Local Sports Notebook: Sherels set for first exhibition game

Rochester's Marcus Sherelsis set to play in the first exhibition game of the season with the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

The Vikings are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.

"Every time you can play against someone other than your team, it's good," Sherels said at training camp in Mankato earlier this week.

"(I'm) having a good time and back to what I love doing," Sherels said.

"So far so good," he added. "A lot of competition out there and everyone's working hard and flying around. Fan support has been great."

Sherels, a John Marshall grad, has been a backup defensive back and the Vikings' main punt returner the past four seasons. He is the Vikings all-time leader in punt return average at 10.5 yards a return. He also is tied for the team's all-time best with two punt returns for touchdowns.

Even with his ability to return punts at a high level, Sherels faces stiff competition to make the squad this season.

"It's been going good," he said of the battle for the return job. "We have competition every year and it's good, it makes us all better."

Sherels is a veteran in both the secondary and as a returner. He has also returned kickoffs on occasion over the years. And being a strong team player, he is happy to pass on his wisdom.

"Anytime I can help out one of the younger guys, I'm happy to help," Sherels said. "So we're all learning from each other."

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Rochester's Jake Kirschis a walk-on football player at the University of Minnesota. The John Marshall grad is currently working out in the city and he heard of the news of Gophers athletic director Norwood Teagueresigning on Friday.

"I didn't have a personal relationship with him, I didn't know him that well," Kirsch said. "It's pretty crazy (and) bad timing essentially."

With a lot of the Gophers programs seemingly on the upswing, Kirsch said there should be a lot of strong candidates for the athletic director position.

"There's going to be a lot of people wanting that job with our hockey team, our football team, all in the preseason are picked to do very well. It will be interesting to see who gets the nod to be the next A.D."

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Triton High School will induct its fourth Hall of Fame class on Sept. 12 and six former student-athletes and two teams will be honored. A ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. at Triton High School. The inductees will also be introduced at halftime of the football game on Sept. 11.

This year's Hall of Fame individual class includes Phil Schuster(Dodge Center, 1958), Chad Gossard(West Concord, 1985), Guy Finne(West Concord, 1985), Travis Petersohn(Claremont, 1990), Kris (Wright) Dambach(Triton, 1992) and Scott Pitzenberger(Triton, 1996). Teams being enshrined are the 1976-77 Dodge Center boys basketball and 1994 Triton football.

For more information on the event, contact Don Hendersonat dhender@triton.k12.mn.us, 374-6305 or 273-4304.

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Minnesota high school teams that earn state berths during the 2015-16 season are going to have to pony up their own money to send teams to the tournament in every sport.

The Minnesota State High School League usually reimbursed schools for sending teams to state. But for the first time, that will not happen this school year.

Due to increasing tournament expenses and shrinking revenue, the MSHSL does not have the funds to reimburse schools this year. As a result, the MSHSL's Board of Directors voted this week to suspend state tournament reimbursement for a year.

Part of the lost revenue stemmed from the fact that all state soccer and football games were played outside during the 2014-15 school year.

State football paid attendance dropped by almost 50 percent as state semifinal and championship games were played outdoors for the first time in 33 years. That will be the case again this year as new U.S. Bank Stadium is still under construction and will not be completed until July of 2016.