Snow? What snow? Plan is to proceed with high school state championships

As perhaps the biggest snowstorm in 30 years bears down on the Twin Cities, the Minnesota State High School League indicated Monday it plans to go forward with two state championship events that will draw teams and spectators from all over the state to St. Paul.

The MSHSL issued a statement addressing the weather and the events planned for this week, the girls hockey state tournament and the gymnastics state meet.

The league's statement: "The girls hockey and gymnastics state tournaments for this week are expected to take place as scheduled. Teams are being encouraged to watch the weather and make travel plans accordingly. We look forward to hosting two great tournaments."

A league official reinforced that.

"Schools have been concerned about this and are making travel plans to account for the snow," MSHSL associate director Laura Mackenthun said. "We're fortunate that the National Weather Service and other organizations have given us this information a few days out to prepare. We're expecting to the tournaments to take place as expected."

A storm forecast to dump as much as 20 inches of snow on the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota is predicted to begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday. It is looming as the largest storm to hit the Twin Cities since the Halloween blizzard of 1991 and would be just the fourth time in history that the Twin Cities received 20 or more inches of snow from a single storm. "Travel could be very difficult to impossible," the National Weather Service said.

The girls hockey tournament is scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday at Xcel Energy Center and Tria Rink in downtown St. Paul. The gymnastics state meet will be held at Roy Wilkins Auditorium at the St. Paul Rivercentre, adjacent to Xcel Energy Center.

Mackenthun said MSHSL staff members cannot remember a time when the league postponed or rescheduled a tournament because of weather.

"We've had some sections unable to wrap up their sections on the previous weekend and have to play on Monday, but not a state tournament," she said.

Tournament blizzards are the stuff of legend, she has been reminded.

"It's Minnesota," she said, laughing. "People keep telling me state tournaments mean snow."

Boys hockey section games, section wrestling, section boys swimming and regular-season boys and girls basketball also are scheduled for the days the storm is expected. Postponements and rescheduling of the section competition will be made by the section representatives. Postponing and rescheduling regular-season games falls to the schools involved.