MACA showed many strong points on the basketball court Thursday night. The action was at WHN on the eve of an expected winter storm. The wind is whipping up as I write this Friday morning. Not much snow yet. Snow would change things markedly. Ah, winter in Minnesota.
The Tigers surged out in front of the Warriors 37-22 at halftime. We outscored the foe 37-29 in the second half. So the game's final score was 74-51. We crept over .500 to 8-7. The Wheaton-Herman-Norcross record: 5-6.
Emma Bowman was at the fore of our scoring with 20 points. Malory Anderson had impact in all stat categories and in scoring her total was 12. We learn that she narrowly missed a "quadruple double." MacKenna Kehoe continued to impress in her long-range shooting. She made three 3-pointers and scored eleven points. Bowman made a '3' as did Meredith Carrington and LaRae Kram.
Carrington's point total was eleven. Kram contributed ten points, then we have Kylie Swanson with six and Kendra Wevley and Sydney Dietz each with two. Anderson was team-high in rebounds (9), assists (9) and steals (9). Swanson blocked two shots.
Wrestling: Tigers 48, BOLD 21
How many fans remember Hancock Owl wrestling? Quite the treasure trove of memories. Hancock was like "the little engine that could" in prep wrestling for a very long time. They had a quite colorful coach for a long time. He might not have been an administrator's dream but he got the team to reach impressive heights. Shall we say that high-achieving coaches can sometimes be volatile?
These memories are prompted by reporting on the Thursday dual meet at the Hancock gym. Former Morris coach George Graff once talked about how he sensed the "ghosts of the old Owl wrestlers up in the rafters." The descriptive Graff would say those ghosts would be approving of the then-new Hancock-Morris partnership in the sport. Graff's successor was Paul Court who told me he did not see those "ghosts." You have to believe! Court was a former UMM student-athlete. He left here for Cold Spring.
Thursday night saw the Tigers of MAHACA entertain fans at the Hancock gym. The ghosts were approving along with the MAHACA fans as the team defeated BOLD 48-21. It was a West Central Conference match.
Our little guy, Tyce Anderson, won 6-0 over Brady Kiecker. At 113 pounds we had Dallas Walton and I'm wondering if this young man is connected to the old Hancock wrestling Waltons. I remember the colorful Hancock wrestling coach saying of Danny Walton one night that he had a "Cheshire cat grin" about something. Us writers love that kind of material. Dallas Walton won by fall over BOLD Warrior Gavin Hammerschmidt (:23).
Then at 120 pounds we had the high-achieving Ethan Lebrija winning by an 8-3 decision over Austin Kiecker. Davis Rose pinned Rylan Gass in :30. Everything was coming up roses as Dylan Rose had his arm raised via forfeit. Our surging grew as Dain Schroeder pinned Tanner Weidauer in 2:35. Then it was Toby Messner at 145 pounds taking care of business vs. Neil Young: a 10-6 decision.
Noah Amundson at 152 pounds won by a 15-8 decision over Hunter Ridler. BOLD picked up wins at 160 and 170 pounds. Jordan Amberg won by fall over Josh Rohloff in 3:41. Anthony Maher pinned Jacob Boots in 3:11. The roses bloomed again at 182 pounds where Dalton Rose pinned Blake Flann in 1:15.
Our Tristian Raths pinned Gavin Moudry at 195 pounds, time of 1:55. Then at 220 it was BOLD Warrior Tim Peppel winning by decision over Dillon Nelson, 10-5. Big guy Brady Ridler of BOLD had his arm raised by forfeit. Surely the old Owl ghosts were well-pleased by night's end!
Newspaper update
It's fine to feel good about the new Morris newspaper ownership. However, the whole industry is feeling headwinds that render as mostly irrelevant how "good" we all feel about the paper's owners and employees. It is just a fact of life. The challenges are bound to become greater.
So maybe I should not have been surprised seeing the blatant front page "free ad" the paper granted to an important local business in the current issue. The paper needs to bend over backward and really curry favor with the advertisers who are still out there. I remember when the paper had three major car dealer clients each week: Heartland, Valu Ford and Morris Auto Plaza. In terms of real advertising activity, it seems we're just down to Heartland now.
And certainly the paper is showing appreciation for that in a substantial way. I was frankly taken aback when I saw the new Morris paper edition at the library on Wednesday. So taken aback, I had to confirm what I was seeing right in front of me. So taken aback, I hesitated saying anything to a library employee and friend standing near me.
I sort of did a double-take: Is this some sort of paid ad? I mean for Heartland Motors. Sometimes a sponsor will have a "wrap-around" with the front page. Remember how Denny Hecker used to do those with the Star/Tribune? Denny seems to have fallen into ignominy. How did he climb to such a prominent place in the Twin Cities car sales industry?
Well, the current Morris paper did not have a wrap-around for Heartland - no, it was a dominating "fluff" article on the car dealer, put right at the top of page 1.
I examined it a little, wondering if the paper might be presenting this as a historical retrospective on the dealership. I seem to recall writing two such articles on that dealership in my Morris paper tenure. While the current article has some historical content, it is focused on the sale way too much, making the whole thing jump out at you as a "free ad." This is the depths to which the print media will go now, I guess, to try to keep revenue flowing in from the legacy advertisers. Problem is, I don't think it will help. Car dealers are nothing if not astute about money and business matters. A paper acting like a "good friend," along with ten cents will get you a cup of coffee. (The price would be higher at Caribou Coffee at Willie's.)
I shake my head about the current Morris paper. Seems like the new owners have really brought nothing more than intangibles - the belief that we now have more local ownership - well, anything would be more local than the Forum of Fargo.
I am proud to have posted Wednesday on the MACA girls basketball win over ACGC along with two MBA hockey games. As a bonus you'll see my commentary on the threat incident at the school. All that is on my "Morris of Course" companion blog - please visit and spend some time.
Interesting, because in light of how the Morris paper has allowed its website to essentially "die," I will have beaten the paper by a full week in reporting on the ACGC game. I am proud of that. Would Mike Martin be impressed? It is a delight to stay connected to MACA activities.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
personally I am thrilled about the new ownership as they give me a lot more room for column then did the previous owners. often had to leave out a good half of my column to make it fit in the 250 or so words I was allocated and even that was too much at times. now I can do about double that and still get it in the paper
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