So it's Wednesday, biscuits-and-gravy morning at DeToy's Restaurant, and we're looking at the results of Tuesday night girls hoops. It was not a winning night for the Tigers. It was a winning night for the Thunder Hawks of Montevideo, score of 61-45. Monte cruises along with the quite fine won-lost record of 9-1.
A lot of their success has been due to Avery Koenen. On Tuesday this T-Hawk put in 22 points. Her performance was nicely complemented by Tenley Epema with 16 and Hailey Dirksen with 12. There is another Epema on the Monte roster, Teagan, and she scored six. Then we see the Foley girls, Keely with five points and Kiera with three.
(The individual totals from the Willmar paper add up to 64 points, not 61.)
The T-Hawks used 3-point shooting in no small way. Tenley Epema led that charge with four makes. Teagan Epema was on board with long-rangers, two makes. Dirksen also made two 3's, and these T-Hawks each made one: Kiera Foley, Koenen and Keely Foley.
Koenen led in rebounds with five followed by Teagan Epema with three. Keely Foley and Koenen each dished out four assists. Tenley Epema supplied three assists. Koenen had two steals. Tenley Epema and Koenen each blocked a shot.
Our kmrs-kkok site reported that our Tigers "hung tough all night." I know it's important to try to supply a positive "spin." I can read minds sometimes. I don't doubt that MACA showed competitive qualities at times, but we lost the game by 16 points. A coach acquaintance once gave some advice on writing about simple losses: "give credit to the opposing team." OK, sounds reasonable.
Meredith Carrington was a bright spot in the MACA performance: 21 points including four three-pointers. Quite the deadeye. Cate Kehoe made our other '3'. Maddy Grove supplied ten points. Kehoe finished with five points and Kaylee Harstad with four. Hannah Schultz and Sydney Dietz each provided two points and Shannon Dougherty one.
The kmrs-kkok coverage notes that Monte is ranked fourth. Monte led 29-23 at halftime.
Hancock 52, Tigers 35
The January 8 action for the MACA girls was at the UMM P.E. Center. An intra-county rivalry was renewed: Tigers vs. Owls. Morris is the significantly larger community but that has long seemed irrelevant. The Tigers fell to the Hancock Owls 52-35.
We failed to contain Kaitlyn Rohloff of the Owls. Rohloff scored 15 first half points, 17 for the game. She was team-high in points. Misti Zempel had a point output of 13. Carlee Hanson came through with nine and she complemented that stat with five rebounds, six assists and three steals. Tori Pahl collected eight rebounds while scoring six points.
Hancock is rolling over many opponents this season. The proud Owls came out of Saturday at 10-0.
The Tiger cause was led by Cate Kehoe with eleven points, five rebounds and three steals. Sydney Dietz contributed eight points, four rebounds and three assists. Maddy Grove scored seven points.
Where's the spark?
It is useless for me to try to function as a community leader here - embedded biases against me - but aren't we seeing a drop-off in lots of things? We're left with this useless conflict between the City of Morris and the Chamber of Commerce over Prairie Pioneer Days. Who is responsible for PPD?
The bigger issue is why we would let our midsummer community gathering just wither away. Doesn't it just seem embarrassing on the most fundamental level? I have so many memories stored away of PPD, right from its germination. I saw it decline in some ways, but did not think this was a death spiral.
It does appear that last summer's "Makers Art Festival" might be the prelude for something special. I am told it will return. So, the Chamber just doesn't give a rip. I was struck by the very impressive support for "Makers" from the local Hispanics.
There is potential with this event. Artists doing art? Musicians doing music? How can you beat that? So the Killoran stage might be used, if only for 1-2 days the whole year.
There was no food vendor for the first "Makers," but maybe that could change. Might "Luther's Eatery" come back? I never dreamt that all the old sights and sounds of Prairie Pioneer Days would just vanish. The Museum should solicit photos and put up an exhibit.
So the UMM Jazz Festival is now history too? It was once famous. I'll quote here an email I sent to a friend last night, a friend who I consider to be civic-conscious:
Recently in connection with the death of Jim Carlson, I gleaned the knowledge that the UMM Jazz Festival is not going to be revived. I have this on good authority. Maybe UMM adm. would say decision is on hold or whatever, but I take it as fact, would not surprise me. In its heyday the Jazz Fest was the No. 1 thing "putting Morris on the map." Remember how enthused U of M President Bruininks was about it? He's a real mover and shaker with U $. So apparently the Fest is no more, and is anyone making an issue of it, other than me? First we saw Prairie Pioneer Days die, and now we have this ridiculous issue of the City and Chamber sparring with each other. Marshall at the radio station is just assuming that the city is right and the Chamber is wrong. But it's kind of discouraging. So PPD dies, the UMM Jazz Fest is apparently dead, and the Community Thanksgiving dinner died too. Kind of a pattern. I got through Thanksgiving Day with a large Mountain Dew and a couple donuts from Casey's, plus some "Boost" supplement. I don't have my refrigerator connected.
The UMM music dept. is having an NDSU graduate student take over jazz band now. The No. 1 choice for the job turned it down because of an insufficient salary offer. I have sources who enlighten me on all this. The wind ensemble director does not have a master's degree.
A limit to "selling"
Here's the view just from my perspective: I'm concerned that UMM is using promo/PR as a substitute for real programs and events, things that cost money but that create excitement and build constituencies to support the institution.
So UMM hires Sue Dieter to do what Sue Dieter does, I guess it's in the Relations Department. My Bonanza Valley friend describes Sue as "arrogant and aloof."
Think of the priceless asset that the UMM Jazz Fest represented in its long heyday. Today we learn of Carlson's death and see no acknowledgement of this in the local commercial media, none at all. The Morris newspaper website is merely a "teaser," not a go-to place at all. At least the Anfinsons rescued the paper from closure, so kudos to them.
The radio station site is far more helpful. I smiled as I read Marshall's siding with the city against the Chamber of Commerce. You're not supposed to express opinions in news articles. But I guess there's an exception when you just know you're right.
Sue Dieter told newspaper staff after I left that things would be better with me gone. Why was I there all those years, working Sundays, pounding the keyboard at 6 a.m., maybe even earlier, if I had no value? All I did was show up in the morning and I actually tried to be cheerful with people.
Tom Larson - remember him? Maybe not - wrote an editorial that didn't mention me by name, but argued the sports reporting would be better. I delivered absolute mountains of sports reports on behalf of Stevens County teams for years and years. Even with any imperfections, it had value over the long run.
So I'm still writing about the Tigers today, though not with pressure to cover all teams all the time and with total perfection, not a single typo. The year 2022 is the 50th anniversary of my start writing about the Tigers for the media. Fairly undaunted, I'd say.
Tom Larson wrote the editorial suggesting that Neal Hofland led a regressive faction on the county board. Where did he get that? Gossip? I'm not aware of Larson living one day of his life in Stevens County. I guess the issue at hand was the RJC? Remember all that talk? "Regional Justice Center." Was that supposed to be in Cyrus? With a jail? Working with Pope County? Thank God it died.
To anyone reading this: you might be surprised to learn what Sue Dieter might have said about you in a belittling way, with a snicker. I know of what I speak. She employs sarcasm.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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