Dec. 26 — Is it just me or has the decade flown by? It seems like only yesterday that we were hoarding fresh water and canned food for the dreaded Y2K bug. January 2000 is still known as SpaghettiO’s Month around our house.

Soon it will be 2009, the final year of the ’00s. And that can mean only one thing: it’s time for the Top Nine Local Sports Stories of 2009.

9. Caledonia football fans pool their money and rent one floor of an apartment building in Minneapolis for the team’s inevitable state championship run.

8. A flu bug hits the Viterbo women’s basketball team in February, leaving five healthy players. Coach Bobbi Vandenberg asks area hockey coaches for tips on running a 1-4 forechecking system.

7. Former Loggers pitcher Max Scherzer, projected to be the Arizona Diamondbacks’ No. 5 starter, rubs his right shoulder once during a spring training start. A fantasy baseball geek/Diamondbacks blogger moves from his parents’ basement to a tent in front of the team’s facility in order to keep an eye on Scherzer 24/7.

6. The new $16.6 million Veterans Memorial Field stadium hosts the WIAA State Track and Field Meet in June, with capacity crowds on hand both days. Still in denial, UW-Oshkosh officials stage a protest in front of Mitchell Hall, with picket signs reading “We Really Do Have Plenty Of Parking!” and “Titan Stadium: It’s Not Too Bad!”

5. The Central and Logan football teams tie in their annual Ark of Victory game. To settle the tie, the teams agree to send forward their best five movie buffs for a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” trivia contest.

4. In January, an all-time Tribune Website record of 854 is set for message board responses to a Packers season wrap-up story; 849 of them are either “are SO!” or “are NOT!”

3. The UW-La Crosse gymnastics team wins its eighth national title in nine seasons and 13th overall under coach Barb Gibson, who celebrates by doing a complete floor exercise routine.

2. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman visits the La Crosse Center Board in May. Bettman offers $50 million, no strings attached, to remodel the Center into a state-of-the-art NHL facility and locate an expansion franchise to the city in 2010-11. Bettman also offers to the city a guaranteed 20-year lease, full concession and parking profits, plus 15 percent of ticket sales. The Center board declines, citing weekend commitments to a tattoo show and an Elvis convention.

1. The La Crosse Loggers defeat the Brainerd Mosquitoes (formerly the Blue Thunder and Mighty Gulls) 4-3 in a thrilling Game 3 of the NWL Championship Series at Mills Field in Brainerd. Seventeen fans attend the game, 11 of whom thought it was going to be a fishing contest.