The Tigers did a reversal after an 0-2 season start, putting together
back-to-back wins, both achieved in the most pleasing way possible:
sweeps!
The volleyball Tigers swept Minnewaska Area and then Paynesville.
Thus they enter the new week 2-2. All four of these matches have been
played on the road!
Fans will be relieved and happy to get a dose of home cooking.
Finally that time arrives this week. Coach Kristi Fehr's Tigers will
host Sauk Centre on Tuesday, Sept. 10, then they'll host Montevideo on
Thursday.
Playing at the Paynesville court this past Thursday (9/5), the
Tigers won in three with scores of 25-10, 25-19 and 25-21. It was a West
Central Conference success. It came during a week when the conditions
outside seemed to spell midsummer.
I could have sworn that on Friday night, the football game was
going to be delayed an hour again, just like for the previous week's
season opener. But the game's kickoff was on schedule.
Volleyball: Tigers 3, Paynesville 0
Two Tigers were in double figures in kills in the Thursday
volleyball win. Sydney Engebretson came at the Bulldogs with 12 kills.
She had 28 good in 31 attempts. Terianne Itzen was proficient at the net
with ten kills and 25 of 29 good/attempts numbers.
Paige Schieler was 23-for-26 with nine kills. Lacee Maanum had 16
good, 20 attempts and six kills. Haley Erdahl's numbers: 10-for-12, two
kills. And Nicole Strobel produced a kill with her six-of-seven stats.
In serving, Engebretson had two aces to go with her perfect
11-for-11 good/attempts stats. Also to be acknowledged in serving are:
Beth Holland (10-for-11 and one ace), Erdahl (15-for-16 and one ace),
Chelsey Ehleringer (a flawless 19 of 19 with one ace) and Hunter Mundal
(7-8-0).
Erdahl and Ehleringer were the cogs in setting, each posting 12 set assists.
Engebretson was poised at the net, not only attacking the ball but
ready for blocks, a department where she had four aces. Erdahl had two
blocking aces and Itzen and Schieler one each.
Let's wrap up this stat report with digs. Holland was poised to
perform digs, accumulating a team-best 21. Itzen and Mundal accumulated
13 each. Erdahl and Ehleringer each had 11 digs.
I hear that everyone is encouraged to wear orange at the MACA gym
on Thursday. Of course, it's the quite natural color to wear at all MACA
sports events.
Football: Paynesville 38, Tigers 14
Such was the heat on Friday, you could detect a haze in the air.
The Tigers bounded onto the turf at our Big Cat Stadium, ready to take
on the green-clad Bulldogs of Paynesville. It was going to be a tough
challenge.
Fans could see as this game progressed that Paynesville had a quite
smoothly-executing quarterback, looking like a good college prospect
(in my view anyway). This individual: Matthew Quade.
Quade certainly had chemistry with Nick Dingmann, a pass-catcher.
MACA fans looked on in a downcast way as Quade and Dingmann worked
together on four touchdown passes. It was an attack that coach Kevin
Pope's Tigers could not surmount.
The Tigers did manage to lead twice in the first half. But the
Bulldog passing machine was too much, underscored by 28 of 38 passing
stats for Quade and 232 yards. Dingmann had seven total catches for 169
yards. His touchdown catches covered 16, 7, 79 and 17 yards.
Isaac Wente was a stat leader for Motown with 162 rushing yards in
29 carries. Wente crossed the end zone stripe for both of the MACA
scores in the first half. Wente had the game's first score: a run from
the three. Noah Grove kicked the point-after.
Quade and Dingmann worked their magic for Paynesville's first
score. Quade passed to Bryce Savage for two on the conversion. So
Paynesville leads. Wente scored from the nine to give Morris Area Chokio
Alberta the lead again. Grove's toe was true for the conversion.
Quade and Dingmann hooked up for the game's next two scores -
passes of seven and 79 yards. Paynesville did the rest of the night's
scoring. Quade ran three yards for a touchdown and passed to Dingmann
for 17 yards. The game's final score: 38-14.
The Tigers failed to score in the second half. They now own a 0-2 record.
Wente dominated the Tigers' running game. Jordan Thooft also got
some handoffs and this Tiger picked up 35 yards in ten carries.
Quarterback Bryce Jergenson had trouble finding his rhythm as he
completed four passes in 12 attempts for 36 yards. He was not picked
off.
Coach Pope's crew will play the second of three straight home games
this Friday, Sept. 13 (yes, Friday the 13th), when the opponent will be
Sauk Centre. Will we hear the band again? Will the heat subside?
Should "visitors' comments" be re-visited?
I'm starting to get the notion that our Morris Area school board will rue the day it began the "visitors' comments."
The public has historically not made a big deal of this, or at
least that's my impression. Lately, though, I get the impression that
"visitors' comments" might be becoming a forum in which parents with a
variety of beefs are going to show up and hang them out to dry.
Free speech? Of course we have free speech. The question is
process. Should anyone just be allowed to show up and squawk about
something? This perhaps isn't even the crux of the problem.
The crux may be the inclination of a certain media business in
Morris to highlight a "squawk" in its subsequent coverage, as
if that item had the most gravity on that night. A parent will come and
vent and then see that subject get headline treatment. The public
observes and realizes this is a platform for getting grievances aired.
Which is fine, but grievances could get disproportionate attention
in the scheme of things. We all know it's tremendously easy for school
parents to develop their little gripes, not that they are all to be
dismissed, of course, but it's impossible running a school to please
everyone all the time.
Here's the danger I see now: A pattern of complaints getting
disproportionate attention in the press, could get administrators
discouraged, feeling under siege as it were. They might become jaded and
cynical before their time. And we don't want them to have that kind of
outlook. We want them to be cheery and idealistic as long as possible.
I have seen certain school administrators get worn down in my life.
It's a daunting job they have. And I'm not sure school board members
should have to sit there listening to comments on subjects that may not
be under their direct purview. Many such comments ought to go directly
to an administrator, perhaps via email, and get a response on those
terms with no newspaper headline involved.
It is ridiculous that the school's most reasonable no-hat (in
classroom) policy became a tempest in a teapot recently. A certain media
manager in Morris greased the skids on that, crossing a line in terms
of propriety, in my view. I don't think this community has been torn
apart at all on the hat policy.
This pass-fail hubbub of late could probably be adjudicated without
the public demonstration at the school board meeting. Parents who wish
to speak for "visitors' comments" should perhaps at least be screened
beforehand, to see if the subject is really proper for the board to
listen to in such a formal setting.
Other than that, let's have a happy and successful new school year at MAHS!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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