Allow me to reveal that I have never been a big fan of career records or milestones in sports. Any player who excels over a long time is going to reach some impressive-sounding numbers. I consider the milestones themselves to be rather arbitrary. A certain player is bound to reach a certain number. I was always rather irritated by the hype surrounding these things.
Now we hear about the MACA boys basketball coach having reached a lofty number: 500 wins. Well. . . Considering the coach got what amounted to a lifetime appointment back in the late '80s, I'm hardly surprised he has collected quite a few wins.
Click on the link below to read about the February 5 boys game vs. Melrose, a loss. This post is on my companion website, "Morris of Course." The post leads with coverage of the MBA boys hockey Storm's 7-6 overtime win over Worthington. Thanks for reading. - B.W.
The basketball coach has always benefited from a base of support in this community that has been totally unquestioning. That base exists within what I'd describe as "polite society." The coach got the appointment at a time when school leaders were striving to extinguish an unpleasant level of conflict. Once the appointment was made, the school's leaders - people with official positions along with their high-standing personal friends in the community, people like dentists - made it clear they wanted absolutely no more contentiousness. Anyone who spoke up in a questioning way, I mean above the level of chatter at the Legion Club or some such place, might experience the wrath of God.
There was in fact dissent from the party line over a number of years, but it existed below that top level of leadership. It existed as sort of an underground although I admit that sounds like overstatement. People would say "Torgy" and not in a way intended to be flattering. There has always been two sides to that coin.
The coach's original appointment came down to winning a 50-50 proposition, with the alternative being a guy who would later end up in Hawley. Not Mike Martin, Chris Baxter. Martin was a press writer in Morris but that was a sideline. Administrator Dennis Rettke, with whom I had regular conversations in his office, was an advocate for the other guy, Baxter. He told me that directly. The other guy would have stood out for the sheer intensity he would have instilled. My view is that Rettke in his considerable wisdom knew that an intangible like intensity would do much to smooth over some shortcomings that existed at the time.
Shortcomings? Let's wade into Morris community history, albeit rather remote in time now. Here's how I piece it together based on my close observation of community matters at the time. (I even had a police scanner!) There was a time when schools had paid faculty members coaching elementary. Phasing this out could step on toes because the unionized teachers were likely to be a affronted. A parent told me all about what happened here.
A volunteer-run program was going to be inevitable. A group of parents who wanted to get things going felt they had to work directly with Superintendent Fred Switzer, because the other administrative guy was in the camp of those wanting to resist it. The parent told me this "other" guy was told: "I guess we're going to do this whether you support it or not."
The volunteers would show up in the morning, having gotten the nod from Switzer, to find the doors locked. I believe this was at the old elementary gym (the building now razed). I believe this happened more than once. "We called Fred at home," the volunteer leader told me.
Keep in mind that the teachers union was very strong at that time. Today I think the system has gone through proactive adjustments to keep things on a smooth course. The old adversarial model had to be ended. Teachers were too much of a politically motivated element once. I would argue they overestimated their importance. Are teachers important? Well of course they're important. They're important even if their role is as glorified caretakers. They take care of our kids through weekdays, guiding them toward basic maturing and civil behavior. So teachers are important, just not quite in a way they once saw themselves.
There were married couples on our teaching staff which I think made things worse. These people had power via synergy from their relationships. Other teachers who should have known better basically shrugged and went along with their professional brethren. But not all were so engaged in a parochial way, according to Don Fellows, a wonderful man with whom I had rapport. You know, I could "break through" with some teachers despite the political contentiousness of the time, if their own kids were friends of mine. Should not surprise you.
When I shared with Mr. Fellows what I understood about Rettke's agenda for coaching appointments, i.e. Rettke's preference for Baxter, Fellows said "I don't doubt that Brian." My critics will always have a way to put me down. When all else fails, they'll use the very Minnesotan cliche of "it's no big deal." When a Minnesotan says that, what is really meant is that it probably is a big deal, but life in Minnesota has enough real adversity as with weather, so let's just shelve it.
The push for elementary volunteer coaches was bound to win out. Eventually we saw sports get the proper attention through the grades. Of course I can't tell you all the details about how the system is run now.
Torgy got the appointment and I believe he actually had to survive some rough spots through the early years. I suspect he was a fighter to keep the position. There has been some reason for controversy through the years. Whether all that is past now, I don't really know.
I overheard a retired teacher talk one day about how Torgy planned to phase into retirement, as if Torgy was pulling all his own strings, guiding his own destiny. I have never felt his performance justified that kind of deference. But, the leadership class of this town (dentists etc.) decided at a certain point long ago that there would be no more discussion about this. Of course, I'd offer a comment now and then and be totally pilloried by certain stuffed shirts in the leadership class. An employee at the WCROC told me in shrill tones "if you didn't do your job (writing sports), someone else would." Couldn't you say that about anyone?
And weren't the teachers being a little hypocritical? Very often they'd try to diffuse an argument by saying "it's just sports." But in their own actions, they treated certain coaching appointments like they were of overwhelming importance.
There is a ready explanation: In the late '80s after all the contentiousness, which Supt. Switzer allowed to get out of hand, the teachers desperately wanted the appointments to go a certain way (having little to do with job performance) so as not to signal to the community that the community could butt in and influence things. In an even earlier era, Mayor Chet Birch told me "the people on the hill," i.e. the school people, felt threatened by anyone wanting to give constructive feedback. They'd stop at nothing to try to resist it. School people should never be allowed to feel like a power unto themselves.
Up through the mid-1980s, teachers were given room to flex their muscles. Teachers who were lazy, ossified and bureaucratic largely got away with much of their discouraging behavior. It was common in the 1970s to hear teachers simply say they hated their work. I think in the mid-1980s, a considerable push got started to wipe out the negative stuff and make school people more accountable. Today we see so many more kids on the honor roll. That's the way the parents would have wanted it all along.
We believe today that kids should feel uplifted and enjoy much of their school experience, whereas in my young years it was more "pain equals gain." I was dragged through school where I felt so much of the activity was pointless.
School sports went through a profound adjustment in the '70s with girls getting into it. That took some time. We had a quasi-administrator here who was known all over town for hating hockey. That stance was surely not bound for success. We later ended up with an athletic director who had a daughter play hockey. That quasi guy might deny he ever resisted hockey, rather he'd just say, perhaps: "Show us the money." I remember talking with a very credible local person - I forget who exactly - who said during the conflict period: "I think a lot of people around town think we should be doing better than we are, even without spending more money."
So often there's a financial component, n'est-ce pas? Certain people might have been expected to work a little harder without a corresponding rise in pay. There were serious scars left after all that, unbeknown mostly to today's Morris residents. Should I mention there was a petition at the Dairy Queen? Certain people would have their hair raise up on their head to even read that. Hey, I thought sports wasn't so important.
I suppose it's nice coach Torgerson has 500 wins now. It's an excuse for some nice puff writing at the Morris paper, where people wouldn't say s--t even if they had a mouthful. You'll probably get the most valid opinions at the Legion club.
Addendum: My issue with the Morris Dairy Queen is more recent. I resented how I saw Fox News on their house TV once.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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