Volleyball regular season ends with 3-0 win

Tigers 3, Monte 0

Morris Area Chokio Alberta put an exclamation point on the regular season Tuesday (10/15), wrapping it up with a 3-0 triumph. The action was at Montevideo.

It was win No. 16 for the Tigers. Now the thoughts are focused on post-season. The 16-5 won-lost numbers promote a strong tone of optimism. The Tigers are 9-4 in conference play.

Scores in the Tuesday win were 25-20, 25-18 and 25-23.

Montevideo used to be the "Mohawks." I remember a mural painting at their gym which had a silhouetted Mohawk with headdress. I wonder if that painting remains.

Montevideo made this nickname change many years before pressure built up for the NFL's "Redskins" to change. "Thunder Hawks" is now well established as the Monte nickname. I used to be confused over whether "Thunder Hawks" was one word or two. I guess it's two. Often I'll shorten it to "T-Hawks" which I probably picked up from other media sources.

 

Many Tigers excel

Hunter Mundal's serving overwhelmed the T-Hawks at times. She powered four ace serves while going 15-for-17 in good/attempts.

Haley Erdahl had the only other serve ace. Haley had eleven good serves in as many attempts, and one ace. Beth Holland was 10 of 12 in G/A, Terianne Itzen nine of ten, Sydney Engebretson 13 of 13 and Chelsey Ehleringer 10 of 10.

Ehleringer and Erdahl took on the setting mantle and they produced 13 and 10 set assists, respectively.

Paige Schieler went up to produce three ace blocks. Lacee Maanum had two ace blocks, while Nicole Strobel, Itzen and Engebretson each had one.

Itzen led in digs with 14, followed by Mundal with eleven, Holland and Ehleringer each with ten and Engebretson with seven.

At the fore of the hitting attack was Itzen who powered 13 kills past the T-Hawks. Itzen had 39 good hits in 41 attempts. Schieler made her presence felt in hitting, producing five kills to go with 14 of 16 good/attempts stats. Maanum had four kills and 10 of 13 in G/A. Strobel had three kills and was a perfect 6/6 in G/A. Engebretson added to the mix by going 10-for-12 with one kill.

Montevideo has had a below-.500 season of 2013. Alyssa Stern had eight kills for the T-Hawks Tuesday. Alexis Schmitz had three ace blocks, Abby Olson five ace serves, Tori Kuhlmann 23 set assists, and Jessie Janisch 19 digs.

 

So much for one promotion. . .

I have written in the past that Morris should have the "world's largest pheasant" comparable to what Wheaton has with the "world's largest mallard."

We have all heard of certain other "world's largest" claims, like the communities with the world's largest ball of twine and world's largest bullhead. The giant Paul Bunyan (and Babe) is in Bemidji.

My suggestion with the pheasant goes back many years to when I was in the print media and I made the suggestion verbally with some individuals involved in local legislative campaigns. I later heard that my suggestion made the rounds and fell on some receptive ears. Nothing ever developed from it.

Of course it would cost money, which is a roadblock. The question is whether it's worth doing.

Thanks to the Internet, I have now discovered there's another community that already boasts the "world's largest pheasant." That's Huron, South Dakota.

Congratulations to them. They must have lots of the multi-colored birds running around. And these birds definitely do "run." The "world's largest pheasant" in Huron is along Highway 14 and is a 22-ton sculpture made of fiberglass and steel. It has "affirmed Huron as a premier pheasant hunting location since 1959," we read online.

"From its beak to the tip of its feathered tail, this giant bird spans over 40 feet."

I suppose we in Morris could still boast the "world's largest pheasant" if we simply built one that was larger! I suppose it wouldn't be cool to upstage our friends in Huron.

A good location for such iconography in Morris would be where the highways meet in front of McDonald's. There's a nice open grassy area. Even a modest chainsaw sculpture of a pheasant would look nice there. Maybe Mr. Steen of McDonald's could write a check for this!

Another candidate location would be in front of Heartland Motors.

What's with this rumor that Heartland is moving to that spot across the highway from McDonald's? And then, Superior would move into the old Heartland property? Is this true? Will Superior keep expanding to where it surrounds the whole town? I'm a little scared of this because we live just to the west of Heartland.

Are aggregate conveyors going to take over the world?

If we cross the pheasant off the list for our iconography, and the bullhead too, what then should we choose? It's too bad we don't still have meadowlarks or I'd suggest that. What a delightful bird this was.

How about the world's largest junco? This bird keeps us company through the long winter. Wherever you see one, there will be a bunch. Their togetherness is inspiring during the blahs of winter.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com