District 15 and Region 8 tournaments will be no different as basketball fans from across our district and western North Dakota will be converging on Watford City to cheer their teams on.
For many of these fans, this will be their first visit to Watford City in many years. And no doubt, they will be amazed at how our community has grown and changed in the past six years.
So this week plan on heading out to the Rough Rider Center and take in some or all of the girls basketball action.

DISAPPOINTING SUPER BOWL ADS!

For the first time in many years, this year’s Super Bowl proved to be an interesting game as the New England Patriots and Tom Brady pulled off the biggest comeback win in Super Bowl history.
But for many fans, who have been more interested in watching the Super Bowl ads instead of the game, this year was a tremendous disappointment. In past games, people were talking for days if not weeks about the clever ads. But to be honest, there wasn’t one single ad that caught my attention during the game. In fact, immediately after the game was over, I couldn’t recall any ad that aired.
While I may not be the typical watcher, I have to question what the message was that these companies spent tens of millions of dollars in trying to get across. I guess I was just hoping to see another cute and memorable ad with horses and puppies.

WATFORD CITY WEATHER