Jackson County turns back our historic Tigers

JCC celebrates (KKOJ)

Say it isn't so: the BBB Tigers losing. Well that's a fact. I opened laptop early this morning and noticed immediately that the MACA won-lost was 28-1. That said it all. One loss at the section level and you're out. Can it be? The Tigers had the "zero" under losses all the way through the season. Until last night (Thursday). 

We're singing the blues in Motown. Added to that is the melancholy caused by the absolutely roaring wind all night long. Roaring! Another morning to notice garbage containers blown over around town. And the signs of spring are slow in surfacing. Everything is still brown. Patches of dirty snow, black in some places. I've never seen so much black dirt mixed in with melting snow. 

Really, the conditions right now are inferior to what we see in the heart of winter. But this is Minnesota, be prepared for anything. 

The St. Mary's fish fry is a sign that spring must be nigh. So is a letter in the mailbox from your tax preparer. We will all have to pay for this new war with Iran. A tomahawk missile struck a girls school there, killed so many. Is all of this with cause for us? Didn't Obama negotiate the Iran nuclear deal? Which the current president pulled us out of? And why did he do that? It was because it happened under Obama. 

Trump wants to take credit for everything just like he wanted to put his name on the Kennedy Center. His is the only name that matters. You haven't woken up to that yet? Well, Morris is well-ensconced in bright red Trump country. 

Watch the Trump-supporting churches like Good Shepherd fill up for the services leading up to Easter. Watch the reverence on Good Friday when I suppose our Morris Public Library will be closed again. I have complained about that. Good Friday is a totally religious holiday and one that I find disturbing. So many Christians become ghouls as they hang out to dry this grisly death-by-torture story of Jesus Christ. And then, presto: on Easter Sunday he appears with triumph. Triumph over sin, as they say. 

I still find it hard to accept the very dark atmosphere of Good Friday, made worse by the Mel Gibson movie. I'm not even convinced that Jesus Christ was a real person. He may have been a composite. He may have been a product of mythology. He may have been put forward by a political regime which felt the Christ story would further its ends, and I can't even fault them for that. The Christ story has a lot of benevolence and peace in it. Don't wallow in your problems or grievances, just look to Christ for salvation, the triumph over sin. 

Those are worthy aims. But I can completely put aside the "triumph" represented by Christ and instead feel sorrow about what Donald Trump and his minions are doing overseas. And, about how all that will spill over domestically for us. For sure another wave of inflation to make life even more stressful for us. We had enough stress already. 

But we voted this guy Trump into office twice. He almost won in 2020. We can only cross our fingers at present. But why have we chosen to bring all this risk on ourselves? Don't we realize how fragile the world is, and even our own country? Trump has an addiction to being the center of attention. Like we need him to do drastic things every day. Literally every day. 

Oh, to have the peace and wisdom with Obama again. But it is not the course we have chosen. 

On this Friday after our MACA Tigers' loss to Jackson County Central, I can only mourn the deaths of those poor girls in the girls school in Iran. Destroyed in a missile attack due to tax dollars paid by us all. Everything else pales in comparison to that incident. 

Triumphant Huskies (KKOJ)

But for the record, the MACA boys were defeated by JCC Thursday night, late at night actually, by a score of 59-54. So the JCC boys from southern Minnesota take the 3AA title and will now play in state. MACA fans will not have to make the substantial commitment of time and money to make three trips to the Twin Cities. Back to normal life. But they'd sure enjoy being in the opposite position. 

I covered the MAHS Tigers in the  state tournament back in the day. Minnesota had the two-class system back then. We took second in state. I covered the boys in their section games at the Concordia Fieldhouse. Every time I mention that, I have to remind how I loved the Polish sausage at that place! 

On Thursday night the JCC Huskies never trailed. JCC coach Alex Hein was proud of his team's defense which made "nothing easy" for our Tigers. 

I was not completely surprised by the outcome. I did some writing on JCC going into Thursday. They have weapons. Like, Roman Voss who scored 27 points on Thursday. Game site was SSU of Marshall. Yes, this meant a long drive home for MACA fans. 

Voss scored 17 points in the first half. He made a '3' at the first half buzzer. Not only was this a "statement" basket, it gave Voss a new school record for 3-pointers. 

Blaise Rowe scored 12 points on four of five shooting. His baskets were all 3's. Ben Gallagher provided six assists and scored three points. Weston Rowe had nine points, five rebounds. Sullivan Hall and Carter Buhl each scored four. Hall blocked two shots. 

Yes the Tigers were hot all season but look at JCC now: winners in 17 of their last 18 games. We do wish them well, don't we? 

I might suggest that y'all contact our congressperson but I fear it is too late for that. Besides, she is 100 per cent MAGA with her eyes glazed over. Will God rescue us? Will God rescue the world? 

The kmrs website has a short paragraph of information. So we see that Alex Asmus scored 17 points. Jonah Huebner had ten points, seven rebounds, five steals. Jack Kehoe had ten points and seven rebounds.

 

A real surprise 

Hey! It's almost never worth the trouble to check the Stevens County Times website because it does not prioritize timely info. So why bother checking? But hey, I just did, and would you believe that on this Friday morning there's actually an article there on the JCC game? Written by their sports guy? Many people won't see it because they won't bother checking. 

So is this an aberration? If I had known it was going to be there, I might have checked for it right away. It's hard for me to interpret all that is going on. "Mongo just pawn in game of life."

  

Congratulations to the Jackson County Central Huskies, No. 1 in Section 3AA. (KKOJ)

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com