Everyone knew the Otters of Fergus Falls would be tough. That assessment was surely confirmed Wednesday at the Kennedy High School field. It was humbling for the Tigers to give up 42 points. We scored 20 ourselves. But a loss it was, which left our W/L at 7-1.
We're 4-1 in section play, 6-1 in conference, 3-1 away from home and a spotless 4-0 at Big Cat. Two of our wins this season have been by shutout, over Thief River Falls and East Grand Forks.
So, the score was. . .
There is a problem with understanding the final score on this windy Thursday morning. You see, "Minnesota Scores" has the final at 42-20. I have found this site to be rock solid in the past. The kmrs-kkok site this morning has the final 43-14. I know that when I was at the paper, if all else failed I darn well better get the score right.
I cannot assume which score is correct here. But both of the scores send the same basic message: MACA was outplayed on this night. I would guess last night was windy too. I'm sure the temperature was quite acceptable.
Has the "MEA week game" terminology faded? "MEA" is the teachers union. I have hated teacher unions more than almost anything else in my life. Teachers once dragged me through endless misery starting in about the seventh grade. And they had such power! Be 30 seconds late for class, you'd feel like you'd face a firing squad or something. Why?
I learned a few years ago why: teachers needed to account for all the "heads" at all times to be sure the school could get its state aid money! It's always about money.
School then was set up like the military, a reflection of the military. The system seemed OK by our parents because they were the WWII generation. WWII was the defining element in the background of so many of them. If a big government monopoly was good for winning a war, then a national monopoly education system would pass muster too. Our national government won WWII. But it lost the Vietnam war.
MACA standouts in loss
Thanks again to our kmrs-kkok radio station for posting some individual stat details from the Wednesday game. So we see that Drew Huebner rushed for 91 yards on 15 carries and scored two touchdowns. Grayson Gibson carried ten times for 38 yards and a score. Huebner the QB completed six passes in 13 attempts for 69 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, fans saw Andrew Marty perform three solos and eight assisted tackles for 11 points. And, Jahvon Johnson had three solos/six assists for nine points. Tyler Friesen intercepted a pass.
Does the SCT website have anything? No. So thanks to kmrs-kkok but I'd still prefer having a little more info background so I could write a more "meaty" posting. Would be nice to describe scoring plays of course. Report the length of drives too, key plays.
I was hoping this morning to be able to flesh things out by some more info accessible online. My post would of course be entirely in my own words. My goal is to produce a better product than my source!
Obviously I personalize my writing. So I can insert that it's so windy this morning, I'll skip a week putting my refuse container out. I live alone and don't produce much waste. A lightweight container is susceptible to blowing over. Welcome to my life!
I took a long walk yesterday and found that it's hard getting solitude. I was out along the bypass east of town when a fire track approached from behind with siren blaring. I left the shoulder of the road. I got past the little dirt strip that's next to the shoulder and retreated to the grass at the top of the ditch. That wasn't good enough. The fire truck driver blared his horn at me like he was shaking his fist!
Public safety employees can go on a "power trip." I am 70 years old. Was I supposed to dash down to the bottom of the ditch through the long grass and weeds? The reason I'm out taking long walks is that I'm a diabetic and have been advised to get good exercise. Heaven help us if we cannot take a peaceful walk in the open spaces out east of town. What else is there?
An alternative journo
I hope my writing these days reflects genuine enthusiasm. That is the goal anyway.
The Fergus Falls Daily Journal website has a headline/link about the game. Oh no, there's a paywall! I know some tricks for trying to get around these. But none are working with this. I tried to log in using one of my Google email addresses. The site appeared to recognize that option. But after clicking around with some desperation, there was no breakthrough.
I suggest that other MACA fans are checking around in like fashion. It all appears to be no-go for accessing the coverage. So you'll have to be a paid subscriber to the Fergus Falls Daily Journal to get access.
How many Fergus Falls residents would not even want to take the step of being an online subscriber? Our day-to-day costs these days add up, don't they? And I'm not sure the Fergus Falls school and its athletic department should feel comfortable with this arrangement. Their coach cooperates with the Journal to submit info and quotes I'm sure. But in effect they are helping the Daily Journal which is a private business make $ from the souls who seek info. A school should not have this kind of partnership with a private business.
Let's update our thinking
Problem is, many of us are under the illusion that the "local paper" is some sort of benevolent presence in a community. Kind of like it's government or something, and I frankly wonder how benevolent government is much of the time.
Whatever the Fergus Falls coach chooses to do - to "feed' info and quotes to the paper - could be done through an online channel that would be available free to all. Such a channel might have ads with the $ going to the school. And it would have to be free access because the school wishes to serve the public.
The problem here is that we have a lot of "legacy attitudes" floating around. It goes back to the pre-digital days when a newspaper and radio station really had unquestioned primacy with communications and reporting. We all accepted this way of life. To reach the broad public you worked through one of these institutions. The paper would try to be benevolent but it still sought a nice profit. We understood that the paper had to charge for its product because it had costs for printing and distributing the printed product.
Wake up everyone. Apply the smelling salts or whatever because everything is different today. A website can be managed with no overhead cost at all. I guess this brave new world is why our Morris paper acts so scared about sharing on MACA athletics via its website. This is transparent: the paper deliberately avoids putting MACA sports material on its website for fear the public will get wise to how the printed product is simply not essential anymore.
The signal from the paper is "wait 'til Tuesday and buy our printed product." Yes, just a once-weekly edition and so I suspect the paper is scared about that reality too. They cut their overhead cost by putting out just one edition weekly, so we have to wait an inordinate amount of time to get sports updates.
The paper used to have some competition when Brett Miller was at the radio station. That competition is gone. Shouldn't heads roll at the radio station over that? Ditto with Marshall Hoffman's departure. A big void is there. I thought it was "full speed ahead" for communications in the year 2024.
How long will the public allow the "legacy media" to hang on with its advantages? Looks like in Fergus Falls, the public is at least putting up with the Daily Journal's paid online subscription service. "Pony up." But there's no overhead expense involved with simply putting news online. Like magic it can happen before our eyes.
I wish I could read a little narrative about last night's MACA football game against the Otters. I'd like to write in a fully descriptive way about it too. But I cannot.
A toast to Sabrina!
Final thought: How about that Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty WNBA team? Dashing the dreams of our Minnesota Lynx at least for now.
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| Sabrina Ionescu, Wednesday hero for the New York "Liberty" vs. the Lynx |
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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