 |
| Yours truly at old Sun-Tribune |
I made rather clear through my reporting that something might be amiss, that Morris ought to do better just based on the realities. There were times when it was all we could do to be competitive vs. Cyrus. The smaller towns are of course wonderful places.
I'm not sure we should just shrug about Hancock coming over here to the prestigious floor of the UMM P.E. Center and beating a Morris team that is actually having a pretty decent season. And of course Hancock is good. But we're the markedly bigger community. I'm having to say this again? Something like 40 years after the pattern first became concerning?
Even if the anomaly gets addressed, it's too belated, Kemosabe.
Why should I care anymore? I know, people will say to my face "no one cares what you think." I remember reporting on a volleyball invitational where we placed fourth and the combined enrollment of the top three schools was less than ours. I reported this with some accent. I got a call of thanks from a player's parent, but I was also reprimanded by a higher-up at the paper, someone who I would suggest was installed to keep me in check or to even terminate me. I was not terminated, certainly not during that time period, and by the time I finally left, the pattern of duress for newspapers caused by the Internet had fully set in. Besides, my parents needed me more at home.
Maybe I should have left earlier. "Yeah, and we wish you had," would be proclaimed by the good old boy clique of people around certain politically blessed coaches. Well congratulations you all - you made your bed, you can sleep in it. Not that my adversaries are bad people - on a personal level I find them mostly quite agreeable. It's the responsibility of the higher-ups, people with administrative titles, to sometimes reject the good old boy faction and make proper decisions.
"Deja vu all over again" of course makes no sense, or rather it's an amusing redundancy. It's a Yogi Berra-ism. The expression gets used so much, many people have come to take it seriously. John Fogerty had an album called "It's Deja Vu All Over Again."
Owls 71, Tigers 64
On Monday night the Tigers of MACA met the Hancock Owls at the P.E. Center. Games at the P.E. Center are sad, I feel, because they make us wonder why we can't get more of our post-season games there. Would be so convenient, right in Morris, n'est-ce pas? In the "old days" we were blessed with more local games. Nowadays the "car caravans" have to head south.
The story at our P.E. Center Monday was a Hancock victory. Let's take a look at the "Maxpreps" page for the game, a great site. We see the final score of 71-64. We see that MACA owned the two-point lead at halftime, 35-33. The Hancock coach must have drawn up some sharp strategy for second half play - those Owls outdid us 38-29. Maybe the Morris coach wasn't as sharp. And why do so many Morris people bristle so badly if I put forth the latter thought? "It's just sports."
In fact, you could argue that we as a society place way too much emphasis on this activity. What inherent benefit comes from kids playing basketball? So few kids are actually out on the floor playing anyway. And the fans just sit there on their rear ends. Are we this desperate to just try to make the winter seem shorter?
Maanum held up our long-range shooting with his five 3-pointers in ten tries. Decker and Tiernan each made two 3's while Jergenson and Loge each made one. As a team we were 11 of 26 in 3's, 42 percent. From the freethrow line we made five of nine attempts with Loge making three.
The Tigers had 25 rebounds with eight coming on the offensive end. Loge set the pace in assists with eight of our team total 18. Decker and Fehr each had three assists. Loge had our only steal. Loge had two blocked shots and Jergenson had one.
Matchups and hair styles?
It's hard not to sit in the stands and not root for the smaller town, right? What satisfaction could Morris really take? Remember Edgerton vs. Austin in the state? Our version of "Hoosiers?" I have always felt sorry for Austin: those boys were innocent, just wanted to play basketball.
I remember the days when some of the Hancock fans brought a giant "prop" to the P.E. Center - cardboard scissors - to taunt Morris because a couple of our players had hair judged by many to be on the long side. Well, we can't all be Apostolics.
I wrote a humorous take on the scissors incident and Jim Morrison said he liked it.
We could do better?
Morris had a population of 5,297 as of 2017. Hancock's population by comparison: 732. Well congrats you Owls. I still have my souvenir T-shirt from 1988: "Hancock's at state in '88." That was in girls basketball. The coach had an ignoble end to his tenure.
The population numbers suggest that Morris might have as many as seven or eight different teams that could compete evenly with Hancock. We hear that the Hancock school is really thriving. A source tells me some elementary families in the Starbuck area have issues with the Minnewaska school, so they turn to Hancock. That's nice although I enjoy covering the Lakers.
Hancock's success Monday extended its winning streak to eight. Their record was 16-6 coming out of Monday. It's not like MACA is having a bad season - our record is 13-10.
Berget supplied lots of punch with his long-range shooting: seven 3-pointers. Shaw was dead-on for four makes. Rohloff and Thompson each made one. Thompson was a huge force on the boards with 26 rebounds. Milander led in assists with eight and in steals with three. The Berget name in Hancock sports is like "Staton" and "Berens" in Benson!
The Tigers will seek to re-group Friday at Montevideo.
Is Katie Erdman the permanent editor of the Morris newspaper? She's 100 percent Hancock with her background. The Morris paper has included a disproportionate amount of Hancock news for some time. People express irritation with this but it just continues. The Hancock school menu on page 2? Jim and I wouldn't resort to that and we had two papers to put out every week.
Katie I'm sure would not conceal her happiness about the Hancock Owls doing well.
Morris has had problems over many years acting like the truly "big town" we are, relative to surrounding communities. Prairie Pioneer Days is gone in summer. Meanwhile "Cyrus Days" does just fine. Oh and there's Hancock July 4 complete with its high school marching band. Hard to explain all this.
Morris showed a truly vibrant air back in 1971 for the Centennial. Now I wonder if we'll pay much attention at all to our Sesquicentennial which would be in 2021. Too many people want to head to "the lake" on summer weekends. Del Sarlette has suggested we have an "apathy festival" in Morris but he says there's a problem: no one shows up for the planning meeting. Rimshot.
Girls hoops: Tigers 66, Paynesville 40
MACA hoops was active at the MAHS gym as well as at UMM. The Monday story was happier for the girls' fans. The Tigers took charge in a win over Paynesville, score of 66-40. The halftime score was 30-19. No backstory in reporting on this game, and that I like.
The orange and black improved to 15-9. Paynesville is struggling this winter.
Malory Anderson was a key contributor with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Meredith Carrington too scored 14 points and made a 3-pointer. MacKenna Kehoe made our other '3' and this Tiger scored eleven. Kylie Swanson came through with nine points and LaRae Kram with eight. Emma Bowman scored four followed by Kaylie Raths, Shannon Dougherty and Kendra Wevley each with two.
Carrington dished out three assists. Anderson had seven steals. Kehoe and Swanson each blocked a shot.
Harley Kunstleben was a sharp shooter for green-clad Paynesville and she made four 3's while leading the team in scoring: 14 points. Here's the rest of their list: Lindy Hennen (8), Katie Uhlenkamp (6), Maddie Hentges (5), Kali Reiter (5) and Grace Utsch (2). Hentges made a 3-pointer to complement Kunstleben's total.
Addendum: I have given Sarlette a hard time for years for supporting the "sucker ad" in the newspaper honoring Boy Scouts. Mainly I object to "sucker ads." The headlines of today suggest the Boy Scouts are in embarrassing trouble. It's something about bankruptcy, having to do with improper behavior (to sanitize it). So, will there be no more Scouts and thus no more "sucker ad" in the paper? The problem could solve itself.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment