Anderson has 23 points, 20 boards vs. ACGC

Girls: Tigers 47, ACGC 40
Malory Anderson was the major force for MACA in a Friday night (1/26) win at home. Anderson was at the fore of a come from behind win. Coach Dale Henrich's Tigers entertained their home fans with a 47-40 win over the ACGC Falcons.
Anderson asserted herself in scoring and rebounds with a stat of at least 20 in both departments! It was quite the display. The post player poured in 23 points and pulled down 20 rebounds. Carly Wohlers had ten rebounds. Anderson also led in steals with four.
Maddie Carrington continued her pattern of making three-point shots - on this night she made two from long range. Maddie's point total was 16. There were just five Tigers on the scoring list. Liz Dietz scored five points, Wohlers had two and Riley Decker contributed one. The Falcons of ACGC led at halftime 23-18. Our engines got humming after that.
Decker and Dietz each had two assists. We came out of the night with a won-lost of 11-7. ACGC is having a below-.500 campaign. Addison Bernstein led ACGC's scoring with eleven points. Madison Denton and Lindsey Minnick each scored eight. Other Falcons scoring: Rachel Wilner (5), Anna Grimsgard (2), Pailey Wilner (2), Molly Youngblom (2), Jeana Denton (1) and Gabby Lawver (1). Madison Denton had ACGC's only 3-point make.
Click on the link below to read about the MACA boys' recent win over ACGC. It was our seventh straight win. After that we fell to Milbank. This post covers both games and also includes some thoughts from me about the Super Bowl. Thanks for reading. - B.W.
http://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2018/01/success-in-falcon-country-of-acgc-69-53.html
  
Keeping Owls in mind too
It's appropriate that I do some coverage of Hancock hoops. I was the sportswriter for the Hancock Record for 15 years. I'd finish up the sports section quite late (or early in the morning) at the old Sun Tribune shop. I had a wide array of duties. I'd go to the Met Lounge (for soft drink) at around 11 p.m. for a break. I'd finally go home at around 3 a.m. on Wednesday. If it was summer I'd probably be on bike. I crossed the field on a non-maintained road to the north of Pizza Hut.
A cop chased me halfway across the field at that middle of the night time once. In those days the cops all knew me so when this gendarme ID'd me, everything was OK. He probably just muttered "oh, it's that nut." What would happen today? I could get shot and killed. Incidents are happening all across the U.S. of innocent, unarmed people getting shot and killed by police. There was that guy in Wichita recently who was killed because of a prank phone call to 9-1-1. There was that guy who was using a pellet gun for his pest control work who got shot and killed. A cop was put on trial for that but he was acquitted which is what most often happens. The cop only need make the vaguest statement about how he/she felt threatened.
We'll see what happens in that Damond case in the Twin Cities. Based on that case, we should never walk toward a law enforcement vehicle for the purpose of talking to the cop. Those people must be considered dangerous.
 
Boys hoops: Owls 85, CGB 43
Noah Kannegiesser built on his stature as a marquee player to put in 30 points for the Owls. It's a memorable winter for the Owls who gained their 13th win Friday at the expense of the Wolverines of Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley. The loss total is a mere one.
Hancock was up 53-26 at halftime. The Owls had four double figures scorers total. Fans saw Bennett Nienhaus score 12 points, Connor Reese 11 and Peyton Rohloff 10. Cole Reese added nine points to the mix. Other Owls scoring: Tanner Pahl (4), Preston Rohloff (3), Mason Schmidgall (2), John Kellenberger (2) and Jordan Peterson (1). Kannegiesser and Cole Reese each made two 3-pointers, and Nienhaus had one long-range make. Rebound leaders were Pahl (8), Peyton Rohloff (7) and Connor Reese (6).
Kannegiesser was all over the court as he produced five assists. He also led in steals with four followed by Nienhaus with three. The CGB scoring list was topped by Casey Nilson who had 12 points. Bryce Hoffman put in eleven. Sam Adelman had seven, Caleb Cardwell six, Austin Kipp five and Nate Moberg 2. Kipp made a three-pointer.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

"Minnesota" by "Northern Light": a time capsule

People my age remember a song called "Minnesota" on the radio in the 1970s. Writing a regional song or regional book was harder in those days. Everything seemed daunting in pre-digital times.
A part of us wants to feel nostalgia. We close our eyes and hear disco music out of the 1970s. Our music entertainment came largely from the "Top 40." Casey Kasem was associated with the Top 40. He'd have his "long-distance dedication," remember?
All communications were so much more limited. Communications? Writer Tom Friedman (a Minnesotan, incidentally) tells us "the friction is gone" from communications now. The new norm is so well established, we quite take it for granted.
I'm prompted to observe all this when thinking of the song "Minnesota." It may not have crossed your mind for a long time. Remember how it had such a pop-flavored, Beach Boy-ish feel to it? The lyrics were well crafted. The original is quite appealing but I think it would be nice to hear a fresh version. Perhaps the new version could sandpaper down the Beach Boy-ish element.
The Internet has broken down barriers to distribution for artistic works. In 1997 I wrote my song about Kirby Puckett, a song that I'm proud to have on YouTube. It has gotten a fair amount of attention and for that I'm pleased. At the time I wrote it, a demo studio would send you a package of cassettes, the idea being to send them to publishers where the odds of success were rather like playing the lottery for a sizable jackpot. The corporate types of the artistic world had no qualms about slamming the door on people.
The demo people involved in the recording were quite different, quite pleasant and committed to what they did - even beyond what they were required to do. I say "thanks" to the Nashville musical community. They will always be honest with you. But no door-slamming. If you sample my music and find you have a special liking for the Puckett song, first of all thanks, and secondly I'll whisper to you that it uses a live drummer!
Music gives enrichment for me at a time when I'm a homebody.
In those bygone "analog" days we'd pick out a song or two in the Top 40 as a favorite. The Top 40 existed to give people a haven where they could feel a little exhilaration either from the lyrics or the basic sound of a song. One problem: as individuals we were limited in determining our own musical consumption, certainly from radio. We could buy records. We had a tiny fraction of the flexibility we have today.
Vinyl records cost a fair amount and included much material we weren't that interested in listening to. We'd buy an album from an artist or group that gave us a catchy melody for a hit song. Then we'd listen to the other obscure songs to see if they were worthwhile. After several listening sessions we might think the whole album is OK.
It's ridiculous to think how much more preferable the music consumption of today is. We take it for granted and have become spoiled. Perhaps instead of "spoiled" we should just observe that today's system is the way it should be, thanks to tech (what maybe arose from that UFO that crashed in New Mexico). The new tech opens doors that leave us fascinated for a while until the novelty wears off. Many bloggers have stepped away from the pastime because the novelty is gone. I persist because writing has always been in my DNA.
Now that I've shared all this background, let's remember the song "Minnesota" by the group Northern Light. (Yes, we're tempted to say "Northern Lights.")
The lyrical start could prod your memory: "Minnesota, I can almost smell the air." Of course you can hear it on YouTube.
"Minnesota" was the first single released by Northern Light on the Glacier label. I learn that Columbia Records eventually re-released the song, expanding the boundaries for its exposure. Let's acknowledge the talented musicians of Northern Light. Featured were David Sandler (piano), Spence Peterson (guitar), Nick Raths (lead guitar) and Gary Lopac (bass). Sandler wrote, arranged and produced most of their material.
A commentator online says the song "will give you goosebumps when listening to it." The song appeared on the group's album "49th Parallel." Someone claims the full title of the song is "Minnesota Nights." Another says "the song was more famous that its singer ever was."
Unfortunately the group became rather a one-hit wonder, as further efforts didn't get the same traction. The music world can be befuddling this way. Science, which purports to explain everything, cannot explain what makes a melody catchy. Reminds me of the old Twilight Zone episode which suggests that a melody becomes popular only to the degree that it comes close to a "perfect melody" that we as mortals were never intended to hear. When a character in the show gets to hear it, he instantly turns into a vegetable. The message: human beings were never intended to be exposed to perfection.
I of course have made a couple stabs at writing a song about our state of Minnesota. I wrote one called "Ya Sure You Betcha" where the words fit a melodic pattern I already had in my head. It seems a rather irresistible title, n'est-ce pas? So I'm proud of this effort but I also wrote a song called "We Love Our Life in Minnesota" which I like just as much. I don't know if I'll have either song recorded. We'll see. The demo studios are showing a little price inflation. But I love the Nashville music community.
My lyrics for the two songs make up the rest of this post. Thanks for reading. No loon sounds included. Maybe a meadowlark?
 
"Ya Sure You Betcha"
by Brian Williams
 
Ya sure you betcha
When you live in Minnesota
You revere the finer things in life
We love the winter
Even though we sometimes shiver
We indulge in all the snow and ice

Drop that hockey puck
And watch them play
Gliding to and fro so fast
Watch the snowmobiles accelerate
Through our wonderland so vast

Ya sure you betcha
Minnesota will impress ya
Come and have some Jello at the church
We say the nice things
Don't you think it is a blessing
Don't you want to join our universe?

Have some lutefisk
And wash it down
We'll say welcome to the club
Hear the rhythm of the polka sounds
With the tunes that we all love

Ya sure you betcha
There's a lot to entertain ya
In the Twin Towns and the hinterlands
Lakes dot the landscape
So go out and get your live bait
Or relax and lay out in the sand

Do we really have a dialect?
Is it funny how we talk?
We just get along with no regrets
You might say we walk the walk

Ya sure you betcha
It's enough to overwhelm ya
Come and see our Timberwolves and Twins
We don the purple
And we spread it 'round the world
We will reach the Super Bowl and win

 
"We Love our Life in Minnesota"
by Brian Williams
 
We love our life in Minnesota
A place where nary is a curse
We call it pop instead of soda
And have red Jello at the church
We cheer the purple every Sunday
And hope they reach the Super Bowl
We know we'll see it happen someday
So I won't have to sell my soul
  
Hear the snowmobiles across the trails
In our winter wonderland
Snow is paradise beyond compare
That's our Minnesota brand

We love our life in Minnesota
The North Shore to the southern Bluffs
The farmland in the west will wow ya
The forests in the north you'll love
It's true we talk a little funny
They call it Minnesota Nice
And though we seem as sweet as honey
We have a shrewdness like a knife
  
All the little towns have festivals
Come and savor all they have
All the talent shows are spectacles
Minnesota's where it's at
 
We love our life in Minnesota
Where hot dish keeps us going strong
So many others call in goulash
But we would shrug and say that's wrong
We have a way of understanding
The most important things in life
So we can keep on hale and hearty
In spite of blizzards in the night
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Three in double figures as we defeat Montevideo

Tigers 64, Monte 34
MACA boys basketball took care of business pretty routinely Friday night (1/19). The Tigers hosted a struggling Montevideo Thunder Hawk team that has just one win. It was clear at halftime there would be no T-Hawk win on this night. The Tigers shot out to a 38-21 lead by the halfway mark. We won in the 64-34 final.
Three MACA players scored in double digits led by Tate Nelson with 14 points. Chandler Vogel and Jaret Johnson each scored 12 points. Tyler Reimers had a point contribution of nine. Here's the rest of the list: Connor Koebernick (6), Jackson Loge (5), Camden Arndt (2), Kevin Asfeld (2) and Eli Grove (2). Vogel and Reimers each made two 3-point shots, and Koebernick and Nelson each made one long-ranger.
Loge with his eleven rebounds led in that category. Koebernick was nifty in assists with his five. And in steals, Nelson, Reimers and Johnson each had two.
Monte's Jackson Snell topped his team's scoring with 16 points. These three T-Hawks each scored five: Isaac Hoogeveen, Christian Riley and Adam Root. Hunter Ward scored two points and Josh Tastad scored one.

Girls: BOLD 83, Tigers 58
The mood was bleak among Tiger partisans Thursday night as their team faltered against the Warriors of BOLD. This West Central Conference game ended with BOLD up nicely, 83-58.
Makenna Steffel was a big force for the host Warriors as she put in 28 points. Morgan Schmitz put in 15 followed by these three Warriors each with ten: Ashley Trongard, Makayla Snow and Brenna Weis. Taylor Sagedahl scored six points and Abby Sigurdson had four. Three BOLD players each made a 3-point shot: Schmitz, Trongard and Sagedahl.
Steffel was a force in rebounds as well as scoring as she snared a team-best eleven boards. Snow collected eight rebounds and Sagedahl had seven. Assist leaders were Weis with nine and Sigurdson with four. Steffel was all over the court as she had ten steals. Snow stole the ball five times and Schmitz had four steals.
BOLD got its 13th win with the Thursday success. The Tigers came out of the night at 9-7. The game was still close at halftime with BOLD having a lead of just five, 42-37. For MACA, Riley Decker's four 3-pointers couldn't help the team keep pace in the end. Maddie Carrington connected twice from 3-point land, and Liz Dietz made one '3'.
The Willmar paper makes me pull out my hair sometimes. The Friday edition reports that the Tigers vs. BOLD game was played "at Morris/Chokio-Alberta." For one thing, the correct reference would be to "Morris Area Chokio Alberta" or "MACA." My MACA sports schedule says the Thursday game was played at BOLD. I checked Pheasant Country Sports which reported that the game was in Olivia. The Willmar paper said it was home for MACA. You'd have a 50/50 chance of getting this right even if you just guessed.
So why the screw-up in the West Central Tribune? I wrote my whole first draft of this blog post going by the Willmar paper. Later I had to revise it. Sometimes the sports department of the Willmar paper can be a real shithole. We see "NA" for "not available" with the rebounds, assists and steals categories for MACA in the Willmar paper. If the game was played in Morris, I would expect these stats to be reported. But you never know these days. Remember the recent game against Benson?
I guess I can report the MACA scoring totals. Decker's 3-pointers vaulted her to the team-best total of 18 points. Malory Anderson had a productive night with 17 points. Carrington came through with eight. Dietz added seven points to the mix, then we have Jennifer Solvie and Kendra Wevley each with four.

Hockey: Mayport (ND) 8, MBA Storm 7
The MBA Storm played a mighty competitive game, getting edged in the end 8-7 at the hands of Mayport Area of North Dakota. This is the first time I have ever heard of "Mayport Area." Fans at our Lee Center watched the skaters race back and forth on January 16.
The Mayport boys put the puck in the net four times in the second period. MBA surpassed that with an output of five goals in the second. MBA scored one goal each in the first and third periods. Fans certainly got to see plenty of offense. Chase Engebretson was the Storm player working in goal to try to hold off Mayport. He battled Kade Susie who wore the goalie equipment for the North Dakota foe.
Sam Satrom scored the first goal of the night. Satrom scored with an assist from Reece Groth at 4:29. Then Zach Bruns evened things up with a goal for MBA at 6:01. Groth scored in power play style at 11:02 to make the score 2-1.
The second period saw the offense rule and the goaltenders just try to hold their own. Satrom scored for Mayport with assists from Groth and Braden Soderberg. Parker Klemm scored for MBA with assists from Hunter Gades and Jack Riley. The Klemm goal was part of five in succession for the suddenly surging Storm. Cheers were robust at Lee Center. Bruns scored at 4:45 assisted by Mike Halvorson and Riley. Matthew Tolifson found the net with a Kolby Goff assist at 6:01. Riley brought cheers from the Lee Center crowd with a goal at 11:32, assisted by Bruns and Jake Riley. Then it was Goff finding the net at 12:07 with assists from Halvorson and Tolifson. Mayport's Groth stabilized things for his team with a goal at 13:24. Groth scored again for the ND boys, this time assisted by Soderburg and Satrom. Satrom ended the second period scoring with a short-handed goal at 16:18.
On to the third period. First it was Satrom scoring for Mayport with assists from Groth and Derek Johnson. Groth got an assist from Johnson for a goal at 13:44. Then it was MBA's Bruns scoring the night's final goal with assists from Tolifson and Tyler Buss at 15:10. Fans had certainly enjoyed a full session of hockey.

The government shutdown
Someday we'll look back on the Trump presidency as this weird sort of sci-fi story where the American people got hypnotized into thinking the president's idiosyncrasies could be overlooked. The president had a sexual relationship with a porn star and had the woman paid off to try to keep her quiet. And yet this is a president supported by the so-called "evangelicals" of so-called Christianity.
I wish the media would give us a more firm understanding of who these "evangelicals" are. I don't think this describes my church which is ELCA. ELCA stands for "Evangelical Lutheran Church in America." But we're not like the nutcases who seem to use their religion as a cover for promoting far right wing politics. President Trump talks like he supports them, although he has a long history, according to people who have been close to him, of being quite receptive to progressive political ideas.
The porn star's name is Stormy Daniels. If you type her name into Google Images along with a word or two out of the pornographic realm, you will see what she is capable of. And, she is capable of doing a great deal. Congratulations, "evangelicals." You no longer have to be burdened by the knowledge of having an African-American president. You are so relieved, you're all in with a person like Trump who is arguably rather a scumbag.
One thing will make us wake up: a major stock market correction, lasting a while. It takes money. I wonder how Jesus would pass judgment on all this. Trump is all in with the far right of politics now because he needs the support of those people (like Sean Hannity) to harass the Mueller investigation.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

MACA girls 9 of 19 in 3's in home triumph

Tigers 67, Ortonville 53
Three-pointers were again a valuable weapon for the MACA girls on Tuesday. Fans at the home gym cheered as the orange and black made nine 3's in a 67-53 win. Maddie Carrington came at the Ortonville Trojans with three 3-pointers. Liz Dietz and Malory Anderson each connected twice from 3-point range. Riley Decker and Makenna Kehoe each sank one such shot.
I imagine Makenna is the granddaughter of my former co-worker Janet Kehoe. Janet was a very pleasant person to know through the years at the Sun Tribune.
It was post player Anderson who topped our scoring list with 20 points. Carrington joined her in double figures with eleven. Dietz used her 3's to build her total to eight points. Jenna Howden likewise scored eight. Decker's '3' was part of seven points scored for this Tiger. Carly Wohlers put in six points. Kehoe had her 3-pointer which I'm sure brought cheers from some friends of mine. I personally cheer for Jordann Baier, my occasional waitress at DeToy's, who scored two points as did Jen Solvie.
Anderson grabbed ten rebounds and Wohlers grabbed seven. Carrington and Decker each executed four assists. Anderson and Carrington were tops in steals with five and four, respectively.
We vaulted to our ninth win with the Tuesday success. Ortonville is also having a fine campaign and emerged with an 8-4 record.
Our team three-point shooting numbers were a quite stellar 9-for-19. Carrington had an impressive night across the stat categories.
Madysen Stegner paced Ortonville in scoring with 16 points. The other double figures scorer was Jaiden Conroy with eleven. Samantha Erickson scored six points followed by the Kirchberg girls, Brianna and Allyssa, each with five. Megan Rademacher put in four points while Tyler Peters and Carissa Vanderwall each scored three. Conroy was dead-on from 3-point range three times. Brianna Kirchberg and Erickson each made one '3'.
 
Boys: Tigers 64, Benson 35
The MACA boys shot out to a 44-19 halftime lead which set the tone for the game. This game was Tuesday night and had Benson as the opponent at Benson. The orange and black prevailed in the 64-35 final. The success pushed our W/L record to .500 at 7-7. Benson is having a struggling campaign.
Jaret Johnson made three shots from 3-point range. Connor Koebernick and Camden Arndt each made one long-ranger. But it was the up-and-coming Jackson Loge who topped our scoring list with 15 points. Johnson was right behind with 13 and Arndt contributed 12. Koebernick added nine points to the mix. Tate Nelson came through with six points and Judah Malek had five. Chandler Vogel and Kevin Asfeld each scored two.
Nelson attacked the boards to collect ten rebounds. He was followed on that list by Johnson with seven. Nelson dished out two assists. Nelson and Vogel each stole the ball four times.
No one with Benson scored in double figures. Here's the Brave scoring list: Austin Ose (5), Max Benson (2), Eric Hoium (1), Matt Ebnet (1), Will Enderson (9), Sam Lundebrek (6), Hunter Gonnerman (4), Jonas Habben (3), Dan Lenarz (4) and Devon Liles (1). Enderson supplied a Benson highlight with a three-pointer. Lundebrek collected five rebounds and Hoium had four. Ose had an assist. Enderson and Lenarz each had two steals.
  
Girls: Tigers 49, Benson 31
The Morris Area Chokio Alberta girls shot out to a 17-10 lead at halftime and cruised to a 49-31 win over Benson. The game was played on January 12 at home. In the next day's edition of the Willmar newspaper, the data for Benson is reported but not for MACA. I am puzzled by that. Doesn't the home coach phone in? I can only speculate. These days I'm quite out of the loop.
I will dutifully report here the info I have available from the Willmar paper. Kaitlyn Berreau and Abbie Mitteness each made a three-pointer for the Braves. Success doesn't come often for Benson GBB these days. Berreau with her eleven points was the only Brave in double figures. Mitteness had a point total of seven. I wonder if she's the daughter of the Benson Legion baseball coach with whom I worked many years ago. A player with the last name "Anderws" - most likely a typo from the Willmar paper - scored six points. Her first name isn't provided.
Three Brave players each scored two points: Courtney McNeill, Claire Ricard and Lee (first name not provided for Lee). Lundebrek - again, no first name given - added a point to the mix. Benson's rebound leaders were Ricard and "Andrews" (same player as in the scoring list?) each with four. Mitteness had two assists. Andrews had three steals.
If I engaged in such sloppy and incomplete reporting when I was at the Morris paper, it'd probably be cause for shouting, swearing, kicking waste baskets and slamming doors. Of course, such things are way out of proportion to how important these sports subjects are. People in the corporate media get way carried away assessing their own importance.
I do wish the reporting on this game would be more solid so that I could produce a better summary. Did Maddie Carrington make any 3's? My online writing does gather some attention. I know it does. It's hard to gauge exactly how much, but it's there and it's why I keep plugging away.
 
Crisis brewing in D.C.
Our nation's failure to produce more moderate, temperate and sensible leaders could have catastrophic consequences at some point. Our recent tendency to favor hard-line ideological people on the right could lead to disaster for the nation.
Up until now the Dow Jones just keeps rocketing higher as if propelled by some mysterious force. I was always taught that you cannot predict with certainty what the stock market will do.
So many people in the U.S., people who mostly go to church on Sunday, are looking the other way regarding our odious president and it's because the stock market keeps doing well. We put up with racist thinking on full display. What would Jesus say?
Why is it that Donald Trump walked away from a reasonable bipartisan compromise on DACA? Hard-line conservatives showed up to gum up the works. So now we might have a government shutdown.
I don't hear enough speculation on Trump's motives. It seems clear to me that he needs "cover" from the Republicans who control all levers of power in D.C. He needs cover in order to try to resist the Mueller investigation. That investigation could have serious repercussions for Trump and his family. If he were to indicate that he's not "in" with the wild-eyed, tea partyish wing of the GOP, the wing that has disproportionate power now, that wing might not be as zealous fighting Mueller and dispensing the venomous anti-Mueller propaganda. So Trump essentially knows what side his bread is buttered on. In my view it's scandalous. But the public's attention to this may not be aroused until there's a major stock market correction. I really do believe that God will punish us U.S. citizens for this someday. I hope it doesn't make our nation into a "shithole."
And now we learn Trump's lawyer paid off a porn star, $130,000. It's the equivalent of prostitution: Trump gets what he wants and the porn star gets what she wants.
 
So the Vikings won
I watched the Vikings/Saints game only at the very end. I was indifferent about the outcome but was curious how it would end. It's unthinkable for me to watch an entire NFL game or even a large portion of one. The game's end was a reversal of what we saw at the end of that famous Vikings/Dallas game in 1975. At that time, I unfortunately was emotionally invested in the Vikings.
Today I'm not attuned to the euphoria generated by the Vikings' win. Instead I think of former Viking Fred McNeill dying from Alzheimer's in his early 60s. There is a time bomb of more and more former players ending up like this. There is a generation of former players in their late 50s and 60s who played football at a time when the game was becoming more dangerous. It's a shame.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

The night we lost to the Brylcreem man

Typing Jackson Loge's name brings back memories from when Jackson's father Kevin played. I felt Kevin's peak year was when he was a sophomore. I remember when he was a junior and the very highly-touted player with the top-ranked in state Tigers. We had taken second in state the previous season. We had a two-class system back then. Heck, I grew up when we had a one-class system. No point in being nostalgic about that, even if you liked the movie "Hoosiers." The "good old days" were not really better, Norman Rockwell notwithstanding.
Anyway, in 1995 we played Staples in a game for the ages at the Concordia Fieldhouse. The place was packed. I loved the Polish sausage at the concession stand. I still remember where that concession stand was. That 1995 game is on YouTube for you to see. I haven't watched it because I don't need to - I was there. Most likely you can see me a few feet off to the side of a corner of the court.
Looking back, I find those packed house memories of tournament games to be rather unpleasant: too much emotion. Why do we subject our kids to that kind of pressure, in an activity like basketball where there are no lifelong benefits from the activity? Why do we send these groups of kids out onto a court or playing field as if they're enemies, or to be more blunt, gladiators? In football the activity presents a real threat to the kids' health - unforgivable, IMHO.
We lost that 1995 game to the Cardinals of Staples. Legend has it that the Staples coach, Lynn Peterson, danced on a score table to celebrate the success. I remember him looking like he used Brylcreem in his hair.
The game's outcome was viewed as a monumental upset. I was fascinated as I watched it. Clearly Staples had a strategy to outdo the Tigers. I thought it was plain as the nose on your face. Staples went into these patterns of passing the ball around with their object clear, to set up a drive to the basket where the driving player either got a layup or other high-percentage shot, or would induce a flat-footed Morris player into committing a foul. Over and over it worked for them, wearing us down and maybe even demoralizing us.
MAHS seemed to have an uninspired, disjointed offensive approach. They passed the ball around but not with the same keen sense of mission. A player might impulsively put up a three-point try. As an alternative they'd lob the ball inside to Kevin where he didn't really seem in position to capitalize on his talents. He'd end up flat-footed himself, perhaps putting up a highly contested jumper, falling away from the basket.
I remember one-time MAHS super fan Arnie Hennen getting discouraged about the pass-inside strategy of our team. He said "(this business of) lobbing the ball inside - that doesn't seem to work." It didn't work on that fateful night at Concordia. We lost.
As that realization set in during the closing moments, I remember some of the Morris parents coming over to behind the Morris bench, to send the message "we still love you even though you sure blew this one." My thinking was that we simply should have won.

'95 celebration: coach, player

Adding discouragement to injury, the Morris community was way too accepting of the game's outcome. I produced journalism after that game that implied that based on our returning talent along with Loge's big-time credentials, we really should have won. I didn't editorialize but you might say I was selective with facts. To do otherwise, to be selective in the other direction (as an apologist) would have been dishonest, I felt. I was confronted at least once by fans. "That was a heavy article you wrote," Bernie Wente said. I reacted the way my acquaintances might expect, by immediately looking to Bernie's husband Dave for "support." I'm the type of person who is easily intimidated by women. The congenial Mr. Wente seemed to connect with me but he just sort of smiled and shrugged.
Having observed the disparity in tactics between Staples and Morris in the game, I really wondered: "Was I the only Morris person in that whole building who noticed this?" Was I in some sort of weird Twilight Zone episode where I was the only normal person in a town full of mannequin-like people with eyes glazed over?
My writing affirmed a perception of me that had been getting me dragged down quite badly. The Morris community never benefited from that perception of me. It only hindered my ability to perform journalism. My critics would say I'm incapable of performing journalism. And that was the essence of the problem. We had too much of a good old boy network running things. We had an aggressive teachers union. It appeared that new teachers/coaches would get recruited to join Faith Lutheran Church. A person's choice of church should be private.
I suspect that the Morris school of today is 100 percent more healthy in its attitude and organization. The 1980s were a real backwater and there were still vestiges of that as late as 1995.
I consider myself a journalist in the mold of Michael Wolff. We are undaunted. We don't glad-hand. No matter how much I may have suffered, I can't regret anything.
I remember when New London-Spicer was upcoming on the schedule, prompting Morris people to speculate on who would win "the next matchup" between Loge and Jamie Thompson. Interesting question, given that Loge was a Division I college recruit and Thompson would be headed to our lowly UMM. I considered the question and concluded: We should assume that our Kevin would win the next matchup. Shouldn't that be elementary? Well, it was to me.
I think Kevin regressed after his sophomore year. I felt we didn't have a system to bring out the best in him. I remember UMM coach Perry Ford saying to me: "Kevin is making a better impression with his play in the summer than in the real basketball season." Really? If true, and I'm quite certain it was, it was an indictment of the MAHS coaching staff.
I think we were totally out-coached in that game against Staples. To actually say that "on the street" would have made you rather a pariah in this community. That's ironic because so many of the defenders of the status quo, often said sports was secondary in education and we ought not get carried away with it. So why was Concordia Fieldhouse filled to the rafters? If sports needed to be kept in its place, why would my critics get so wild-eyed with their histrionics? Hey, it's "just sports," right?
Well, the head coach was (and is) a model family man and exemplary teacher, by all accounts. He's a gentleman. I wouldn't argue any of those points. I thought it was time for a change a few years ago when we lost in the first round of the post-season, at home, to the No. 8 seed when we were the No. 1 seed. Last year we trailed lowly YME at halftime in the first round of the tourney, so we flirted with defeat. But we bounced back and impressed. The coach's supporters are quick to cite that, while seeking to ignore the year we lost to the No. 8 seed, or when we did poorly in the post-season with Taylor Witt showing he could score around 50 points. With Taylor we needed double-overtime to win in the first round and then lost in the second. Did we have zero talent around him? I don't think so. Maybe it was even a handicap to have him scoring so many points in a game. That was the first year I was gone from the Morris paper.
The coach has had some incredible talent to carry him through phases in his career. We'll see what happens this year.
As I have written before, the biggest unanswered question in our community's history is how Chris Baxter would have done had he gotten a head basketball appointment immediately. Baxter was the choice of our new superintendent Dennis Rettke. At least that's what Dennis told me.
Baxter eventually got the girls job and although he started out well, he seemed to get nudged toward expedience. "Something happened," my friend Merlin Beyer told me. Beyer was normally a very mainstream person in our town's politics. But regarding the school in the late '80s, he had to take risks and speak out on some things. He was the classic community leader, sensing when something was "in the wind" that would impel him into some controversy. He did what he felt he had to. Eventually he won a write-in campaign for mayor. I had rapport with him. He informed me once that my job was in danger.
I survived for that time and went on quite a while longer, until I had completed 27 years. At the end, a friend told me I should just say "I've had enough of it." That would probably not have been true. But did I really reach the end? Look at what I'm doing now! I think Dennis would crack a grin in heaven, knowing I'm still active at the typing keyboard.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Erosion of Morris paper continues apace

The vanishing Morris newspaper has reached the point where maybe some sort of community meeting should be held. Even if the paper rebounds some in the coming weeks, its ridiculously small size on Saturday is unacceptable. I heard talk about it at church.
It was at church that I was able to personally examine that pile of what gets marketed as the Morris paper, much of it dumpster-ready advertising circulars from Alexandria-based businesses (including "your hometown Sears store"). As Stephen Colbert said, "who shops at Sears anymore?"
Notice how we're required to pay the same single-copy price for the Morris newspaper. Maybe Willie's should tell the paper: "We don't think our customers should have to pay for the Morris paper anymore." The outstanding Senior Perspective along with the interesting University Register are available free. Even though I know the Register is free, I always confirm it with the Casey's clerk as I go out the door. It feels funny to just grab something there and walk out the door.
Of course it's free. But in the display stand right next to it, we see the Forum-owned papers that we have to pay for. A clerk there told me years ago that some customers were incredulous about the Wednesday edition of the Morris paper being cancelled. Also, I personally overheard a customer, sounding exasperated, saying "did they already start that?" when the paper went to once a week. It was such a habit to expect two issues a week, like through all the years when I worked there.
And boy, some sports parents were insistent about how certain games had to be covered in the very next issue. They'd get emotional if they weren't. I remember a member of school administration who similarly got his panties in a bundle. His discomfort about that reached the point where he felt he had to start writing sports himself, voluminous amounts of it. The usual suspects around town thought it was just great he was doing that. But what about now? What about now when the Morris paper is just once a week and down to an unbelievably small ten pages?
Adding shock to it all, the paper thinks we're stupid enough to believe that the old Hancock Record is now incorporated with the Morris paper. I have heard talk about how the paper seems to have bent over backwards giving attention to Hancock since the announced "combination." But if the paper is steadily shrinking, it is literally impossible for the paper to be accomplishing this. I don't have to point that out to you, do I?
I left the Morris paper when management was talking about how its website was going to be made so super spectacular. Has that happened? The paper would only do this if the approach could be monetized. I remember a period of time when our radio station site was made rather dynamic for local news coverage, but then there was a retreat. Again, it could not be monetized well enough.
I have written before that the time is coming when the coverage and PR for high school sports is going to have to establish itself online, in a reasonably consistent and reliable way - not scattershot - independent of the old corporate media. Ten years ago I thought that time was coming soon. I was wrong. Sports promoters should realize that communications outreach is important for these activities which compete for resources with the rest of the school. Look at how UMM sports gets covered so reliably on the UMM website. That's a model that ought to filter down to high school.
Would the Morris paper management say that the shrinking of its paper is due to unavoidable economic pressures? Then why does it seem that the Elbow Lake paper is about three times bigger? Maybe in the short term, the Morris paper is raking in a quite exorbitant profit. This is done with the knowledge that the end of newspapers really is coming. So let's make hay in the short term, the reasoning goes. There is a term for this in the business world: "harvesting."
I wonder if Willie's would consider offering the Morris paper free as a "loss leader." Just let customers grab a copy. And you know what? All those Alexandria advertisers would actually like that, because their ads would get in front of more people. Jim Gesswein would like that.
Come to think of it, the Canary is shrinking quite noticeably too. It's 12 pages this week. The Morris paper has canceled its free Ad-Viser. The Ad-Viser would have been a nice vehicle to distribute those Morris sports schedule flyers. As it stands now, those flyers only get to people who buy the Morris paper - a limited number. And, I was struck by how the type size seemed smaller for the winter sports schedule flyer, so I have to get out my reading glasses. Now, why would the type size be smaller? Do I have to tell you? The paper is trying to sell a few more of those ad boxes including names of the businesses. These are called "sucker ads" in the newspaper business. Do us a favor and back off from those so we might read the schedule info a little easier.
The Forum is so unapologetic in how it maximizes profit. That is not an uncommon credo in business these days. But it would be nice to be pleasantly surprised sometimes. We are not, here in Morris.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Riley Decker makes three 3's in win over Breck

Tigers 60, Breck 57
The Tigers had three players make 3-point shots in their January 4 win over Breckenridge. The game's final score was 60-57, here. The orange and black was up 39-31 at halftime.
Riley Decker connected three times from beyond the 3-point stripe. She topped our scoring list with 23 points. The always reliable Maddie Carrington made two 3's and totaled 13 points. The other Tiger connecting for a '3' was Liz Dietz. Malory Anderson was No. 3 on our scoring list with 12 points. Jenna Howden contributed four points.
Dietz with her three points was followed by Jordann Baier (2), Carly Wohlers (2) and Alexis Pew (1). Anderson led in rebounds with nine followed by Carrington, Dietz and Wohlers each with six. Carrington was crisp with her passing with six assists, and Dietz had three. Anderson stole the ball five times.
For Breckenridge, Sophie Aigner was the only double figures scorer with eleven points. Abby Steckler put in nine points and Claire Conzemius eight. Sierra Hansey and Chase Yaggie each had seven. Ashtyn Kaehler and Carley Vizenor each put in four for the Cowgirls. Nina Jirek scored three followed by Carley Fredericksen and Lauren Johnson each with two. Hansey, Jirek and Steckler each made one 3-pointer.
Our January 4 win was our seventh of the season.
In the "old days," Breckenridge was the prime rival for MAHS basketball in the old District 21.

Litchfield 60, Tigers 55 (OT)
The Tigers took the Dragons of Litchfield into overtime on January 2, here. Unfortunately the extension did not go well for our Tigers. The Dragons outscored the Tigers 10-5 in the OT, to come out on top in the 60-55 final. It was Litch's eighth win of the season. Halftime was basically stalemated with MACA up by one, 25-24.
Maddie Carrington was dead-on with her long-range shooting eye as she so often is. She made four 3-pointers and was complemented by Riley Decker who made one. Carrington scored 19 points but it was Malory Anderson, post player, who led with 21. Decker's point total was seven. Here's a shout out to Jordann Baier, my occasional (and reliable) morning waitress at DeToy's Restaurant, who scored four points. Carly Wohlers came through with four points.
Anderson led in rebounds with six. She also achieved six assists to lead in that department. And in steals, Anderson was tops there too with four.
The winning Dragons had Laney Huhner lead in scoring with 15 points. They had two other double figures scorers: Sydney McCann with 13 points and Neriah Lara with eleven. Maddy Shoultz scored seven points and Natalie Hansen had six. Janessa Olson added four points to Litch's mix, and Kamri Driver and Katelyn Cruze each scored two.
Three-pointers were a source of momentum for the Dragons. Lara connected three times from three-point range while McCann made two long-rangers. Huhner and Shoultz each one one success from 3-point land.
Trivia: If memory serves me correctly and I think it does, Litchfield was the first-ever opponent for Tiger basketball at the 1968 gym when it was unveiled in grand fashion. We had graduated from the old elementary auditorium (actually the high school for many years) where the gym was like what we saw in the movie "Hoosiers." BTW did Gene Hackman ever really get the girl?

Boys: Breckenridge 54, Tigers 47
The cotton pickin' Willmar newspaper keeps referring to us as "Morris/CA." Who are they to impose their judgment? It's "MACA" or Morris Area Chokio Alberta. Insert slashes or hyphens as you wish. Anyway, our MACA boys basketball Tigers were on the short end of a 54-47  final against the Cowboys of Breckenridge on January 4, here.
It brings back memories for me, from when Breck often got the upper hand over the Tigers in "District 21" post-season play. That doggone green!
Noah Christensen did a lot of damage for the green, coming at the Tigers with 23 points. Derek Dahlgren was a nemesis for the Tigers too with his total of 16 points. Breck's scoring list also included Max Johnson (4), Justin Marsh (4), Dawson Pedersen (3), Jace Lenoue (2) and Caden McGough (2).
OK, on to the Tigers. We had three from our ranks in double figures scoring: Camden Arndt (13), Jaret Johnson (12) and Jackson Loge (10). Connor Koebernick scored nine points and Tate Nelson  added three. Johnson had two 3-pointers and Koebernick had one. Arndt and Johnson each had nine rebounds and Loge had seven. Arndt led in assists with six. Johnson and Arndt each had two assists.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" breaks through

Someday we'll all wonder why we were so passive during the Trump reign. We'll be lucky if no true disaster erupts. The fear is that the seeds are being planted now for disaster, with the Republicans' tax bill and regulations being ripped away including those enacted in the wake of Deep Water Horizon.
A crazed president seems motivated by nothing more than wanting to erase everything that Barack Obama did. In the back of all our minds, we seriously think (though might not speak it much) that Trump is motivated largely if not entirely by racism. It's quite a reveal for me as someone who attended a state college in the '70s where so many in academia seemed unhinged and wild-eyed in how they decried racism. Of course we reject racism. But this impulse should arise from our soul in the simplest of terms, organic, not having to be nurtured or cultivated by academics and their histrionics.
I sensed a danger several years ago with the movie "Gods and Generals," an odd Civil War movie that sought to find moral equivalence between the Union and Confederacy. I thought it was disturbing but heard little reaction to it. The public may have reacted (in effect) by not being entranced by this overdone and pretentious production. It was a bomb. Roger Ebert wrote that "men died like flies" in the movie.
According to convention, we're supposed to rationalize the conflict by realizing that the war was going to be liberating. Hollywood had historically given the South a break by portraying the men as products of their culture, gallant fighting men for whom history was not on their side. It is folly to support the propaganda that supported the South, propaganda asserting that the North was an invader or aggressor. "War of Northern aggression" was a term that had some currency. But all of this is usually presented in a sad light - a vestige of a checkered past in America.
We have a president now who says "good people were on both sides" of the Charlottesville incident. It's the same kind of moral equivalence.
I am writing this post on January 4 when we all awaken to hear commentary about a new bombshell in connection to the Trump presidency. I have a smile like the cat that ate the canary. It's not just that revelations are coming forward to unmask the Trump presidency as the travesty it is. I'm gleeful about the means by which this is happening.
I have previously suggested we shouldn't be too quick to draw parallels between the unraveling of Trump, and Watergate. I reasoned that was then and this is now. My late father would say "analogies are dangerous." That's why we have Godwin's Law which asserts that we should not draw analogies with the Nazis because the Nazis were so uniquely evil. It's a rule that gets broken in spite of its apparent wisdom. I'm not suggesting that the current presidency is in fact careening toward Nazism, though I'd forgive anyone for having such thoughts dance in their head. We are free to think whatever we want.
The parallel I now see with Watergate is the manner in which a clear hero is emerging. My grin widens steadily. My pride is all-consuming. That's because, in the midst of all the power brokers with their narrow little self-serving agendas, the back-biting among heavy hitters etc., it is a writer or press person that totally rises above. This individual is Michael Wolff. I have been familiar with his work for years.
Wolff committed folly when predicting that newspapers were going to meet their total doom within a tight timeline. We all knew the new electronic-based media was going to be a hydra-like specter for the old entitled print media. It was easy to sensationalize things. We oversimplified what was going on. Being a futurist is futile because if we really knew all the details of what was to come, we'd institute the model for all that immediately.
It's quaint to look back on the original Internet. It was like a collection of billboards, pretty crude, but we were fascinated.
We're quite over the basic fascination now. The digital miracles all go through a period where we're fixated, then we're bored and move on. I wanted to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming, when discovering the sea of music on YouTube. I grew up when you spent seven bucks for an "album." The miracle of YouTube doesn't have me really fixated anymore. It ought to. Let's be blunt: we have become so abundantly spoiled. We create a new normal and drift back to being the same human beings we were before. We still yearn for certain things we don't have.
The name of the Michael Wolff book is "Fire and Fury." It could attain the same status as "All the President's Men." It probes and reveals, and is drawing furious statements of rebuttal from those in the halls of power. The script is perfect. As a journalist I feel exhilaration: the idea of the primary hero being someone with no other objective than to perceive and report the truth. A purer objective you could not find.  It's the mantle I have sought to wear all my life.
So on the micro level, when I hear a story for public consumption about how a wounded black bear was allowed to simply wander out of town, after the rapid gathering of law enforcement (like the DNR), apparently just to observe, my brow becomes furrowed and I say "don't insult my intelligence." A City of Morris official suggested that the bear probably "went back to where he came from." A curious existential type of statement.
"Hooey," as my old co-worker Howard Moser would say.
Michael Wolff has stripped the pretense from the group of most influential people in America, showing the conflict, dysfunction and actual pettiness of the various players. And I'm still wondering: "Might Melania Trump have a stand-in?"
Would you believe: a Trump lawyer has sent a cease and desist letter to the "Fire and Fury" author and publisher. I'm reminded of when Mad Magazine satirized the movie "Jaws." The movie promoted itself with a warning: "May be too intense for young children." Mad noted: "That's like trying to scare ants away from a picnic by pouring sugar on the ground."
Do you think the media will have enough to talk about today?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.co

Christmas season is too much of a disruption

Erwin Anderson, RIP. He was always so uplifting with his presence. He was uniquely brightening. Unfortunately I got fooled on the date for his funeral. When I saw that his funeral was going to be on Saturday at 11 a.m., I assumed it would be for the upcoming Saturday. The time interval would have been right.
Upon getting to the church about 20 minutes prior to the scheduled time, I knew something was wrong because there were hardly any cars. I found someone inside who enlightened me. He said that he, too, had initially thought the funeral was going to be on that day. This type of thing happened to us with the Tom McRoberts funeral too. There was a delay for some reason.
In the case of Erwin, I asked around in the days following and I heard that the first Saturday was scrubbed because it was so close to Christmas. Christmas Eve was Sunday night and Christmas was on Monday. But the funeral would have been on Saturday. I felt a little exasperated as I wondered: can't any normal business in our lives be handled on a day outside of the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day window? Does everything have to halt so completely?
This brings to mind the quite fine op-ed in the Star Tribune during the holiday season this year. The writer may have come across like Scrooge but his message resonated with me. He finds the Christmas holiday season too disrupting. He wonders why our normal routine has to be upended so completely. Turn on the TV and much of the normal timely stuff is pushed aside in favor of recycled material, guest hosts etc. I push buttons on the remote rather frantically. I feel some relief if I can just find an old Star Trek episode.
What about football? Glad you asked. This brings to mind another recent op-ed in the Strib that pleads most logically for us to boycott the sport, for the obvious reason of what the sport does to the health of the players. So I barely pay attention to football anymore.
Every year I resolve to bring a stack of my old Christmas CDs from the basement and play them. And I never do. These were CDs I once played at the Sun Tribune shop late at night when I was often the only one there. I played them loud. I considered playing them right after Thanksgiving. You might think I'd be charmed listening to them again. I dabbled a bit one year and felt empty, I suspect because I associated all this music with an earlier time in my life. The music belonged then, not now. Same with my Jack Benny New Year's Eve DVD. Maybe someday I'll consume all this again. It doesn't appeal to me now.
Any other reasons for backing off on Christmas? We hear Donald Trump say it's OK to say "Merry Christmas" again, as if Barack Obama had prohibited it. I remember Bill O'Reilly's constant screed about how Christmas was being suppressed in our society. O'Reilly has been sent to the backwaters due to the $32 million he paid to a woman to avoid a sexual harassment suit. I don't want him to be some sort of lesson on behalf of what Christmas represents. Ditto Trump with his admissions of sexual assault from the "Access Hollywood" tape.
I am rather depressed by Christmas. An increasing percentage of the population is people like me who either live alone or with one other person. Advancing age may well have reduced the family contacts we might renew at Christmas. Thus we are susceptible to feeling depressed at that holiday time which is put forward as a celebration of a big, robust family from the infants to the grandparents. Lots of home-cooked food, right? With our family (Mom and I), we just have to be sure when Willie's is open so we might get our usual essential food items - pretty minimal, like a prepared sandwich from the deli.
I am writing this post on New Year's. I grabbed breakfast where I heard the waitress answer phone calls from people wondering what their hours were on that holiday. A disrupted routine. We might have suspected that the restaurant is closed completely. The phone calls indicated that people really do appreciate "the routine" where the restaurant would be open.
I am exasperated by the whole stretch of time between mid-December and New Year's, as I struggle to find some sort of stimulation for my mind. It is a matter of just surviving it, and now we're just hours from proceeding on to January 2 when hopefully we'll land on our feet with that sense of normalcy. I can watch Joe and Mika (hopefully) live at 5 a.m. on MSNBC. We can get back to the daily talk about how President Trump is outrageous and most likely dangerous.
We did not go back to church for the "real" day of Erwin Anderson's funeral, sorry. I didn't go back for Tom McRoberts' either and that was a shame because I heard that my father's "UMM Hymn" was performed.
Don't worry, my family will never again prompt people to consider attending a funeral, because we are done with funerals. If my mother passes on before me, her soul will immediately go to heaven which is all that matters. If the funeral is meant for my benefit, you can skip it. I don't think Rich Moen would appreciate anything being done for my benefit. I was a "miserable failure" in his eyes. But I do plug away in my life.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com