"Another Blog on the Fire"
Michael Dashiell
Contact Mike at miked@sequimgazette.com
Michael Dashiell (that's me) is editor of the Sequim Gazette. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Western Washington University, has worked at the Sequim Gazette for about 10 years and enjoys writing — occasionally. He and his wife Patsene live in Sequim; their two daughters are in college. He will write about anything, but particularly enjoys sports, arts, breaking news and news-of-the-weird. He also enjoys writing about himself in the third person.

I just want to take some time to thank the (relatively) little people: namely, the Kansas Jayhawks.

See, for the first time since I’ve been working here, I finally won our friendly NCAA tourney pool.

That’s a long time (11 years) to wait … and how much grief has this sports editor taken for not winning it all until now? Plenty.

But I won this time around and much of the praise I have to pass around goes to the Kansas Jayhawks. Even though I didn’t pick them to get to the championship, I had them in the Final Four.

With Louisville wrecking pretty much everyone’s bracket in the West region and Kentucky a near shoo-in in the South, it really came down to the East and Midwest regions.

I paid close attention to injuries and other off-court issues, and figured they may come into play. They did. In the East, I had Syracuse going out earlier than expected thanks to the ineligibility of center Fab Melo, but Ohio State helped me out there in the end. In the Midwest, I though Kansas had a shot with North Carolina’s injuries. And so it came to pass.

I also wasn’t sold on Duke. Thank goodness they didn’t run the table.

I blew it with several other picks, particularly with the faith I put in Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans, and with Temple and Vanderbilt. But other than a few first round glitches (see: Duke vs. Norfolk St.), all went well. In fact, I had it locked up after the Elite Eight.

In winning this year’s friendly pool, I edged out several current or former Gazetteers: Mr. Mark Couhig, reporter (second); John Huston in advertising (third); publisher Sue Ellen Riesau (fourth); and our fearless bracket point-counter, former editor Mary Powell (fifth).

Oh, and Mary’s friends and family, too (places six through 10).

I have to admit, 2012 has been good to me. I won my fantasy football league earlier this year and now this … must be the luck of the Irish. If I were Irish.

I’m starting up a fantasy baseball league through Yahoo. Anyone want to take me on?

Send me an e-mail at miked@sequimgazette.com.