I have a newspaper acquaintance in this part of the state who thinks there might be potential for reviving the Hancock paper. He'd explore the possibility himself. Re-starting such a venture might be daunting in this age where newspapers seem rather on the ropes. My feeling is that if Hancock is viable to sustain a K-12 school system, there is potential for a newspaper.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned in thinking a certain size community must simply have a paper. Maybe in the real world, the phasing out of the institution is very much in the works. Certainly the Morris paper gives us substantially less content than when I was there.
Kristi Fehr is apparently content being an assistant coach now in the bump, set and spike sport. Is she seeking less pressure? There might be something to be said for that. The new coach is a male dude name of Caleb Greene. Years ago there was a sexist perception that girls teams might perform better under a man coach. If there was any truth to that at all, it was probably because male athletics had been established so much longer than female. Yours truly goes back to when Morris had its first high school softball team, coached by the venerable Mary Holmberg who is still at it. I covered the Tigers in state when the destination was St. Cloud for that: Whitney Field.
Always nice to beat Wildcats
Coach Greene ushered his 2018 team into the new season with winning style. The opponent was New London-Spicer, always likely to challenge strongly in girls athletics, especially basketball. Right now we're talking volleyball, and the Tigers' Tuesday (8/28) showing was totally impressive! With Fehr in the assistant coach role, the orange and black prevailed over the Wildcats. We swept the 'Cats at their home court in New London. It wasn't real one-sided but we still won by sweep, scores of 25-23, 25-20 and 25-21. Congrats to the Tiger crew.
Success came on the 17th birthday of player Bailey Marty, who marked the occasion with superlative play. Undistracted by decorations related to her birthday, Marty focused and came through with eleven kills, the team-best total. She focused to also contribute eight digs and an ace serve.
New London-Spicer is a 3AA-North rival so it was important to pass this test.
Greene lauded his team's back-row passing as a key ingredient. The offense got set up most smoothly. Marty and Riley Decker were key individuals executing the passing. They got the ball up in the air proficiently. NL-Spicer put up decent resistance at times. They got the score tied at 19-all during the second game, and kept things close toward the end of game 3. But they could not overcome a Tiger team that looked disciplined and sharp.
NL-Spicer had some sputtering at the service line. Unforced errors were another occasional woe for them.
Let's note that some of our MACA players don't have a lot of varsity experience. Bailey Marty sized up the NL-Spicer defense and performed cross-court shots. She gave credit to the bench players for communicating with the on-court talent, as they advised of soft spots on the NL-Spicer side. Riley Decker was a cog on defense.
Two Tigers each had two serve aces: Kenzi Hockel and Liz Dietz. These Tigers each chalked up one ace from the serving line: LaRae Kram, Decker and Marty. We're so used to seeing Karly Fehr standing out in setting. Karly has moved on from the high school scene, so now we have Kram and Dietz standing out, at least on Tuesday, each with 13 set assists. Decker contributed four assists. Marty with her eleven kills was followed in this department by Alexis Pew who had eight and Hockel with seven. The list continues with Emma Berlinger who had three and Jen Solvie and Sophia Carlsen each with two.
Kram and Carlsen each had two ace blocks while Berlinger had one. On to digs, and here it was Decker showing proficiency as she always does, totaling nine in the sweep win effort. Marty had eight followed by Kram and Dietz each with six and Hockel with five.
I notice in the Willmar paper that stats for New London-Spicer were "unavailable." In other words, the NL-Spicer coach wasn't interested in working with the paper, odd because NL-Spicer is in the immediate area of Willmar. The Willmar paper is showing stress these days, being forced to go digital-only with the Monday edition. My newspaper contact/friend said in reaction to this: "death spiral!" Online-only can never fully be a substitute for the traditional print model, at least not commercially speaking. Of course, all information of interest to us can go online. We'll see as this retrenchment process proceeds.
I actually feel there is potential for a newspaper coming back to Hancock. I did the Hancock Record sports section for 15 years. I hope that is not forgotten. I worked with some interesting coaches there including one who ended up in prison. Things seem a lot more settled in Hancock now with more typical and less volatile coaches. I don't think the volatile ones get as much slack as they used to.
Yes I'm befuddled
Speaking of the Hancock school, I noticed something I considered odd on their website when checking it yesterday. The person who drove the van in the horrific accident in March is back on staff. I personally do not see how this is palatable. All the news accounts at the time indicated with no apparent doubt that the van driver was at fault. Have new facts come to light?
The consequences of that accident for the affected kids were horrific. I just don't see how this person can continue functioning at the school, though she is no longer listed as "van driver." I see where the Malos - Bruce and Jan - have taken that over, and I would have total confidence in them. The person involved in the accident is cited as "paraprofessional." How will her colleagues interact with her? I would find it impossible being around her as if nothing had happened.
My goodness, what an episode to have on your record. And to think I used to worry about making a typographical error in my writing for the Sun Tribune newspaper. We notice strange things in the world around us all the time.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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