Storm boys win 2-0 at Park Rapids

More good news from the hockey rink: The boys of MBA won Friday by shutout 2-0 on the road. On the road against who? Well, a series of communities actually all packed into one team. So we're talking Park Rapids, Menagha, Nevis, Walker, Hackensack and Akeley. From "north woods" country, quite beautiful to behold as I remember from my hunting days with my father. 

Shall I refer to this team as just "Park Rapids?" The game was played there. MBA of course stands for "Morris Benson Area." 

The website known as "The Rink Live" shared some highlights. The Storm and the Panthers had a 0-0 stalemate in the first period. Early in the second, Charlie Goff scored for the Storm with assists from Logan Hadfield and Zach Wrobleski. 

It was Hadfield scoring our second goal to complete the scoring work in this 2-0 shutout. Goff assisted. 

The "Minnesota Scores" site shows just one game remaining in the regular season for the Storm: Tuesday, Feb. 13, at Breckenridge/Wahpeton. The Storm have a 13-11 overall record, 5-5 in section, 5-4 in conference and a super 8-4 at home. 

What about the MBA girls? The story there is a 7-18 record, 2-3 in section and 5-11 at home. The girls lost their regular season finale on Friday, Feb. 2, to Northern Lakes 4-2.

 

Credit where it's due

Thanks to "The Rink Live" and I mean that. It is getting more difficult to find timely sports info about our Morris area athletes, and I'm thinking mainly of "free" information, because I personally think information about these activities should be free. No need to feed the coffers of legacy media businesses like newspapers. 

How much work do the newspaper writers even do? I would guess that a fair amount of the material is spoon-fed by coaches, with the papers then just doing a modicum of editing. I do have a background in this activity, pilgrims. 

C'mon, stop and think: given the large number of teams that "the media" is expected to stay on top of, their threadbare staffs cannot come close to covering a whole lot of games in person. And if they do, it's probably just to get a picture or two. And that is fine, but our paper in Morris cannot escape the serious timeliness issues. 

We once had a school administrator who thought timeliness was so important, it was worth losing your temper over. I'm thinking of an administrator with the initials M.M. One theory I had/have about M.M. was that he just wanted to wedge into the media himself where he'd get paid a lot of money, as a "sideline" job. I know some people felt uneasy about that. 

I'm sure M.M. had a mandate when he started here of wanting to make sure Tiger sports got the most positive coverage. In other words, a "selling" job. Tiger sports had been through some pretty troubled times. And whose fault was that? I remember talking with the late Merlin Beyer about how the buck got passed around constantly in the school system. The news is much better today: the system seems properly accountable. 

I don't know why things were ever allowed to degenerate. And my, the sheer time that dragged on while many of us waited for the simple remedies, i.e. the proper philosophy behind extracurricular, really the proper philosophy behind the whole school system. 

The MACA girls basketball team played Friday at Minnewaska and unfortunately did not fare well. 'Waska has our number in GBB this season. The West Central Tribune of Willmar only has minimalist coverage of the game. That's unfortunate too. Check the Stevens County Times website and I'll bet you'll find almost 100 percent links that pertain to UMM sports. I have written about this odd situation repeatedly. So time drags on. 

 

My preference

If I had more good current MACA sports info to deal with, I wouldn't end up writing so much about these media coverage issues. I could just write about the games. Yes I would prefer that. But that is not the reality I am being dealt.

Below I quote from an email I sent on Saturday to my old Central Minnesota newspaper compatriot (Bonanza Valley). "SCT" stands for "Stevens County Times" (our fishwrap).

 

The SCT website is worthy of discussion! Occasionally I check it, most often find long list of UMM-related headlines. If a high school post is there, it is either very old news or the actual article is just two sentences with the second being a "plug" to buy the paper product. I remember people complaining when our single copy price went from 50 cents to 75 cents! I heard comments because I did "newsstand collections." Look at the price today. And we put out so much more content long ago. 

 

So we're supposed to rely on the Internet? Yes we are, but look how negligent the SCT is. I really wonder how Shelly responds to complaints because I have to believe they get complaints. Also, complaints from people who "didn't get their paper" on time, because the P.O. is supposed to prioritize Amazon deliveries all the time. Reed's own column admits that's a big problem, so I'm sure "the phone rings." I wonder how many complaints Shelly has to take in a day.

The individual scoring totals for the Morris-Benson girls game were in WC Trib. Game played at Morris. Coach Henrich of Morris has never been strong on calling in. So I wonder if Benson coach called in for both teams, even though game was in Morris. Most of the stat categories for both teams had "N/A" for "not available" so that's a little discouraging. But all I need is the point totals and halftime score and I can write something! Every day I consult with the "Minnesota Scores" website, very reliable. I keep track of BBE too!

If I were the guy paid to write sports for Morris paper, I would feel bothered if I couldn't share more stuff with the public on a timely basis. It would really eat at me actually. And there sits the website, all set to go at all times. But all we get to read about is UMM. And UMM's website covers everything anyway.

There is no place you can go online to find a handy reference for upcoming UMM music events. That is a very bad sign. Looks like the "University choir" (the non-auditioned group) which was once such a strong program exists in name only now. It's a "campus-community choir" and with low participation. The U at Crookston has music groups that are all campus-community. They only offer a music minor. 

The signs at UMM are not good at all. I heard someone say at DeToy's recently "I don't see UMM students around any more - they used to be all over the place."

I told (name withheld) at breakfast yesterday that "I am a supporter of the campus, but not necessarily the University of Minnesota." The place might have to be re-structured. Eventually the people out there will have to capitulate to that idea. Ten years ago it would have been sacrilege.

 

My strategy right now with diabetes is that I'm eating a healthy diet, keeping my weight down and getting lots of exercise and rest. That's it. I couldn't handle the medication I was prescribed any more. These side effects are well-known, as you need only go on YouTube.

- Brian W.