Does everyone realize Spartans are gone?

The Spartans are gone with the wind. I'm not sure the import of this has sunk in with lots of people.

There ought to be a wave of sadness passing through us all. Even if you never attended a game involving the red, white and blue Spartans, you should take a moment and feel regret as to their extinction.

The full weight of this should sink in soon. With the start of the new school year, all Chokio-Alberta sports will be paired with Morris. I jotted down this information from the kmrs-kkok website (the news page) a while back.

The item reported that the Morris Area school board OK'd a cooperative pairing agreement with Chokio-Alberta for football. The next sentence then reported that all C-A sports were now assimilated here.

I also jotted down how the Breckenridge school board had decided to donate services. Budget difficulties prodded that move obviously.

You can only imagine the pressures on the C-A district if there was no alternative there but to zip up the long, colorful history of C-A Spartan sports and say "that's it."

Again I'll quote a fellow who was in the audience for the Driggs lecture at UMM last year. In the Q&A, he asserted the changing demographics of western Minnesota, how, frankly, the decision to build UMM likely wouldn't even be made today.

Why? The drastically altered demographics.

This fellow in a loud, captivating voice talked about the time "when all the little towns out here had their own football and basketball teams."

I guess I'm getting to an age where I shouldn't assume everyone remembers that.

You could drive through these small towns on an autumn Friday night and see the flickering lights where the local football team was playing. It wasn't just a sports event, it was a social gathering.

I have to chuckle writing that because for many people, the social aspect ruled. Life was rich in those days when the day-to-day mindset seemed more relaxed.

I covered the C-A Spartans in the media for many years. To say that experience was rich is an understatement.

I covered graduations at the Alberta school building. I understand that building is now abandoned for school purposes.

I remember proms, spring arts festivals and basketball games there, in addition to graduations which were always held on Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. I gave up free-time stuff in order to make the commitment to be there most years.

A smile crosses my face as I remember Lyle Hettver proclaiming "Thank God for small schools!"

Small schools really need some divine support now.

In Breckenridge the leaders are apparently working gratis.
At C-A, not only is there sadness and humility over losing sports teams, an individual has been caught doing untoward things with money ($).

I don't think it's a coincidence that such a crime happened at a small school on the fringe for survival. When any institution begins to grope for survival, systems break down. The resources aren't there anymore.

The incident (teachable?) perhaps points to a need to have less of the human element in the directing of funds. Systems could be modified toward having this done electronically. We are so human an animal.

If the incident expedited the decline of Chokio-Alberta programs, it's oh so sad.

The extinction of C-A sports has a net negative effect for the Morris area (with a small "a").

Morris advocates would be happy that C-A paired here rather than with, for example, Clinton-Graceville.

This misses the point, because in an ideal world the Spartans would survive.

It's often futile to fight change. That fellow at the Driggs lecture made a point bluntly that a lot of us are hesitant to acknowledge.

Tom Brokaw has been known to make this point bluntly too. Brokaw talks about the "de-populating of the Great Plains states."

He talks about how you still find "courthouses 35 miles apart each with its own auditor - a system that might have made sense in horse and buggy times."

But the times have changed drastically.

We still have the Hancock Owls in Stevens County. I don't hear any panic rumors from over there, so the Owls would appear to be viable a while longer. Their girls basketball team reaches super heights.

Coach Jodi Holleman does as much as anyone keeping Hancock on the map. The Owl football team plays on a good old-fashioned small town football field.

Morris has moved on to the new age with its Big Cat Stadium. Take a look at Big Cat and you can't help but feel impressed.

But it's a far cry from the informal atmosphere of the old small town fields where people gathered, wandered and jabbered while the football seemed very often obscured. It was an excuse for a "town square."

A friend remembers "the junior high girls walking around the track" at our old football field here.

Football actually seemed more exciting at C-A because it was nine-man rather than eleven-man. The nature of nine-man football seemed to encourage more scoring. It was also the kind of football where a very talented individual could stand out more.

Yes, I know the Morris Area Tigers scored over 60 points in a game last fall. But I seem to recall some rule changes enacted through the years to help prep football offenses.

I remember a time when eleven-man high school football seemed boring much of the time. Too many of the plays just ended up as "a pile of guys out on the field." When it's cold out, this becomes humdrum quite fast.

Nine-man football seemed pretty fast and exciting even before those rule changes.

Coach Neal Hofland was a rock at Chokio-Alberta. I wonder if Neal saw the end coming through the years. Eventually C-A got paired with Herman-Norcross. But they were still the Spartans.

Who can forget those Friday nights in Chokio for home football? Who can forget the special atmosphere for Homecoming?

Such activities gave outstate Minnesota much of its personality. Now we're following the trend that iconic journalist Brokaw talked about. The "depopulating" leaves a discouraging silence in its wake.

I remember attending football games in Herman. And in Hoffman where Morris native Keith Swanson reigned as coach just like Hofland.

There will come a time when relatively few people have these memories. It's extremely important to preserve them.

Some museum space somewhere ought to be set aside, devoted to the rich memories of the C-A Spartans.

I attended many Homecoming pep rallies at the Alberta school. I found them refreshing in that they seemed 100 percent traditional. The Morris school by contrast, at least in a subtle way, seemed to exude more of what might be called a "deconstructionist" air.

Morris was eventually steered back in a more traditional way and that's good. If you're going to have Homecoming at all, there's a right and wrong way to do it.

The class-by-class Homecoming pep rally skits at C-A were priceless. I remember a skit inspired by a TV commercial starring Bob Uecker. It was complete with an actor proclaiming "I must be in the front row!"

Let's tuck away these memories and never let them die.

"Thank God for small schools."

It's early August now which means high school football workouts are about to start. No longer will we be able to drive past Chokio and see the Spartans being put through their pre-season paces.

No more festive air for the C-A football opener where everyone has adrenalin pumping for the new school year, feeling maybe a slight nip in the evening air because fall is near.

Again, tuck away those memories.

It's gone with the wind.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com