Wonderful mood in Morris on this Sunday afternoon with the sun shining and the boys basketball team fresh from a significant tournament win. The Tigers turned back the Eagles of Eden Valley-Watkins at Southwest State University, Marshall.
Fans had to be happy about the afternoon starting time. "Happy" sure describes everyone's mood now that coach Jacob Torgerson's team advanced with the 57-53 win. So, action continues!
I'm a little concerned because the next game is on the day when the MAHS band group will depart for its exciting trip south. It's "destination New Orleans" for the band kids. Is there a conflict with sports? Indeed it must be hard for planning many school things when there's a tournament and heaven knows how far any team is going to go. No one wants to say anything pessimistic or discouraging about sports. So we must root for the Tigers every step of the way.
The Tigers were only the No. 4 seed for the sub-section tournament. The team needed to show upset form more than once. But this can surely happen. As the iconic sports broadcaster Chris Berman is known to say, "That's why they play the game!"
The orange and black went out and played their best game Saturday at Mustang country of SSU, Marshall. It was No. 4 defeating No. 2. So now the orange and black reaches for higher heights. It is a given that we are happy here in Motown. But immediately upon listening to game's end over the radio Saturday, oh my I thought about the music commitment coming up.
Yes the music kids are departing on Thursday for what will surely be an enriching and memory-filled trip. But their adrenaline is probably pumping for basketball too. Can there be any doubt? And it has probably not stopped pumping since midday Saturday. The hits can just keep coming in post-season basketball.
Really the games can turn into a kind of a blur. Let's see, who was our first tournament game against again? We can get a refresher from the "Minnesota Scores" site. Let's take a look on this late Sunday afternoon. We beat New London-Spicer 70-58 on March 2 at Tiger Center. Then we beat the top seed Montevideo in a nail-biter 65-63 on the 7th at Willmar. Yes, action went to a neutral court starting with the second game.
March 9 featured the climactic win for all the sub-section marbles. The Tigers downed EV-W, the No. 2 seed, by the 57-53 score at SSU. That brings us up to the present.
How will conflict between band and basketball be resolved? For sure the players are committed to the latter. Basketball is life, right? Well, the hockey crowd would offer a correction to that.
Shall I assume that the kids who are in band but who are not players are committed to the trip? It's an assumption.
Let me say with assertiveness that I do not like this conflict. I know difficulty arose about three years ago with the Texas trip. The band had to narrowly shoehorn in a pep band commitment at state before immediately heading south en route to the Lone Star State. It's awkward. Of course, sports would never have to shoehorn in anything to accommodate music, right? The sense of priorities is indeed glaring.
There is a band concert tomorrow night (Monday) at the MAHS concert hall. Director Wanda Dagen takes such great pride in those. Oh, and the director for the lower grades also, Andrea DeNardo who I see on so many mornings at Caribou Coffee. Awful consistent, right at 7:15 a.m.
I guessed quite wrong on Andrea's age recently. I had commented to Wanda that Andrea looked quite young, the point being that yours truly is getting older! But Wanda responded in our email exchange to note that Andrea is really rather middle-age, 47 years old to be exact. So I must conclude that Ms. DeNardo looks very young for her age - that's just from my perspective.
Full disclosure: I have a vested interest in the New Orleans trip. I made a financial contribution to the band activity fund that I think was very helpful for making the upcoming trip reality. I am proud of that - anything for the humanities. But now of course I'm concerned about any sense of conflict between music and the (sacred cow of) sports.
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| The sacred cow |
The Tigers are going back to Southwest State. That's the alma mater of Vicki Dalager of Morris. SSU is known as the "Mustangs." The hoops action is at the R-A Facility.
Bad news: unlike this past Saturday, there is no afternoon starting time. Anything but. So it's 8 p.m. - groan - as the Tigers will face Jackson County Central. Yes, the boys from southern Minnesota. The winner will own the Section 3AA crown. I pointed out to a friend at Caribou this morning (Sunday) that the sub-section finals are the same as the section semi-finals. A media person can get confused sifting through all the info.
I was a media person with the print media for many years here in Morris. As the years pass, more and more people might not be familiar with that. Could I do it today? For sure I would not want to drive home from Marshall after an 8 p.m. game through pitch darkness. I'll get into bed instead, stay safe.
Let's take a look at the Jackson county Central Huskies. JCC has a 20-7 record. In section: 12-3. Conference: 12-5. At home: 8-4. JCC has made its trek through sub-section with wins over St. James Area 90-45, Pipestone Area 94-80 and Redwood Valley 59-46.
When I was a kid, St. James had some fantastic teams in the days when two-class was in effect. They sure don't have that caliber now. Ups and downs can be marked in high school sports, pilgrims.
But I'd like to put sports aside just a little. Let's "root" for our band kids, first at the concert Monday night and then for the ambitious trip south. Wanda is the able person in charge. I think very highly of her.
Addendum: Up through this afternoon I found nothing beyond the score in various media sources. Just the score. I suppose there's a problem with people "not working on weekends." That rule is breaking down with the passing time. But it hangs on to a degree. There was a time when Willie's Super Valu was closed every Sunday. Willie said it was because "Sunday is the Lord's day." Well us mortals might need a loaf of bread. Some people appreciate the opportunity to work some hours on Sunday, presumably.
Shall I assume the "sports desk" at the Willmar paper was shut down Saturday night? High schools sports is not often played on Saturdays but some important events do sometimes fall there. Ironic how the Willmar paper tries to prioritize sports so much, but they can miss the boat for weekend games.
I thought maybe a radio station website would have something today. Our Morris station's site is "down" and it probably doesn't matter, as their sports commitment online has faded terribly. Very often we only get "scores" now. We can find "scores" elsewhere. Brett Miller did an excellent job for a long time. He's gone from the station. No one has continued the kind of work he did.
Recently there was a Willmar radio station that had a nice game summary for an MAHS game, even giving us some names. Couldn't find that today. I thought for sure that by this afternoon I'd find something helpful, especially considering the importance of the game. Well, no dice, at least not on this weekend. I sort of "improvised" the blog post you're reading now. It's always a pleasure for me to give attention to the Tigers.
But let's focus equal attention on music now. Well no I guess that would be impossible. We do all want the Tigers to win. Oh, should I even mention the website of the Stevens County Times? There's a "sports" link. What are the odds you'll find info about Saturday's win there? Tons of stuff about UMM, following form, almost zero about the Tigers. We should all just pull the rug out from under the SCT, wouldn't you say?
Update: I'm adding this paragraph Monday morning because I discovered the coaches submitted stats for the "Maxpreps" site. Here is the link for my new post which is on my "Morris of Course" blog site. Thanks.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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