Unfortunately it was not a winning night for the orange and black. In fact it was heartbreaking: a 3-2 loss. So the season ends for the MACA girls who won often along the way. Football resumes Saturday against Eden Valley-Watkins at New London-Spicer, with the neutral field being chosen because of issues with the EV-W facility.
The football Tigers are coming off a win over Kimball, a program which BTW is in the statewide news now due to unpleasant circumstances involving the coach. Some allegations concern behavior away from the playing field. Not that there wasn't some talk also about behavior connected to the game action. We'll see how all that gets sorted out.
But in the meantime the Tigers can get focused on the next rung of the playoff ladder. Game-time Saturday is 2 p.m.
The MACA girls had their Thursday night volleyball match at Litchfield, home of the Dragons. Certainly the fans got maximum entertainment out of this bumping, setting and spiking. Game 1 went the way of our orange and black, 25-20, then the Dragons evened things up with a 25-16 game 2 win. Game 3 looks to have been pivotal. We got edged in that one, 23-25.
The pendulum came back our way in the next game, just as close as the game 3 nail-biter. We took the fourth game 28-26 so it all came down to game 5. Alas, the host Dragons seized the momentum back. The Dragons captured victory on the night and the right to advance. The game 5 outcome was 6-15.
LaRae Kram put up 33 assists in the MACA attack. The kills category saw Emma Berlinger come through with nine, Lexi Pew with eight, and Sophia Carlsen and Kenzie Hockel each with seven. Macee Libbesmeier dug up the ball 13 times. Kram and Courtney Lehman each added 12 digs. Pew went up to perform four blocks. The 2019 season is retired into the books with the MACA record a quite satisfying 13-11.
My acknowledgment of the radio station's web-based work is due to the paper's website being dormant at least for the short term. I have tried advising the paper that a fresh website is really a must at this point in time. At present they are stuck with a site that primarily seems attached to Forum Communications. Insiders tell me the website was not part of the sale. That is a crappy deal.
The Forum pulled out of Morris and it ought to try to help the new owners get their feet on the ground, just out of common consideration. But we're talking about corporate capitalism I guess. There's no meaningful sense of a local touch with those people.
So, while we're dealing with this situation, be aware that a lot of good timely news reports are appearing on the KMRS-KKOK website. The station is gaining in its competition with the newspaper, day by day. Wherever good journalism appears, I applaud it. This evolution of the media ecosystem is fodder for my current post on my "Morris of Course" companion blog. Here's the permalink to the post and thanks for reading:
More disappointment w/ Prairie Pioneer Days
Well, this is discouraging. Morris has already retreated from having a standard midsummer festival. Prairie Pioneer Days was yanked from summer and placed in the fall, a move that is hard to view in a positive light. I'm enough of an old-timer to remember when the summer PPD was created. We celebrated because it seemed obvious this was a step forward. Previously we had a fall event.
The summer PPD was a signal we could do this kind of thing on a level comparable to Glenwood with its Waterama. Our summer PPD had a very long and rich run.
It was impossible to foresee that we would ever let go of our summer PPD which was headquartered at East Side Park. I suppose we could not have foreseen the closing of Shopko (formerly Pamida) either. But now I'm told the autumn PPD at the fairgrounds is going to be re-set as a one-day event. Is this something to feel good about? Is there any way to "spin" this in a positive light?
I felt it was bad enough nixing PPD in summer. And BTW what is to become of the Killoran bandshell at the park, which increasingly looks like a big useless hulk of a structure? Does the City of Morris have to spend money maintaining it? The Morris Community Church used to have an occasional outdoor Sunday service there. But now that church is gone. There used to be a series of weekly talent shows there. Now it's down to just one evening.
I have such incredible memories of when the summer PPD was in its prime. My uncle and aunt from Glenwood used to come over, visit and take in the fun at the park. I have pictures. It made people more aware of Morris in the summer. Remember the Coborn's parade float? Coborn's is gone. Shopko is gone. Things are changing faster than we'd like to acknowledge. And, not for the better, it seems.
We have to get out of the way of "corporate capitalism" always. Fargo-based Forum Communications was going to close our newspaper, well-placed sources told me. But the Benson newspaper family came to the rescue, taking over in a manner that I'm told was rushed - this explains why the issue of the paper's website wasn't handled properly.
People talk as if they're enthused about the "new" Morris paper. I'm concerned that a lot of this is empty talk. Can it parlay into real stability for the local print media? I'm not so sure. It surely doesn't help that the new owners cannot produce a good service with its website, comparable to what the radio station with Brett Miller is doing. The radio station will benefit.
Manager Deb Mattheis is a 1972 Morris High School graduate while I'm '73. She was Deb Driggins in high school.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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