Why do thee love Musselman? Tell us thy ways.

Announcing the first annual MusselLove Poetry Contest, in which you express eternal and undying love for Musselman. Send us your best sonnet or limerick, with proper rhyme and meter, by February 7. The Mussel committee will read them all (at most three entries per person, please) and pick the two Very Best Ones.

Here's the twist: your poem may not use any words with the letter "i" because that's the only vowel not found in the phrase "WoolSports Musselman."

It's not easy, but victory will be sweet: each winner will receive a free entry into Musselman 2012 (or a refund if you've already entered), and your poem will be printed here and read aloud at the pre-race briefings.

An example Shakespearean sonnet which would not win
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend
Suspect I may, but not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.