Howie Hanson is Minnesota’s Columnist, writing about power, money, sports and civic life across the state. This column is sponsored by Lyric Kitchen . Bar of Duluth.
The Cody Buus Invitational Courage Ride will host its second annual Celebration Dinner and Live Auction on Saturday at the Pike Lake Golf and Beach Club Event Center in Hermantown. Social hour begins at 5 p.m., dinner and auction at 6. Limited tickets remain.
Every dollar raised benefits the Northern Lights Foundation, a nonprofit that provides unrestricted financial grants to local families with children facing a life-threatening illness. No red tape. No narrow categories. Just help when help is needed.
Cody Buus was 34 when cancer took his life. He left behind family, friends and a simple wish: help just one person who is suffering. That wish didn’t fade. It multiplied.
What began as a three-day snowmobile ride among friends has become one of the most meaningful grassroots efforts in the Northland — a no-tolerance ride built around accountability, generosity and showing up for people when life turns cruel. Riders, volunteers, sponsors and everyday community members now fuel something much larger than a winter tradition.
Last year, 70 riders and 15 volunteers raised more than $300,000 for local families. That’s not pocket change. That’s mortgage payments. Travel costs. Gas money. Groceries. The small, relentless expenses that pile up when a child is sick and parents are living out of hospital waiting rooms.
Todd Buus, Cody’s father, doesn’t speak in slogans about it.
“Cody believed deeply in helping others, and this event keeps that spirit alive,” he said. “Every rider, volunteer, and sponsor plays a part in making life a little easier for families and children facing the unthinkable.”
That’s the part worth underlining.
The Courage Ride is no longer just a snowmobile event. It has grown into a year-round commitment that includes a golf outing, a bean bag tournament and other community gatherings and raffles — all centered on one thing: keeping families afloat during the worst chapter of their lives.
Todd Johnson, executive director of the Northern Lights Foundation, sees what those dollars do once the applause fades.
“The Courage Ride has become an incredible force for good,” Johnson said. “This gathering shows families they’re not alone — that they have a community of neighbors, friends, and strangers standing with them when they need it most.”
The ride itself is full this year. That tells you something. But the dinner isn’t. And the need certainly isn’t.
If you want to see what community actually looks like — not on a slogan, not on a bumper sticker — but in a room where generosity is measured in action, Saturday is your night. Join the dinner. Volunteer. Sponsor. Or donate directly at courageride.net.
Cody asked to help one person. The Northland decided that wasn’t nearly enough.
The Star Tribune Makes Its Tournament Move
The Minnesota Star Tribune wants you to know it is serious about high school sports season. Not casually interested. Not dipping a toe in. Serious.
As the winter state tournaments arrive — the weeks when gyms get loud, student sections lose their voices and small towns measure themselves in banners — Strib Varsity is expanding its footprint with what it calls its most ambitious prep tournament coverage yet.
Translation: they’re going bigger.
The Star Tribune’s prep sports arm will roll out free live blogs during the girls hockey state tournament from Feb. 18-21, along with expanded daily reporting, livestreamed section games and a broadened partnership with the social media brand Strictly Bball. Registration will be required for access to the live blogs, but no subscription will be needed during that stretch — a notable test of open-access coverage during one of the state’s most watched high school events.
That matters.
High school tournaments in Minnesota are not niche programming. They are civic rituals. The state hockey tournament, in particular, draws packed arenas, statewide television audiences and a level of community pride that rivals some professional events. Basketball section finals aren’t far behind.
Strib Varsity says its live blogs will run morning to night each day of the girls hockey tournament, led by team leader Nick Williams, delivering real-time updates, analysis, scores, photos and behind-the-scenes reporting. In addition, the outlet promises daily breakout stories, photo galleries and on-site video reports from tournament venues.
This isn’t just incremental coverage. It’s a push to dominate the conversation.
The Star Tribune is also extending its “Strictly x Strib Varsity” tour through the March section basketball tournaments. Strictly Bball — a Minnesota-created social media brand with a strong TikTok and Instagram following — brings a built-in digital audience. The collaboration spotlights select boys and girls basketball matchups and leans into the culture surrounding the games, not just the final scores.
That partnership is telling.
Traditional newspapers used to own this space outright. Box scores, gamer stories, feature profiles — all of it lived in the morning paper. Now, coverage is fragmented across livestreams, social feeds, independent outlets and school-produced content. By aligning with a social-first basketball brand and experimenting with free access during high-traffic events, the Star Tribune is acknowledging that attention has shifted — and is trying to meet fans where they are.
There’s strategy here beyond the press release language.
High school sports remain one of the last reliable connectors across geography, politics and demographics in Minnesota. The crowds still show up. The families still travel. The communities still care. For a legacy media organization navigating the modern subscription economy, that audience is not incidental — it’s foundational.
Strib Varsity has published a comprehensive tournament guide with key dates, schedules and viewing information. It is livestreaming select section games. It is building daily narrative arcs around tournament play instead of dropping in with one-off recaps.
In short, it wants to be the hub again.
The Minnesota Star Tribune, now 158 years into its existence, has long marketed itself as the state’s dominant news organization. With seven Pulitzer Prizes and the largest newsroom in the Midwest, it has both the institutional memory and the staffing depth to attempt something like this. The question isn’t whether it can cover the tournaments. It always has.
The question is whether it can reassert centrality in a landscape where fans no longer wait for the morning edition.
This expansion suggests the paper understands the stakes.
High school sports are not filler content in Minnesota. They are culture. They are pipeline. They are identity. And during tournament season, they are appointment viewing.
Strib Varsity is betting that if it shows up everywhere — live blogs, livestreams, social partnerships, daily enterprise — fans will show up there, too.
Tournament season will reveal whether that bet pays off.
