Is it the H2O in Napoleon?

Talk about it

There must be something in the water in Napoleon.

They seem to be good at everything down there.

Most schools would be thrilled to have one team in the hunt for a state title or even one team make it to a state tournament. Through the fall and winter, Napoleon teams seem to win or contend for everything.

No one who was at the Fargodome, watched it on TV or listed on the radio will soon forget the 9-man football championship game. Napoleon won the game in one of the most exciting shootouts you’ll ever see, beating North Star 50-42 with quarterback Jonah Schwartzenberger shattering a handful of records in the contest.

Fast forward 3-plus months later and the Imperials are one win away from a trip to the Class B state basketball tournament.

Last weekend, Napoleon’s wrestling team finished seventh as a team at the state meet in Bismarck, and had six individual place-winners, including a pair of state champions, of course, in 160-pounder Steven Weigel and Jared Reis at 170 pounds. Andrew Beine missed by a whisker, falling in overtime in the 220-pound title tilt.

All these kids: Schwartzenberger, Weigel, Reis, Beine, Wade Rath-Wald, the big athletic tight end in football and hard-to-guard post in basketball, are multi-sport athletes, who would play for any Class A team in the state. Anybody who says otherwise knows nothing about either sport.

They don’t just produce athletic males down there, either. The girls’ basketball team has either been ranked or getting votes in the poll for much of the season despite their top player (Sheridon Dewald) being slowed by injuries.

The bottom line is if you’re a kid in Napoleon, you play sports. They have only 75 kids in grades 7-12 and the whole town has less than 800 people total.

The team they’re playing tonight at the Jamestown Civic Center — Linton-Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock — has been almost as successful in the same sports, but they have more than twice as many kids, and that’s not to diminish their success at all. With coaches like Dan Carr, Dan Imdieke and the rest of the crew down there we just assume they’ll be good in everything every year — because they are.

So regardless of what happens tonight, it’s been a great six months for Napoleon athletes and their supporters.

Whatever they got in the aquifer in Napoleon, we need somebody to get down there, bottle it and bring it back to Jamestown, because whatever they have we don’t and we need it — now.

Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com

Tags: opinion corner, sports, napoleon, opinion