An email from a friend this morning (Saturday):
I saw you last night in the first quarter, lurking by the RFC wall. But you didn’t stay long. We left at the break between 3rd and 4th quarters – our backs and butts can’t take those bleachers any longer than that. While listening to the game on the car radio on the way home, Torgy was commenting on an attempted field goal by the TRF kicker – 44 yards! And he almost made it – the ball hit the crossbar and double-doinked, only to fall back toward the field. Torgy wondered if the failure was due to the Superior-made goal posts, where the crossbar is square steel instead of round (apparently made that way so that the goal posts can be easily changed from college to high school width). According to Torgy, the goal posts are also much more sturdy than the other style, and can’t be torn down, and then he made a cryptic comment referring “to those familiar with local history.”
I'm always pleased to be a "lurker." I miss seeing the late Sean Cady up there. Back when Big Cat first opened, fans were discouraged from standing there.
Traveled "a fur piece"
My old neighbor Les Lindor once wondered why high school sports teams had so many opponents from so far away. A wise man, Les was. Was chairman of our school board. He has gone to his reward. Engineering was his thing.
Well, our Morris football team did not have to travel on Friday, but our opponent sure did. We hosted the "Prowlers" of Thief River Falls. Thief River Falls! Take a look at the Minnesota map. Imagine driving home to Thief River Falls after the game. Could be a safety risk with getting drowsy at the wheel, eh? But life goes on with high school sports as it is. And that does require a fair amount of travel at times.
The MACA home opener was last night (Friday) against those Prowlers. I walked from my residence on north end of town to check it out. I like to see how big a spectacle it is. You might say Big Cat is a nice example of the kind of shrines we erect to football.
The sport is dangerous for all the boys who play it. Some people would tire of me saying this. They might depart from this post right now. They'd say the game was such a wonderful example of civic spirit to showcase Morris. I don't claim these games do not have this type of benefit. I'm only expressing concern about the safety of the young men, the risk posed from the sub-concussive hits.
I feel better having expressed this concern once again. It's your choice whether or not to heed me.
I will be sharing here the more standard type of game review. Our school board continues sponsoring the sport of football so I guess I must respect that. You can't fight city hall or the school district. Big Cat is a shrine while the stage at East Side Park, built to accommodate the humanities, sits there as nothing more than a boondoggle. Shows what we value, right?
A home game might be the most impressive spectacle we see in Morris all year. Civic boosters would smile. I hope none of the boys get hurt seriously.
So we saw Thief River Falls drawing first blood Friday. It was not an indicator of things to come. The Prowlers struck with a big 46-yard pass. The extra point kick was true. So the score is 7-0.
I remember thinking that the Thief River Falls players looked small of stature. So it didn't surprise me that the Tigers took control of the game. I checked the population for Thief River Falls and it's about 8700, about what I expected. Their football team packs less of a punch than what I would have expected. Do the boys there weigh priorities other than football, more than here? Just a question.
There are three MACA touchdowns to review for the second quarter. The tone of the game was truly set. First it was Drew Huebner passing for six to Derek Waldbeser, a big 55-yard hookup. The extra point try was no good.
Our next two scores were via the run. Owen Anderson broke loose on a 29-yard run for six. Again our extra point try was off the mark.
Then Huebner got into the end zone from the five. The Tigers made up for the previous extra point failures, sort of, with a two-point conversion pass from Huebner to Jackson Hallman.
We're up 20-7 for halftime. I salivated a little looking at the burger baskets that were being served. Next time I might bring eight bucks.
Other media
I write this on Saturday morning after first discovering there was no media coverage from the places that would be prime candidates. One of these is the kmrs website. This site is so superior to the newspaper website, it hardly bears mentioning. The paper does not present its site as a real news service at all. We're supposed to "buy" the paper which only comes out once a week.
As of today the paper has still not shared coverage of the season opener vs. Minnewaska. The coverage will be so late, why bother at all? Does this business merit your financial support even?
Alas, the radio station site had no coverage as of Saturday morning. Fortunately I picked up some details from another web source. Thank goodness for the existence of that source, apparently non-local, but our coaching staff took the trouble to submit game info there. Thanks tons.
Last Tuesday I wrote about local media timeliness issues for my companion blog "Morris of Course." You may click to read:
The second half story
Thief River Falls scored its second touchdown to open the second half scoring. This TD was a five-yard run followed by the extra point.
The Tigers' Waldbeser clutched the football on a scoring run from the two. Our conversion try went awry.
On to the fourth quarter. With the situation well in hand, the Tigers added insurance points, first with a one-yard run by the QB Huebner. Our extra point kick was good by Riley Saito. This is the first time I have typed Mr. Saito's name.
Owen Anderson scored on a six-yard run, followed by another successful Saito kick. Thief River Falls scored on a one-yard run followed by a good extra point, making the final score 40-21. Must have been an exhilarated mood among the orange and black partisans.
The statistics
Always nice to have statistics to report. A person who works for the newspaper could be doing what I am doing now. And that person gets paid! Strange world in which we live. But if I worked for the paper still, no way could I incorporate my thoughts about the dangers of football. I could be endangering civic pride, which the media companies exist to prop up, n'est-ce pas? I can only write what I feel is the truth.
Our quarterback Drew Huebner was effective and efficient in passing the football. He had nine completions in 13 attempts for 210 yards, one touchdown, one interception.
Owen Anderson was our top ballcarrier. Owen had 13 carries for 79 yards and two TDs. Huebner had eight carries for 22 yards and also scored two TDs. Waldbeser had two carries for 15 yards and crossed the end zone stripe once. Andrew Marty had one carry, eleven yards.
The Tigers had five members make pass receptions. This list is led by Waldbeser with four catches, 135 yards and one touchdown. Riley Asmus had two catches for 31 yards. Jackson Hallman, Marty and Anderson each had one catch.
On the defensive side of the ball, Anderson had a sack. Alexander Sperr had two punt returns for 18 yards. He returned a kick for 18 yards. Grayson Gibson had three kick returns for 66 yards. Jack Kehoe was our punter and applied this specialty only once for 36 yards.
Hanging in there
It really truly is a pleasure for yours truly to be continuing to share in a media kind of way about Morris school activities. My background with this goes all the way back to 1972 when I wrote about Tiger football for Morris Sun-Tribune editor Arnold Thompson.
My 50-year high school reunion is coming up next weekend: MHS Class of '73.
I ended my newspaper involvement in 2006 on an unhappy note, then I resumed in 2010 with online-only coverage of the Tigers. This way I could experience Big Cat Stadium from a media perspective. Back in 2010 many photographers were still using film cameras. That's what I did. I posted photos on "Flickr." Film faded into obsolescence very rapidly.
Taking pictures is not even a specialty today. People have their cellphones all over the place. That's great. It's nothing but progress.
Will the sport of football hang on through all the discouraging attention that comes forth from today's media? I mean, it's all really science - I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade. I am in fact trying to enlighten people. Really it's total positivity. I am blessed to have never played the game. Boys could play volleyball like the girls.
Here's a pep band photo that shows director Ms. Dagen more up-close. She is a very dynamic and talented person. And "orange" spells school spirit! (Del Sarlette photo)
Addendum: The top story on the Stevens County Times site as I publish this is: about UMM golf? Like that's a really big deal for area residents? You click on the link and it just takes you to a page from UMM's own site. Maybe UMM should try to steer everyone to the actual UMM site in the first place. Tell the newspaper to take a hike.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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