Spring sports will turn into a madhouse

What drama in the Tuesday MACA softball game! Action has been slow getting underway in this atypical April of 2023. 

We in Minnesota must henceforth be prepared for six full months of winter, it seems. 

Climate change? Who knows? Don't ask Republicans about that. They'll just say "climate has always been changing." Marco Rubio of Florida follows the script nicely. I am not tribal in my political beliefs, really, but I'll assert that Rubio and others like him are very likely wrong. And then, "have a nice day." 

I'm guessing that the weather was not exactly pleasant on Tuesday here. I was not of a mood for taking a walk. Athletes are probably trying to be in denial about the weather. Just a few days ago, I saw some young women - not sure if they were high school or college - shoveling snow from a corner of one of the fields at the softball complex. So don't tell me our transition into spring is going seamlessly. It is anything but seamless. 

And how much remains of the high school sports season now? We're in the last week of April. Then comes May when all things related to school begin winding down in anticipation of graduation. And softball plays right through Memorial Day weekend, which I sort of see as sacrilege. But I always lose arguments on this sort of thing. As the late school board member Laura Carrington once said to me: "Brian, you should know you aren't the only person who Mary Holmberg has yelled at." 

 

BTW, music too

I will insert here that there is an instrumental music event coming up on Monday, May 1, at the concert hall of course. You should know that this is two concerts bunched together. I strongly object to that. Can people at least respectfully listen to my opinion? There was supposed to be a big junior high band concert tomorrow, Thursday. It was officially announced as part of the instrumental music calendar which I saved in my drafts folder. 

Then a friend told me the Thursday event had to be scrubbed. Or re-scheduled. So it was moved to the same night as the jazz concert, Monday. Problem fixed? Only superficially, I'd say. Now the school administration doesn't have to "sweat" two band events on two different dates. And why would they "sweat" it? Well, because of the need to accommodate the sacred cow of sports, according to what I have heard, and this sounds most credible. 

Anyone can see based on our weather this month that tons of sports has had to be postponed or re-scheduled. Hank Stram would call it a "Chinese fire drill" but that's a politically incorrect expression now. Sports is the almighty priority. 

A friend told me there's a junior high track meet on Thursday. So band has to adjust, it's not the other way around. It's just the natural order of things, no use really protesting, except that I have this online platform and so I'll say something. It's very unfortunate. 

Junior high band (grades 5-8) is a very special activity, should not even take a back seat to senior high band. But the school administration had to pull some levers, I guess. So the school will "survive" with getting sports events in. 

Band concerts are not held very often at all. Sports is ubiquitous on the calendar. And it is the sacred cow. Maybe you know what it is like to tangle with sports parents when they get all emotional. You can't even reason with them. They should attend the band concerts and appreciate them. 

 

Congestion maybe?

Having two concerts in one night on May 1 presents the problem of whether the available seating will fill up. I haven't even been to a choir concert since the Barb Wilts retirement concert when I had a terrible time finding a seat. If I remember correctly the concert was grades 5-12. There was no call for that. There should have been two separate concerts. 

I tried to sit down 3-4 times but was told "those seats are saved." Really? Finally an acquaintance of mine from higher up waved to me and indicated there was an available seat in his section. I am not going through that again. I'll probably skip the Monday concert and I'm sure no one will care if I do. I only write this blog because it costs me nothing. I'd have a laptop anyway. 

I alluded to softball at the start of today's post. It's nice to report that MACA beat  Sauk Centre 8-7 with a six-run rally in the bottom of the seventh! I wonder how many fans were there. Holmberg Field was designed with ZERO consideration for the fans. And how do you feel about your property taxes? Easy for the school board to spend OPM, other people's money. 

A friend emailed to me a poster image announcing the Monday band concert. I wanted to share the image below but there's a tech glitch: "jfif" vs. "jpeg" if that means anything to you. Sorry. If you attend the Monday concert, I hope y'all enjoy yourselves.

 

Addendum: Wait a cotton pickin' minute: The poster only identifies sixth grade jazz and jazz II. But wasn't jazz originally going to have a stand-alone event on Monday? If that schedule had held, instead of being shot to hell by sports, I assume it would have included more than sixth grade jazz and jazz II. So music is truly being compromised, and it is unjust. 

The athletes have enough of their own events cluttering the calendar. Best solution is to try no schedule of outdoor sports at all in early spring. It's ridiculous. But Holmberg would want to yell at me if I asserted that. I am an unapologetic advocate for music activities. Crucify me. 

I'd like to tell a lot of sports parents to go sit under a cow.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com