Minnesota Swarm at the 2005 Minnesota State Fair

August 28, 2005

Just bought a cell phone with a camera. This is my first attempt to put pictures on the web. There is only one picture for viewing and I really got to get better at taking photos indoors.

This weekend the Minnesota Swarm were at the Minnesota State Fair. I visited on Saturday and met Assistant Head Coach Derek Moffat and players Jon Sullivan and Eric Pacey. The picture I took doesn't do justice, I am sorry.

They were here from Friday through Sunday.

These are the first Swarm players I have met since the end of the season and it was great.

They signed autographs and were very accomodating with questions. They shared a booth with the Wild. The booth contained Swarm and Wild merchandise, a large screen TV showing games and ticket representatives from MSE (Minnesota Sports & Entertainment) who own both teams.

The amazing thing to note. The Swarm, whose players make about the same as my mom at Walmart, were able to fly in Moffat, Sullivan and Pacey in for the fair to be seen by hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans, while the Wild as of Saturday have not had one player at the booth or have anyone planned to show up through the end of the fair on Labor Day. I congratulate the Swarm with being able to set up these coach and player appearances.

A few morsels gained as I conversed:

• When I asked Coach Moffat how he was passed over for the head coaching job by Adam Mueller, laughed as did Pacey and Sullivan, then said the Swarm got the right guy. He also said that Paul St. John, the director of scouting, probably will join the coaching staff this year.
• Moffat said that D'arcy Berthiaume is riding a bike as he rehabs and both he and Nick Patterson should be ready for training camp. He said there could be the possibly of up to three training camps, one in BC, one in Ontario and hopefully one in Minnesota.
• For all Brock Boyle fans, Sullivan has kept in touch as recently by phone on Friday and he is doing well.
• Pacey said he took the summer off to rest even though Moffat and Sullivan figured he just was being lazy.
• All three are eagerly waiting for the season to start and they sure did seem to enjoy the Great Minnesota Get-Together.
• According to the ticket representatives, it looks like season ticket renewals will be coming out around a week after labor day and they are hearing the schedule coming out in October which seems contradictory to what is being said in the Wings forum. Take what you want from that.
• Also, there is an American Indian Festival at Harriet Island in St. Paul on the weekend after Labor Day and the Swarm may try to see if they can get some Native American players like Travis Hill to make an appearance. Nothing concrete just keep an eye on the website.

Once again, it was great seeing Derek Moffat, Jon Sullivan and Eric Pacey. As we are all saying, we can't wait for the season to begin.