Well, congrats to Gross on the talent he exhibited. He's a junior guard. Nice to get all this info from the West Central Trib, which I can access this morning (Friday) without having to try to get past a paywall. You never know what the Forum-owned Willmar paper is going to be up to with these things.
I am a "registered" reader which maybe gives me some access, but I do not pay anything. As a matter of philosophy I believe information should be free. I think high school sports results should be totally free for the public to consume.
Any Morris area people who "subscribe" to the WC Trib website would have to be quite perturbed at times. Not only for the lack of attention that MACA so often receives, but for how we get treated as the "other" team. I mean, BOLD gets the preferred treatment: it was their loss, not our win.
And the WC Trib does not even refer to our sports teams correctly. It has been standard for them to refer to us as "Morris/CA." On and on this has gone on, and if anyone there has been familiar with my online writing, they are obviously not persuaded by it. I have repeatedly pointed this out. We are "Morris Area Chokio Alberta" or "MACA." The Willmar paper routinely refers to us as "Morris/CA."
Who are they to apply this judgment? And then they diss us by writing about our teams like we are the "other" team. It was Lac qui Parle losing to the MACA girls on Feb. 13, not the Tigers winning.
And now it's BOLD losing to the MACA boys, not MACA winning.
But I'm sure the WC Trib would happily take subscriber money from the Morris Area. Some people may sign up not knowing any better. They find out later how we get practically ignored.
Is the situation with our Morris paper even worse? The SCT has a website all set up to cover sports but does it even try to render timely coverage of the MACA teams? If not, does their management get complaints about this? How do they respond? It's crazy how if you check the sports headlines there, they are often close to 100 percent about UMM whose programs are covered fantastically on UMM's own website, better than the paper ever could.
If certain newspaper management people were to read what I'm writing today, would they see any merit to what I am observing? They might say they are not even aware. To the extent they might want to respond to what I'm saying - as I know how these people think - they'd probably try to find a way to attack me personally, ad hominem. I can just sense the wheels turning in their heads.
They would claim I'm stupid or that my motives somehow suggest a lack of credibility. I might get called names. I remember the unpleasantness in my final days when I was with the Morris paper. I have had to live with that bitter taste. I am not stupid like my critics claim.
Right now they would laugh.
You get a business under siege like all newspapers are now, then you throw into the mix how emotional everyone gets over high school sports, and it's a minefield for someone who has just tried to keep his job. In the end that's all I was: a guy just trying to keep his job. To keep his health insurance.
The emotions around high school sports can be suffocating.
What does the SCT management say to people who have issues with the paper's website? I mean, about the total emptiness of the website with respect to MACA? Recently the site had a couple headings about Storm hockey but the coverage was old.
I remember a former MAHS administrator who could erupt with anger over timeliness in sports coverage. First of all, a school administrator should never be driven by emotions. Emotions rarely serve our best interests. And my God, were Morris area residents ever fully familiar with what my job description was through the many years I was with the paper? Not knowing the full circumstances of my work, how could they be so certain I was such a hopeless fool?
I try to write about MACA sports today in the year 2024 because I like it, am interested in it. The opportunities to do this on a timely basis are drying up. That's because of the performance of other media. So why doesn't the local public describe those other media people as fools too? I realize that the 1980s were a very difficult time for MAHS co-curricular and really the whole school system. Those were the waters I had to navigate. It is not an "opinion" that our school had serious problems.
By the time the community began demanding accountability, way too much time had been wasted, like years.
The West Central Tribune reports that Jack Gross, in addition to his 34 points scored, had five rebounds, three blocks, two assists and a steal. MACA led 41-30 at halftime. The WC Trib item has "stats not available" for MACA.
BOLD had five players score points. Behind Gross we see William Penkert 13, Hudson Vosika 5, Maverick Kaufenberg 5 and Mathew Jacobs 5. Gross built his total with four 3-pointers. Penkert made two long-rangers while Jacobs, Kaufgenberg and Vosika each made one.
Penkert and Gross led in rebounds with six and four respectively. Vosika and Daylen Weber each had three assists. Owen Baumgartner had four steals. Gross swatted aside three shots.
The Tigers came out of this action at 15-8 in overall won-lost. BOLD's record: 13-11.
Macro news picture
Well, what all are we forced to consume in the national news scene in this mid-February of 2024? What would life be like without all the Trump-related headlines, the scandal and ridiculousness of so much of it? Imagine a normal life without all that. Imagine Nikki Haley as the normal Republican nominee with the expected conservative "creds."
The problem is we have a cult. I have tried to implore my Apostolic Christian friends on the basic character issues with Donald Trump. That should be an easy task. I should not even have to do it, with them or anyone else. Maybe they just think a man should be president. That would erase the only semblance of a rival to Trump: Ms. Haley.
Would progressives be relieved if Trump exited the picture - how would that happen exactly? - and Haley took over? Relief? Ought not feel relief because on policy questions, Haley would appear quite firm to the right. But I guess our instinct would be to feel relief because of the return to normlcy (normality?).
I have written to try to persuade the Apostolics to revise their thinking. To try to persuade the huge MAGA element locally to back off. And why should that be difficult?
I get called a "Trump hater" or I'm described as having "Trump derangement syndrome." Frankly I do not like Trump at all. But I have no personal relationship with him.
There are many others like me. A person who goes by "Codex" wrote in a manner much like I have written, when I have tried to dissuage the Apostolic element (the men really). So here's what "Codex" wrote to Yahoo! News:
Once again; How many people do we meet in a lifetime? Through work and just life stuff after many, too many, decades, I've met or worked with thousands of people who are as different as you can imagine. Most, were interesting and great, and a few, were not so great. And, in thinking back about that, and evaluating all of that, I can say with some authority / longevity, and based upon the mathematics of sheer numbers, and the huge demographic diversities of all of those people in my long varied history, that, Donald Trump, is without a doubt, the most evil, the most odious, and the most putrescent person I've ever had the extreme displeasure to run across. And achieving that sad status, takes some considerable doing.
Yours truly supplied a supportive response to "Codex." Here it is:
Congrats "Codex" on wonderfully articulated thoughts. Next, imagine taking an average person from about 40 years ago, placing them in a time machine and having them come to the present time where they could read this Yahoo! News article and then be informed that Trump is the runaway favorite for the Republican nomination. Yes, Republican. Family values? You'll get nowhere trying to discuss this with Trump supporters, naturally. The great mystery.
What on earth is going to happen today? Heaven help us.
Addendum: Take a look at the Stevens County Times website today (Friday), click on "sports." Cougars, Cougars, Cougars, Cougars. This is worse than inconsiderate, it is insulting.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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