Meet the Hematites Thursday

ISHPEMING — The fall season’s Meet the Hematites for fall high school sports athletes and teams at Ishpeming High School will be held next week.

The event will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at the high school’s new gym.

Fall teams and coaches will be introduced, team meetings will be held and parents will have an opportunity to sign up to work in the concession stand at home games.

All athletes are required to attend with at least one parent or guardian. The public is invited to attend.

Hunter education course offered

SKANDIA — The West Branch Sportsmen’s Club clubhouse in Skandia will host a combination hunter safety education and international bow hunting course in September.

All those 10 years old and older are invited to take the course, with 10-year-olds required to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Instruction will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4, and Tuesday through Friday, Sept. 10-13, along with a field day from 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14. Participants must attend all six sessions to be considered a successful course.

The sportsmen’s clubhouse is located at 1888 Engman Lake Road, one mile south of M-94 and west of Skandia.

Class size is limited to 30 students, so reservations are encouraged and must be made by Sept. 3. Required information includes name, birthdate, phone number and contact person. Call Don Johnson at 249-9600 or Jeff Stevenson at 235-8774.

Sharks, Cobras meet in Arena final

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Watch out for Sharks and Cobras.

The National Arena League will play its third championship tonight, and fittingly, the past two champs will go at it. Their fierce nicknames add some intrigue, too.

The Jacksonville Sharks will host the Carolina Cobras for the title, and while the game won’t be getting any Super Bowl-like attention, it’s a big deal for the players, coaches and fans of the six-team league.

“It’s exciting, it’s a good league,” says Cobras coach Billy Back, whose team went 9-5 this season, four games behind the Sharks, then defeated Massachusetts 30-26 in a playoff matchup. “As for any championship game, we will prepare them as if it’s the next game, but ask them to play it like it’s their last game.”

In their last game, the Sharks romped past Columbus (Georgia) 67-43. Jacksonville lost its season opener and has won every game since to be 14-1. It has averaged an impressive 7,600 fans per game at the JAX Veterans Memorial Arena and is hoping to match the crowd of approximately 10,000 that attended in 2017 when the Sharks beat Columbus 27-21 for the title.

This season, Jacksonville won both meetings with the Cobras, who call Greensboro, North Carolina their home.

Olympics to test Tokyo transit

TOKYO (AP) — First, Tokyo Olympic fans will have to find scarce tickets and pay the price. Then there’s the quandary of landing a hotel room with rates that are being inflated due to unprecedented demand. And the summer heat and humidity will be off-putting for some.

Then there’s one more hurdle: getting around, or even finding a tiny space to stand on Tokyo’s famously efficient but over-stressed rail system.

Japanese professor Azuma Taguchi at Chuo University has researched Tokyo’s system for years and says it’s already running at double its capacity and the Olympic crunch could push it to the breaking point.

“When peak capacity is twice or three times above normal, it’s possible some people could be killed,” Taguchi told The Associated Press.

His computer simulation predicts that the biggest wave of Olympic spectators will collide with work commuters at popular transfer stations during the morning rush hour, while small stations closest to venues will be overwhelmed.

Add to the mix, newcomers carrying luggage aboard subway cars and struggling to maneuver off the train and through crowded stations.