Here's a heads-up to check out my coverage of the Morris Area Chokio Alberta girls basketball game against Minnewaska Area on Friday. The Tigers were on the short end 71-42. This post is on my companion blog "Morris of Course." It also includes some MAHACA wrestling coverage. I invite you to click:
So the Minnewaska girls have some spark in spite of a 9-12 season record. We can surmise that our Tigers have some challenges too.
Ahem, Minnewaska is having a woeful year in boys athletics. Maybe we should commend the male student-athletes for just "sticking it out." But it has to be an ordeal for a lot of the parents and fans.
From an email from a friend on Friday:
‘Waska sports – a teacher over there that I know was on the verge of retiring, but also coached track and football. So he decided to stay on another couple of years in order to coach football – he had been one of the coordinators there for many years. But, they hired a new head coach last fall, and he told my friend that he was no longer needed – they were “going in another direction.” Yeah, down.
My late father was in academia but never directly in sports. One time he said as we were watching Gophers basketball, "what a way to make a living." He was referring to the vicissitudes of being a coach of course.
Let's delve into how the Lakers have been struggling. The football team went 0-9 in the 2022 fall. They were 0-5 in section, 0-5 in conference and 0-4 on their home field. So to the extent there was a "shakeup" in coaching, it sure appears to have backfired. "Crashed and burned" you might say.
The coordinator who was let go: I wonder what he was thinking after the season opener, a 52-0 dud loss to Royalton. Would the home opener be any better? That was in Week 2. Well, the Lakers got manhandled 43-14 by Pierz. Then came a 32-14 loss to Melrose and a 45-18 thumping at the hands of Montevideo, before another shutout disaster: the Lakers lost 43-0 to Rockford.
Had enough? Maybe, but the road continued. It continued here in Morris at Big Cat with a score that was moderately better for them: 28-14. Maybe the Tigers turned down the jets? I remember only one thing from that game: a scary situation in the late-going where the 'Waska quarterback got thrown down on the turf. Our Hunter Gibson made the play. The QB stayed down to be attended to, then left the field with assistance, as I recall. The scene had all the looks of a concussion injury.
Forget the score that night or on any other night: a player's health is paramount. Some of these kids who get injured badly: someday as they might continue to nurse effects of the injury, they'll get bitter at our culture which seemed to tell them it's admirable to be in school activities, even football where the physical/health risk is demonstrably great.
All the fans who gather and cheer will just move on in life. Games will be forgotten. In the short term the community gets a "sugar high" from winning a game, from defeating another town. This is benign in basketball and volleyball and really any sport other than football.
Our culture hangs on to football. Mainly that's because we continue to be thrilled watching "big-time" football on TV. It's vicarious for us. We watch in a risk-free way while the gridders do battle. They hear the cheers and decide that it's virtuous what they're doing. What we need is volleyball offered for boys on a serious level in fall. I really think that would push football over the edge. It's about time.
I entertain no arguments about how I'm over-reacting or just fail to see the plus side of football. If it has a plus side, it is to no greater extent than for any other organized activity. Like marching band.
Anyway, there was no light at the end of the tunnel for 'Waska football. The Lakers lost to Howard Lake-Waverly 43-16 and to Eden Valley-Watkins 50-14. Then came the 6AAA playoffs which had 'Waska getting crushed 59-12 by Albany.
So now it's basketball. No ray of hope at all. The Lakers came here to Morris on Thursday and - you guessed it - were dealt defeat 76-54. The 'Waska boys sit at 1-20. My goodness, who did they beat? It was something called "Hope Academy" of Howard Lake. Outside of that game, the Lakers have been futile.
The Lakers' fifth game of the season was against our MACA Tigers and the score was 69-31 at 'Waska - futility reigns in Laker country.
So the new head football coach, whose name I don't know and I couldn't care, turned thumbs-down on an established assistant. I can tell lots of stories from my many years of being close to area high school sports. Success is never certain in the sports universe. Disaster can never be ruled out. 'Waska is having "one of those years" and it's brutal.
Addendum: My father was a 1934 graduate of Glenwood High School. Those were John Dillinger times in America. My late uncle was Howard Williams the Glenwood banker. I always thought a new high school should be built on the outskirts of Glenwood.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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