The Tigers, in a habit of winning, often winning big, succumbed to Fairmont. The score was 5-3 as the orange and black had its season end. Morris Area Chokio Alberta vied with Fairmont (from southern Minnesota) in the Section 3AA playoffs in Marshall.
Coach Mark Torgerson's crew closes out 2013 with sterling 17-4 won-lost numbers. Click on the link below to see coverage of this game from the Marshall Independent:
In other Tuesday baseball, Lac qui Parle Valley, coached by Morris native Bart Hill, was denied in a bid to return to the Class 'A' state tourney. Hill's Eagles fell to Springfield 7-0 in 3A play, also in Marshall.
Colby Siegert pitched the whole way for LQPV and took the loss. LQPV had seven hits but was hurt by three errors. Three Eagle players each had two hits: Austin Haas, Brandon Hill and Preston Kraft. Jalen Baldwin contributed one hit.
Coach Hill noted that Springfield's infield played rather deep, helping them cut off potential hits.
Congratulations, MAHS graduates
The Morris Area graduates of 2013 are "out in the world" now, as they say.
The last Morris Area graduation I covered for the print media was in 2006. I remember it well. The first graduation I covered was in 1979.
In '79 I wrote about "flashcubes going off all over the place." That's really a time capsule item.
"Flashcubes" were those little flash attachments used with Kodak Instamatic cameras. The Instamatic was like the Model 'T' of the photography world for a time. It seemed universal among people who just wanted to take day-to-day family photos. Frankly the quality wasn't very good.
The "high end" cameras like Nikons seemed very pricey by the standards of middle class people. We could scarcely dream of "digital" photography then. Cost is hardly a factor with photography now.
Anyway, those "flashcubes" could create a spectacle on graduation night. I covered many graduation ceremonies at the 1968 gym of MAHS. There was the year when an earthquake created a sensation like a train passing right next to the school. The quake happened while a Lopez boy was giving his commencement address. I suspected within seconds it was an earthquake.
I remember the quake here in the late 1970s.
A major memory I have of those ceremonies in the '68 gym was how hard it was to hear a lot of the speeches. I struggled to just catch a few snippets that I could use in reviewing the event.
I remember when the MAHS choir was under the direction of an assistant football coach and, shall we say, wasn't real sharp. I later mentioned this to a school counselor who said "were you at the (recent) concert?" He smiled, suggesting there had been a pattern of mediocrity, not to be blamed on the kids of course.
I left the newspaper before it became once a week. My departure was under severe duress and in my opinion, not voluntary.
The MAHS graduation is held on Friday which means it cannot be covered in the next day's Morris newspaper. The paper sort of "fakes" coverage by gathering some material pre-ceremony, like a posed photo of the speakers and a transcript of their speeches.
Parents would far prefer actual coverage of the ceremony. There's a wait of eight days now to see that in the Morris paper (just like for a football game in fall). Does anyone care? Well, the constituencies I dealt with through the 1990s would care.
A posed photo of the 2013 speakers was on the front page of this past Saturday's paper. (I don't buy the paper but I see it out and around.)
I'm sure parents are chagrined that an article about serious alleged sex crimes is right next to the photo. That article told me way more details than I wanted to know.
We don't need to read descriptions of sex acts. Also, all of this behavior is "alleged" at this point. The article had the effect of convicting the person. Just as a matter of professional practice, the article should have included "alleged" (or words to that effect) in every reference to the criminal behavior. This article did not. I'm not sure a lawyer couldn't use this to gain leverage on behalf of the accused individual.
Was an article even needed at this point? What purpose does it serve? An article could appear after the matter has been disposed in our judicial system.
The article that appeared Saturday only made parents want to put the paper somewhere where their kids won't see it.
I don't even like the "district court" feature in the local newspaper. I think it's an intrusion into privacy. Most of the matters disposed there, like seat belt tickets or minor speeding, are so trivial they don't constitute "news." They constitute "gossip." Get a seat belt ticket and you'll get teased by a dozen people in church who "saw it in the paper."
Most of the people who buy the paper today are over age 55 and they only want to see if anyone they know died.
Memo to advertisers: older people are not heavy consumers. Many live on fixed income. You're trying to reach consumers. If you really want to advertise, I'd suggest that "Morris Area Merchant" publication. It's user-friendly, compact, and isn't cluttered or buried with ads for Alexandria businesses, who don't need any special help here, IMHO.
Anyway, congrats again to the Morris Area High School graduates of 2013. Try to enjoy summer now, cool as it might be. Don't rush into any decisions about the future.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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