Today
(Wednesday) the focus is on the girls team. New London-Spicer has had a
powerful girls program for as long as I can remember. MACA went into
Tuesday's playoff game against the Wildcats with reason to hope. And we
were in fact competitive. I mean, the final score was within bounds for
being competitive.
Maybe
someday - who knows when? - we'll really have equal footing with
NL-Spicer. These things change. Someday the NL-Spicer school should have
a statue erected of coach Dreier. Just think if we had had that program
here in Morris.
This
past season has been encouraging for MACA girls hoops. We'll see if the
way forward stays that way. I have never met our coach. I knew his
father when I wrote sports for the Morris paper. The Morris girls
program has had long drought periods.
I
never like to point the finger at "talent," never. That makes me a more
optimistic person by nature than psst MAHS school faculty groups (or
cliques). A friend of mine who was on the school board said to me once:
"One thing you have to realize about this school, the coaches come
first." In other words, their survival interests come first, and if we
have to put down the kids based on talent, well then we (the teachers)
will do that. I got really scarred trying to put up a resistance to
that.
Well,
this morning the headline on the West Central Tribune website describes
the Tigers as "feisty." Struck me as odd at first but I guess it's OK.
Is the WC Trib trying to imply that even though we wouldn't have a
chance against NL-Spicer, we were at least "feisty?" I mean, in a cute
sort of way?
Someday
this all might change and we might even be favored vs. the Wildcats.
For now we're accepting a 66-51 defeat at the hands of Dreier's team.
Merriam-Webster
defines "feisty" as "having or showing a lively aggressiveness." The
article said our team "gave NL-S everything it had." And, that we "stuck
with them." Doesn't really serve as consolation. I'd prefer that we be
straight-up competitive with them. Not just "feisty."
NL-Spicer is on to the 3AA-North finals.
The
Tigers trailed by four at halftime, 26-22. Action was at Willmar's Big
Red gym. The two 3AA-North semifinal games were played Tuesday. In the
other one, Minnewaska breezed past KMS 67-50. So now it's NL-Spicer vs.
'Waska for all the section marbles. Hey! I see where the title game will
be played here in Morris at UMM! That's kind of a surprise. Game-time
is 7 p.m. Thursday.
NL-S
is ranked first in state. My, they look overpowering with a 27-1
record. The "Waska Lakers are 22-6. On Feb. 14 the Wildcats beat the
Lakers 59-52.
A telling stretch
Our
Tigers faded as the Wildcats surged with a 14-point run on Tuesday. At
the end of that, NL-S was up 53-36. The MACA season is done with a
won-lost showing of 13-12.
All
was "Fehr" in this game: Our top two scorers were Mylie Fehr and Chloe
Fehr with 20 and 13 points. Mylie's 20 was the game-high total. Samantha
Konz put in 11 points. Complementing this core were Mia Lu Aschje 4 and
Addie Cihak 3.
Addie
is my neighbor up on Northridge Drive. Man we're looking forward to the
snowdrifts receding! But just think of all the slush we'll have to
contend with. I'm happy to see that Addie made a 3-pointer. Konz
likewise made a '3'. That's it, no more stats from the West Central
Tribune. NL-Spicer gets a thorough stat review.
The
Wildcats had four players in double figures: Paycen Rutgers 17, Korbin
Tanner 15, Taylor Munsch 11 and Ayla Caskey 12. Rutgers made four
3-pointers and Caskey made three. Rosanne Klein led in rebounds with 11.
Caskey led in assists with four. Caskey, Tanner and Munsch each had
four steals. Tanner and Rosanne Klein each blocked two shots.
Addendum: Some
follow-up on my eyesight/health situation: I just finished typing this
post from my notes and found that some adjustments helped. I got eyes
closer to my notes and tried typing slower. And it went better than I
expected, better than yesterday when I typed on the MACA boys. I
certainly will not want to miss the excitement when the boys start
climbing.
Yesterday
I got discouraged about my ability to write and type, but right now I
feel better. It'll be day-by-day I guess. I have suspended taking my
"meds" because of problems with side effects, unacceptable problems.
This too will be a day-by-day or week-by-week thing.
Anyone
who has read this far, bless you. Without being able to write, don't
know where I'd be in life.
At my best I was an extremely fast typist. I
learned the skill on the old "manual uprights." I took classes from Mr.
Roberts at Morris High. We couldn't have dreamt of today's
computers/word processing. I kept up with tech advances for a long time,
then I started falling off. I am 71 years old. My old peers like Rob
Eul are passing away. I'm thankful I can receive an occasional
"blessing" at a Catholic funeral! Really, it means a lot.
Rob is in that big quonset building in the sky now.
- Brian Williams, morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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