The West Central Tribune has it all figured out: our boys basketball team defeated Paynesville Tuesday night because we were taller. That's it. We can put aside strategy and skill with the game I guess. So the headline this morning reads "Boys basketball: Taller Tigers take down Paynesville in 3AA North."
And then the lead sentence of the article has puzzling wording: "The length that Morris/Chokio-Alberta has on the court is hard to emulate in practice."
Can you imagine how people in Morris would have reacted if I had started out an article in the paper that way? Are we to assume that "length" means "height?" Odd word choice. And when will our own newspaper get around to reporting to us about this significant 89-54 win over Paynesville?
I'm writing this on Wednesday morning. I'm always well-aware when it's Wednesday because DeToy's Restaurant has its biscuits and gravy breakfast special. The next Morris newspaper will not come out until next Tuesday. The newspaper has a website all set up for reporting stuff including sports. Someone just needs to sit down at their typing keyboard and pound out something. It ought to be fun to do.
High school sports exists for the fun of the whole community. I know of a former Morris school administrator who would be livid beyond words if the paper made people wait so long to see coverage of a game. If I were dealing with him, he would become openly hostile. That's not cool when you're a school administrator IMHO.
Today? Has the Morris area public just become apathetic about this? Just shrugging shoulders? It's early Wednesday morning and I just checked "Maxpreps." It is a tremendous service when the MACA coaching staff posts stats there, but it has been very hit-and-miss. Mark Torgerson was pretty good about it. The current coach "teases" sometimes by showing he can do it. But then it seems most of the time he does not. I could have provided high-quality coverage of the Tigers on my blogs all season if the coach used this asset.
So, did the coaches get together and decide they need to give the newspaper a "monopoly" for coverage? This in spite of the fact that the Morris paper only comes out once a week? And what does the Morris radio station do on its website now? We're lucky to just get the scores, maybe 2-3 scoring leaders, maybe. We have DeeDee at the station now. We used to have Brett Miller and Marshall Hoffman. The radio station has fallen so far with this service.
And the newspaper's website sure has lots of sports news but it's almost 100 percent UMM. I am totally insulted by this, so why does the community accept it? Good grief, our boys basketball Tigers won in a significant blow-out Tuesday night in post-season tournament play. We have to settle for an article in the Willmar paper that says we only won because of our height?
Most often the West Central Trib does not even give us MACA stats, instead they'll have "stats not available" for MACA. And they incorrectly refer to us as "Morris/Chokio-Alberta." That is not the name. They have done this for years.
This morning the WC Trib has individual scoring totals and 3-point shooting numbers for both MACA and Paynesville, but no other stats. The former Morris administrator who I cited would hit the ceiling about all this.
And we only won because of our height? When I was with the Morris paper I sought game stats all the way down to "made/attempts" in total field goals and 3-pointers, plus I'd separate offensive and defensive rebounds.
In the end, what worked against me at the paper was the fallout from an ugly controversy that engulfed the community in about 1988. It was a touchstone event for this community. Some businesses got boycotted.
Today in 2025 I'm happy to still be very interested in prep athletics. I have outlasted so many people. My involvement with the media began back in 1972.
I took the stands that I did in the late 1980s because I thought we should put the kids' interests first. Those were strange times. Education was coming out of the 1970s which was an odd, atypical decade as far as prevailing educational philosophies were concerned. Many people would have shouted "school isn't about sports!"
Well, that kind of misses the point, to say the least.
This morning I find there is no paywall on the West Central Tribune site for accessing the article which is all about MACA's height. That's unusual. The West Central Trib is owned by Forum Communications which owned the Morris paper until they just decided to abandon this community. Legend has it they were planning to close the Morris paper. So at present are they bitter toward Morris? And does this explain the WC Trib's decision to take MACA out of its official coverage territory? So our student athletes like Jackson Loge are not eligible for things like "All Area?"
The Stevens County Times could solve all this by engaging its website better. My God, I don't think this would be asking too much. Do you agree? Oh, maybe you're friends with someone who runs or works at the paper. This would likely dictate your opinion totally. This has been the No. 1 criterion for making judgments in Morris: who you are friends with, who you go to church with etc. So you sit around at church coffee hour and gang up on certain people.
Really on a roll
The boys basketball Tigers have now won eleven straight. How exciting this would all be if it were represented in some way on the SCT or kmrs website.
Next we'll play Montevideo. Now it's time to head south to Marshall, Southwest State. Seems a shame we have to travel so far, must cut down on the number of MACA fans. Oh, remember the days when such games were played here in Morris at UMM? Right in town! Could those days ever come back?
The WC Trib tells about our "size advantage" all through today's article. OK so it was genetics. One paragraph gives the height of four of our players.
Alex Asmus scored 23 points for the orange and black. Tyson Grove put in 17. Two more double figures scorers: Ben Tiernan 13 and Jack Kehoe 11. Adding to the attack were Tyler Friesen 9, Drew Huebner 9, Bryce Hardy 3, Charlie Hanson 2 and Riley Asmus 2.
"Asmus" made five 3-point shots, according to the WC Trib, and this would have to be Alex because Riley scored just two points. You have to be aware of siblings on teams! But wait a minute, the Alexandria boys basketball team has two "Witts" but they are not brothers! You can forgive sportswriters for being confused sometimes.
Tiernan made three 3-pointers, and Grove and Hardy one each.
Update: It is 10 a.m. and I just checked the kmrs site: score of game only, no other details. Would I be surprised if I checked the SCT site? No of course not. Just Cougar news.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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