[Jeff Waegelin]

There is a joke award that quietly gets passed around in the Midwest. It's called "the shaft", and it's a 1/2" plastic rod. I have no idea who started it, or when, but every year, it gets handed out to a team that had a rough time for some reason or another. The team that gets it is then told to pass it on to another team the next season. My old team (830) had it at one point... I don't know where it ended up, or who has it right now, but I always found it to be an amusing tradition. The whole thing is basically just a joke, and the teams that give and receive it take it pretty lightly. It's all in good fun...