Afternoon State News Briefs: Gamblers' head coach interviewing for Michigan Tech job

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GREEN BAY - The head coach of the Green Bay Gamblers junior hockey team has interviewed for a coaching vacancy at Michigan Tech University.

Eric Rud said the school sought him out, so he accepted the invitation for an interview. The Huskies went 2-24-2 in the WCHA this past season. Their former coach, Jamie Russell, quit in March. Green Bay is currently on a week-long break during the Clark Cup playoffs in the U.S. junior hockey league. Rud’s Gamblers won their quarter-final series, and will open at Cedar Rapids on Friday night in their best-of-five semi-finals.

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A strike or a lockout is generally bad for business, but not for the Green Bay Packers. The team says only 55-to-70 season tickets are not being renewed this year. They’ll know the exact number in a couple weeks. But spokesman Aaron Popkey says the renewal rate is about the same as it was from 2004-through-’08. All Packer tickets are sold on a season basis. There are 32-thousand different customers, and the waiting list has 86-thousand names on it. Last year, 130 of those people got to buy tickets for the first time – as did 192 in 2009. Popkey said the higher cancellations were due to the recession, and because an undisclosed customer gave up a large number of seats. If a lockout cancels any games this year, the Packers say they’ll refund what the ticket-holders paid, plus interest.

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In the Midwest League, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers will host a double-header against Quad Cities this afternoon. That’s after they were rained out last night near Appleton. The Beloit Snappers have a late-morning start at home against Burlington. That’s after the Snappers beat the Western Division leaders last night, 6-4. Beloit remains in third place in the West at 9-and-7. Wisconsin is second-to-last at 5-9. There are three other Midwest League matinees scheduled today. Kane County is at Cedar Rapids. Fort Wayne entertains Lake County. And Bowling Green hosts South Bend. Tonight, Peoria plays at Clinton. Lansing, the Eastern Division leader, is at home against Great Lakes. And West Michigan is at Dayton.

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Glenn Nowell of Edgewood College in Madison has been named the baseball pitcher-of-the-week in the Northern Athletics Conference. Nowell, a junior right-hander, tossed a pair of complete-game victories last week. He struck out nine batters against Dominican, and gave up two earned runs in a win over Marian. His ERA for the week was one-point-five-oh with four walks and a total of 15 K’s. Nick Skala of Concordia-Chicago is the honored position player. Also, Skip Turner of Concordia-Mequon is the men’s tennis player-of-the-week. He went 4-and-0 in his singles and doubles matches.

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, proam