By Howie Hanson
For years, I have been concerned about how much of our local high sports history is quietly disappearing. Not because the games are no longer being played or because the athletes are accomplishing less than previous generations, but because the way we consume information has changed dramatically.
A remarkable football season in Hermantown, a championship hockey run in Grand Rapids, a record-breaking performance in Cloquet or a softball championship down the Interstate 35 corridor may generate excitement for a few days or weeks, but before long those achievements are buried beneath thousands of newer posts, scores and headlines. The athletes move on, the seasons end and another school year begins. What remains is often fragmented and incomplete.
That reality has inspired what may become one of the most ambitious projects of my journalism career. Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, I plan to compile and publish "Howie Sports: A Year in Sports," an annual publication designed to serve as the definitive historical record of high school athletics throughout Northeastern Minnesota. My goal is not to create a souvenir publication or a collection of highlights. The objective is far more significant than that. I want to build a permanent archive that documents the athletes, coaches, teams, games and moments that define a school year across our region.
For more than five decades, I have had the privilege of covering sports throughout Northern Minnesota. During that time, I have watched generations of young athletes represent their schools with pride, determination and sportsmanship. I have covered state champions, future college athletes and professional players. I have also covered countless young men and women whose names may never appear on a recruiting list or professional roster but whose contributions to their schools and communities were every bit as meaningful. One of the lessons I have learned over the years is that every community has stories worth telling and every season leaves behind memories worth preserving.
The vision for this annual publication extends well beyond the traditional sports that often receive the most attention. Football and hockey will certainly have prominent places within its pages, but so will volleyball, soccer, cross-country, basketball, wrestling, skiing, baseball, softball, golf, tennis, track and field, flag football and other sports that play important roles in communities throughout the region. Boys and girls athletics will receive equal attention because both are essential parts of the story. The goal is comprehensive coverage that reflects the true breadth and diversity of high school sports in Northeastern Minnesota.
The geographic scope will be equally ambitious. Schools in Duluth, Hermantown, Cloquet, Esko, Proctor, Two Harbors, Grand Rapids, Hibbing, Virginia, Rock Ridge, Chisholm, Eveleth-Gilbert, Moose Lake-Willow River and many other communities will be represented. I want this publication to reflect the entire region, from the Twin Ports to the Iron Range and down the Interstate 35 corridor. Every community takes pride in its athletes and teams, and every community deserves to see those accomplishments documented in a meaningful and lasting way.
Readers can expect far more than season-ending standings and championship results. My intention is to include exclusive interviews with coaches and athletes, detailed season reviews, game-by-game summaries, feature stories, milestone achievements, championship coverage, photographs and comprehensive year-ending statistics. The publication will tell the stories behind the scores while also preserving the numbers that help define a season. Years from now, a former athlete should be able to open the book and find not only the memories but also the facts that made those memories significant.
In many ways, this project is rooted in a belief that local sports matter. They matter because they bring communities together on Friday nights in the fall, in packed gymnasiums during the winter and at ballparks and track facilities in the spring. They matter because they teach discipline, resilience, teamwork and leadership. They matter because generations of families share these experiences together. Most importantly, they matter because they help define who we are as communities. The stories that emerge from those experiences deserve to be preserved with the same care and attention that larger media organizations devote to professional and major college sports.
When the first edition of "Howie Sports: A Year in Sports 2026-27" is published in late spring of next year, my hope is that readers will see more than a book. I hope they see a record of an entire region. I hope athletes find themselves in its pages and remember what those seasons meant. I hope parents and grandparents pull it from a shelf years later and relive moments that once filled arenas, stadiums and gymnasiums with excitement. Most of all, I hope it serves as a reminder that every athlete, every team and every community contributes a chapter to the remarkable sports history of Northeastern Minnesota.
That history deserves to be preserved. This annual publication is my effort to make sure it is.