Our last two regular season games are home at Big Cat. I wonder if the schedule-makers like to arrange for home games here late in the season. Our fine facility of Big Cat makes end-of-season football more palatable than if these games were played at the standard type of fields. Such as? Such as what we had here in Morris before Big Cat. We had Coombe Field, receding ever more into the past in our community's collective memory.
It was a charming place in its own way. Many of you would remember. But it differed in some significant ways from what we have now. Man, if our Morris residents of the mid-20th Century could leap forward in time to see what we have now! I'll have to stop by the game tonight at Big Cat and see how the fan turnout is. I expect it will be decent despite the duck hunter's weather. But I could be wrong.
Still stunned?
The Tigers are coming off perhaps the most exciting win in the program's history. What a story unfolded way up north at East Grand Forks last Friday! Our coach went for the win at the end with a two-point conversion play. And the Tigers did a run up the middle. Failure would inspire some second-guessing. But the Tigers most certainly did not fail.
It was victory night for the orange and black over the Wave of EGF.
I am proud to have blogged at length about the game the net day. It was a labor of love. Did either the newspaper or radio station do that in such a timely way with their online resources? It is not necessary for us all to wait for the mid-week print newspaper. Get in the year 2023. Or maybe I should tell that to the newspaper people.
As for the radio station, it looks like Brett Miller is no longer there. It looks like their website performance is going to drop off considerably. We'll see posts that are nothing more than "scores." I don't want to just see "scores," I'd like a few details and highlights. Aren't you on the same page with me? Well, I never assume that.
Sometimes I make a point like this out and around, and then I get a reaction like "I don't think anyone cares." I got that retort from a main street business person just this week. So I said "let's put it on the water tower: nobody cares." This is Morris, the town that let our annual summer festival just up and die. We can see the phrase on the water tower along with "We're going to be gone." So often we hear that from our friends, especially in summer. "We're going to be gone."
It happens in the fall too when people take off for "the Cities." Let's capture the essence of the community on the water tower.
Brett Miller gone and is anyone going to fill his shoes? We lost Marshall Hoffman a while back - a huge blow for media consumers. Again, maybe "nobody cares." Well I seek to try to provide some dynamic sportswriting when I can. Of course maybe "nobody cares." This is Morris MN.
Volleyball struggles
Not an encouraging season for the MACA volleyball program. The Tigers went 1-1 over this past week. We defeated Montevideo on Tuesday 3-0 at Monte. The Thursday story was a 1-3 loss to Melrose at home. Alas the Tigers are 8-14, 5-8 in conference. There is one regular season match remaining: on Tuesday at Minnewaska. We can't expect much if any post-season run.
Shoot, I cannot find individual stat highlights for the Tigers from this week's matches. Brett would probably have delivered on this. I can scrape some details about our opponents from the West Central Trib site. The WC Trib removed us from their official coverage territory a couple years ago. I really think they would accept calls from MACA coaches if the coaches were to try. That's my two cents worth today as we look out the window and see "duck hunter's weather."
Remember the year of the Halloween blizzard? We are on the doorstep. When I was a kid, we heard stories about vandalism out and about on Halloween. Our poor high school principal was reported to be a victim. Today in this new age with video surveillance cameras in so many places, I think there's far less of a tendency to consider pranks and vandalism.
My neighborhood has not had trick or treaters for a long time. When my generation of the boomers was young, trick or treating was standard activity in nearly all neighborhoods, was considered quite safe and acceptable for everyone. Yes, times do change. A Norman Rockwell painting could preserve the old reality. "Trick or treat."
Over the years we began to hear more about organized parties for kids at Halloween. Better supervision I guess. Of course, since Covid it seems all social-oriented activities have taken a step back.
The "Minnesota Scores" website reports our home football games as being at "UM-Morris." But isn't the facility supposed to be 50/50 with the high school? Has our MACA softball program even made use of Big Cat in spring when the weather isn't quite ready for the usual place? The Cougars have certainly played games at Big Cat and I was thrilled when I observed that for the first time.
Last spring it seemed we ended up with just one month of softball, as the decent weather was so late in arriving. Makes me wonder about all the money that got plowed into the "softball complex" which I still describe as a boondoggle. I'll discuss that with anyone. Don't expect the newspaper to bring up the issue. The paper only tries to put sweet frosting on everything in this community. "All the kids are above average." Is there room on the water tower for that too?
The volleyball win over Monte on Tuesday was most enjoyable for everyone with MACA: the 3-0 sweep. The West Central Tribune has "stats not available" for MACA. We do get the scores. The Tigers swept their foe 3-0 with scores of 25-13, 25-19 and 25-12.
So, "stats not available" for MACA. Well, let's take a look at the host Thunder Hawks who had two players each with two serving aces: Taya Weber and Teagan Epema. Addie Olson performed seven set assists. Avery Williams led kills with six followed by Emmie Koenen with three and Maren Nelson with two. Madison Picht had an ace block. Epema with her ten digs led here.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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