Our hardy MACA fans watched three games at the Marshall facilities. My recent writing his proven to be prescient. Well, I have become familiar with a lot of patterns through the years. MACA softball will have a stellar regular season campaign and keep it up through the two sub-section games that are played here.
The complexion of the games changes when heading to the south. I have written many times that southern Minnesota teams will show a mysterious superiority. I really cannot imagine why. But the pattern showed up again for 2024. MACA was stopped twice which keeps them out of the state tournament.
Here's an email I received from my Bonanza Valley newspaper friend Tuesday night:
Hello Brian, gosh darn it anyhow!
The JCC Huskies erased both MA/CA and also Luverne from the Section 3AA playoffs tonight. I'm sure you've caught up to the scores by now. I believe JCC was a fourth-place team in their conference but have now defeated teams who were above them in the Big South standings and now the West Central Conference champions.
I do like rooting from afar for Coach Holmberg's teams, but in the end it is apparent that a tougher schedule does a better job in fastpitch softball of preparing a team for the postseason.
It'll be JCC vs. D-C
JCC won twice on Tuesday and that propels them into the 3AA title showdown. JCC is called the "Huskies." Their Tuesday success was by scores of 4-1 over our Tigers and 3-0 over Luverne. Action resumes at 5 p.m. Thursday against Dassel-Cokato. D-C will enter the day unbeaten.
We may see more than one game on Thursday. This is a double-elimination tournament. A second game would be played if the Huskies win first. Finally it would be winner-takes-all.
MACA fans felt some optimism as they saw their team plate a run in the top of the first against JCC. Alas the Huskies slammed the door after that, not only on us but on their next opponent. The MACA first inning run was the only run that JCC would allow all day!
Lauren Johnson walked in the fourth and ended up scoring on a ground out. Would you believe: the Finck home run was the only hit allowed by MACA in this game? JCC did benefit from five walks.
JCC's starting pitcher was Hadley Wachal. She fanned six batters over her four-plus innings. Mady Wachal had her arm called on in the fifth. Mady allowed no runs over the last three innings.
A downer of a game for MACA fans.
The Huskies bore down again to defeat Luverne, using a big top of the fifth: three runs. Again the Huskies won with a minimum of actual hits. Two Huskies hit safely against Luverne: Hadley Wachal and Brielle Tufvesson.
It was Mady Wachal pitching. She worked the whole game in the circle. She fanned seven Luverne batters and allowed just three hits.
Hadley Wachal doubled to start JCC's fifth inning rally. She came home on a Kinley VanDeVere ground ball that resulted in an error. Then VanDeVere scored when Johnson hit a ball that was misplayed. JCC kept playing "small ball" as Johnson scored on a ground out by Sawyer Flatgard.
The Tigers and their fans had to feel a little downcast with the two losses to end the season. It was so uncharacteristic. Look at our final won-lost numbers for 2024: 21-4 overall, 11-3 in section, 14-0 in conference, 8-1 in road action, 1-2 neutral and 12-1 at home.
"Astronomical"
Coach Mary Holmberg continues to be up in the stratosphere with her career numbers. The late Willie Martin would describe those numbers as "astronomical," for sure. Willie and Rachel Martin's daughters had impact in Tiger athletics including softball.
Mary was already making news with her career numbers when I was still with the Morris paper. That was a long time ago, so just consider where those numbers are now! To repeat: "astronomical."
The Tigers buried Minnewaska in a sub-section game. Score of 15-0. And yet we have seen the MAHS athletic director go to Minnewaska for money reasons. And the word on the street is that Mr. Karas is going to make significantly more $ at 'Waska.
Is there a correlation between this and team performance? Again, our softball team beat 'Waska 15-0. Is there an expectation that a highly paid athletic/activities director will generate superior team performances? You can't lay it all on the coaches or administration though. Might we see some correlation?
We'll see more answers unfolding in the next academic year. Morris has added boys soccer. That will certainly be an interesting new dimension. A primary question: Will soccer drive boys away from football? I personally think it would be great if it did.
Our softball fortunes were fodder for some talk at church coffee Sunday. I couldn't help but point out some irony could be found: MACA dominating 'Waska in softball while 'Waska has the very richly compensated AD. A very esteemed person at my table right away blurted out what a great coach we have. It's a fact she's great.
Nevertheless there has been a longstanding inclination in Morris of giving overwhelming credit to coaches when teams win. That in itself might be harmless or benign. Nice to say positive things about people, n'est-ce pas? But the problem is this: when teams struggle as they did in the 1980s, many people including mostly school staff are so quick to say we "lack talent."
It was a nice deal for the coaches, eh? Coaches get the credit when teams win, kids get the blame when teams lose. I remember a Morris activities director commenting from the podium at a banquet/program, seeking to point fingers. Namely, about how the boys hadn't been playing basketball over the summer. A school board friend of mine cited for me one of the kids who most certainly played basketball over summer. Some others probably did too.
Not a cool thing to be spoken at a banquet.
A major problem of Morris extracurricular in that era was that the staff showed resistance to volunteers taking over elementary coaching. The school had previously funded this. When things started to get bad in the mid '80s, a coach said to me "we could see this coming." Well, sometimes you have to swallow your pride, roll with the punches and acclimate. The volunteer option finally got going and they had me do some special coverage to make clear things were changing.
We had a problem in that era of an element in town that thought the traditional sports emphasis - i.e. "let's win" - was somehow backward. Seemed to contradict academics, they suggested. And boy, these people could be mean if you questioned their attitude. In the end they lost.
Through it all, Mary Holmberg just kept winning. But we can't seem to get past those doggone southern Minnesota teams. Something in the drinking water down there?
The "Minnesota Scores" site tells us that Jackson County Central has a 20-6 W/L. They are 9-5 in section, 7-5 in conference, 8-4 away, 4-1 neutral and 8-1 at home. Now, can they make state?
Communicating with Mary
Here's an email I was happy to send to coach Holmberg herself on Memorial Day, Monday:
Hello Mary - I was at Pizza Ranch on Saturday and a man and woman came up to me for a pleasant chat: Lee Schultz and Rhonda Cline! That was such a pleasant generation of kids to know in this town. I told Rhonda I remembered the little dance she did as a Miss Morris candidate. My memories of Lee aren't that vivid but I have pleasant impressions.
People can get confused about double-elimination tournaments! Maybe the parents get it all figured out but it's a challenge for other people. I am so thankful to be able to go to the "Minnesota Scores" website. I'd be pretty lost without it. I am assuming that the Morris newspaper had to go to press Friday because of the Memorial Day weekend. That wipes out a lot of coverage of big school doings. I check the paper each week at the library. Anne Barber at the library says "I never see kids with the newspapers."
Memorial Day 2024
Del Sarlette is the
gentleman seen in photo taken at my Williams family monument at Summit
Cemetery. Photo was taken over our tranquil Memorial Day weekend.
Memorial Day weekend is always uniquely tranquil, as if time slows down. We could use more of that? I selected a bench style of monument for our plot. Everyone, you're welcome to stop by and sit a spell! The monument has names of my parents along with yours truly. It acknowledges my parents' important roles with our University of Minnesota-Morris. The U of M has given my family nearly all of what it has. Note the American flag in photo. It honors my father who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Pacific Theater. I wonder what he would think of the flag displayed upside-down at the residence of Justice Alito.
And here's Dad in WWII
My father Ralph is at right in photo below taken during WWII. These guys guarded a merchant vessel, an oil tanker. How I'd love to know the names and hometowns of all the guys in photo!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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