I remember coach Jerry Witt occasionally using the term "smash mouth football." Our society used to admire that or smile about that: suggested toughness in a "manly" way. Our thinking has advanced. Boys are no tougher than girls. And "tough" suggests danger of hurting people. There has never been anything good about that, not even "manly."
But there was a time when the manly males were conscripted into military service and sent to Vietnam where unspeakably terrible things including death would happen to them. You would think that the people would have risen up. Unfortunately not enough did: our involvement went on for years, even with many people back here behaving like cheerleaders for it. Led by John Wayne. Oh, he was an actor. Hollywood is "the dream factory." Wayne gave us the movie "The Green Berets."
So today our MACA Tigers are scoring so often, the "scoring summary" portion of a game report would be extensive. Man, do I ever remember when the opposite was true! It seemed almost pointless to sit down with coach Witt in an interview and start out with the "scoring summary." So minimal.
I remember back in that time, the "9-man" game gave writers like me some relief: generally speaking far more scoring. Another trait that I noticed with the 9-man game was that one superstar could really take over a game. Neal Hofland really had impact in the 9-man game with his Spartans. It's the stuff of museum memories now.
Great to see Neal still "at it" in athletics, his heart in it 100 percent. I endured times when the Morris-based athletic program had some issues with culture, philosophy and performance. Today? Man, I was at Big Cat for a portion of the Little Falls game last night. Everything is terrific. I'm a little saddened by how I recognize so few people among the fans now.
The big news in my head coming out of last night is the re-emergence of cheerleaders for Motown! Looked to me like a real official group of cheerleaders and not an informally organized group.
What do I think? Well, terrific! The more the merrier: This is a neat addition to the whole experience. If I were still with the newspaper - now, there's a reach for a hypothetical - I would push for a front-page article on that.
It's not just a new dimension for the experience, it is the re-starting of something that was once a staple. I would try to reflect on why it was phased out: I think for cultural reasons, reasons related to societal change. I don't know for a fact if Mary Holmberg felt it had to go, but it would not surprise me. I think the real progressive people of a certain time - like when Chris Voelz was women's athletic director at the U - felt that the sea change of true women's empowerment in athletics had to entail various things even if they were just symbolic.
Cheerleaders? That whole concept could be seen as a vestige in certain people's eyes, vestige of less enlightened times when there were gender stereotypes. The boys were engaged in the truly serious activity that people paid to see. Yes like football the tough and manly sport.
It was expected of cheerleaders that they be cute. Based on my experience observing, I would say the "cute" element particularly applied to the basketball cheerleaders. That's boys basketball.
The wrestling/football cheerleaders never quite measured up the same way. If you're offended by that, that's unfortunate.
I would hope that cheerleaders of today are not expected to be "lookers." And my, how would I define "lookers?" There's a daunting question in today's cultural environment.
It has become so clear that females are the equals of males in sports, I do not think the Mary Holmbergs of the world have to feel defensive any more. Look what Caitlin Clark is doing now. We can enjoy cheerleaders as a simple fun element of the prep sports experience.
How long has this hiatus been, where Tiger sports has been sans cheerleaders? Oh, a great many years. It's great to see gender equality and also great to see cheerleaders. I could not observe close enough last night to see if one or more of them were male. I would think males are eligible.
Music, maestro!
I arrived at Big Cat midway in the first quarter. I wondered if the pep band was present. I had to ask around. I learned the band played but it was quite ahead of the game. And the band did not play the National Anthem. But the anthem had the delight of a recent MAHS alum perform. I heard part of this from YouTube.
Featured was Emily Hamm who I still remember from her Christmas concert performance of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." That's a challenging song to sing with a wide vocal range. Speaking of wide vocal range, the National Anthem ranks at or near the top with that. Ms. Hamm showed her singing chops.
Later when I was at the field, I heard the recording of the MAHS pep band doing our school song. I have a criticism to share with this. First off, the quality of the recording doesn't seem very good. Secondly, don't you think the band drags a little with tempo? I confirmed this by noticing that fans struggled some to slow down their clapping as the tune proceeded.
You know what I think the band needed? I think it could have used last year's Hancock pep band director who played electric bass with her band. Man, she really pushed the kids - exciting. But later I heard this didn't win such approval from her own principal. Seems Mr. Pahl was disapproving of her work with this. "Unprofessional?" That's what I heard he said.
I could not disagree more. I wrote about Tim Pahl for the Hancock paper when he was an athlete under Dave Schoeck and others. I also wrote a lot about Bill Kehoe for the Morris paper. Ah, these "kids."
MACA won a terrific game over Little Falls 50-21. All that point-scoring! If I had only been blessed to write about games like this in a bygone time. I remember being at a typical game at Coombe Field when Minnewaska (or Glenwood) was hopeless and I swore that even if the ball got loose in the end zone and the Lakers had only to fall on it, the ball would squirt out of the end zone. Compare that to last night here.
Addendum: How is MACA cross country doing? Actually not encouraging. Take a look at the results of Thursday's Little Crow Invitational hosted by NL-Spicer. The MACA boys were 14th among 15 teams. The girls? We were 11th among 12 teams.
What about volleyball? We did sweep Benson Thursday but Benson was a cupcake opponent. They're busy over there fighting to keep the "Braves" nickname.
A friend informed me that Tiger volleyball has "struggled pretty consistently with just one winning season since the 2020 pandemic year." Back in 2017 we were tops in the West Central Conference and went 21-6 overall. A 12-1 WCC mark and then unfortunately fell to a juggernaut Marshall in the state qualifier. "The 2018 season was another great year for Tiger volleyball - but post-covid it's been tough sledding."
The match before Benson was a 0-3 loss to Minnewaska at home.
Addendum #2: From an email I sent to a friend this morning (Saturday):
Remember the school board member who wondered if the teachers were practicing "preventative health care?" This was a very important point to be made. These teachers with their Cadillac health insurance will go to a doctor who sends them for "tests" and then when a test shows something ever so minor that isn't quite right, well then all heck breaks loose with meds and follow-up testing to where the expense for everyone skyrockets. And of course many people create their own problems with not eating right, lack of exercise, overweight etc.
- BW
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