Minnewaska volleyball powers to 6-0

Berlynn Green (NCSA image)

The Minnewaska Area Lakers are putting on a show with their bumping, setting and spiking this fall. Looks like there's carryover from the last basketball season which saw the Lakers soar to fourth in state. They have picked up where they left off in the gymnasium sports. 

My first choice this morning would be to write about the Morris Area Chokio Alberta Tigers of volleyball. Alas, there is a paucity of available information. I have bemoaned that for a long time. Various factors have caused this. Info is more readily available on the Minnewaska Area Lakers. We're always happy to see those Lakers excelling. 

I had the pleasure of visiting the Minnewaska Area school this past summer for the "Showstoppers" performance of "Newsies." And what a great show it was. My first time in the 'Waska auditorium. 

Those Lakers of the volleyball world are 6-0 now. They are 3-0 in section and 5-0 in conference. 

Let's take a further look: the 'Waska wins have nearly all been by sweep! This includes the Sept. 9 win over our MACA Tigers. 'Waska downed the Tigers 3-0 at the 'Waska gym. It's always neat to see the picturesque Lake Minnewaska as you leave that school. 

Most recently the Lakers turned back BOLD, again showing the sweep magic. The win over BOLD was on Thursday at BOLD. I wonder how the BOLD school is proceeding with the "criminal investigation" of its finances. 

The Lakers defeated Melrose 3-1 on Sept. 4. That's the only match that did not have a sweep outcome. Previous to the Melrose match, 'Waska disposed of Holdingford, Montevideo and Sauk Centre. Can anyone stop the Lakers? Fans at Olivia saw the Lakers down the BOLD Warriors 25-17, 25-11 and 25-19. This was West Central Conference volleyball.

  

The individuals

Emma Hellermann and Haillie Schulz each had three serving aces. Elian Marthaler had two. Schulz facilitated the Lakers' offense with her 29 assists. 

Berlynn Green, a sophomore, was at the fore in hitting with her 11 kills. Mya VanLuik followed with seven, then we see Avery Lewison 6, Schulz 5, Taylor Schulz 5, Hellemann 3 and Marthaler 1. 

Lewison supplied punch at the net with her 3 1/2 blocks. The Schulz girls - Haillie and Taylor - each had one. Here's the rundown on digs: Green 12, Piper Barsness 8, Marthaler 6, Emma Poegel 6 and Haillie Schulz 6. 

For BOLD, Kaitlyn Flann and Kyleigh Snow each had two serving aces. Snow supplied eight set assists. Elfering led in kills with five. Lucy Remer had three ace blocks. And in digs, Kya Elfering set the pace with 12.

 

Orange and black

Morris Area Chokio Alberta has lost some steam after a 3-0 start. The Tigers went 1-2 in the Lakeview tournament. Then they lost to Minnewaska Area 0-3 on Tuesday. They did not play on Thursday. The West Central Tribune had "stats not available" for MACA in the 'Waska match. In a previous time I would have been able to write some paragraphs on the Tigers. It is sad that I cannot today. 

I know the Tigers have height as an attribute. The two players who I know are 6-0 and 6-1. Not sure we have to accept being swept by Minnewaska.

 

Charlie Kirk

The Charlie Kirk shooting

I knew little about who Charlie Kirk was, prior to the assassination this week. The name would have rung familiar with me. I would have been pretty sure he was on the right end of political spectrum. This has been the fashionable place to be in America for a very long time. 

Naturally it is wrong and tragic for anyone to be shot. Why do colleges find they should allow such polarizing figures on campus? Remember the days when so many bills got through Congress that had a Republican co-sponsor and Democratic co-sponsor? The parties could reach agreement sometimes, strange as that comes across now. 

John Boehner - remember him? - handed over the gavel to Nancy Pelosi in a congenial way. Well why the heck not? 

You all may be paying attention to the wrong issues now. Oh you're familiar with the tariffs, yes. And you must want this. The president has been waving the flag with tariffs for a long time. And if you don't know that tariffs are a consumption tax on all of us, you're a fool. I won't lecture you on the background here. 

The issue that should maybe grab your attention now is the Federal Reserve. There is a widespread belief that the Fed is about to push interest rates way down again. The Fed was already receptive to that idea but then the president had to wield his hammer, so to speak. Of course there has long been an unwritten rule that the president does not comment on the Fed. Trump goes the extra mile to break the rule, and is there enough pushback? Well no there isn't. 

Charlie Kirk went around the country extolling Trump across the board, I gather, even giving out red hats. The people who buy all his rhetoric will have to answer for the consequences of Trump-ism when all is said and done. Low interest rates fuel inflation. They devalue our currency, in case that matters to you. 

The widespread deportation of cheap labor can only fuel inflation. So many of the deportations on their very face seem inhumane. If that matters to you. That's a refrain of mine now: "if that matters to you." I'm not sure how the issues of the day are registering with people. 

People here in the wide open spaces seek refuge in their churches. With all the negative things going on with the rural economy - I mean for the rank-and-file - people seem to think church is the answer. As if their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would wish to support what our Republican Party is doing. That's the party that rules out here: no contest. Believe me it didn't used to be like this. 

I suspect that Jesus Christ would want nothing to do with DJT, he of the insurrection attempt in D.C. He gets away with pardoning everyone. And you're good with it. Our congressperson reflects DJT 100 percent like they're joined at the hip. Maybe I should just say "heaven help us all." 

Hell may be coming to breakfast in the rural Upper Midwest. Maybe it's because you bought into rhetoric that originated in the states of the old Confederacy. We fought a war against that.

 

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

Tigers stuff the Montevideo offense, here

MACA football completely erased any sting from their season-opening loss by winning in an absolute rout on Friday! This was the home opener. And yes, the word "absolutely" is most called for. Frankly we had to feel sorry for the opposing team by game's end. Negative yardage on offense. Truly this spells "futility." 

The Tigers triumphed 48-0 over the Thunder Hawks of Montevideo. How one-sided can you get? It was so one-sided it could get boring I'm sure. Sorry, I didn't have enough drive to walk on over. Fans dealt with some unseasonable cold. But word is, warmer temps will be setting in. I hope to get over to Big Cat and get a burger basket sometime, if that promo is continuing. 

Monte's "zero" on the scoreboard says a lot. A lot more is said if you dive deeper into the numbers. The MACA defense limited Monte to negative 28 yards rushing on 20 attempts. The passing story was equally bleak for those Thunder Hawks: minus nine yards! So the T-Hawks had 37 total plays from scrimmage and went backwards 37 yards. Hard to believe the disparity between teams is this wide. 

And to think our Tigers were humbled just a week earlier at the hands ot the 'Waska Lakers, score of 48-14. Uh-oh, 'Waska plays Monte on Oct. 10 at Monte! 

 

Vagaries of sports 

We can praise the MACA defense. But it's never fun to see a team struggle as much as Monte did. That's my editorial comment. In the '80s when I wrote sports for the Morris paper, Monte could manhandle the Tigers. The '80s in general were a ragged time for Tiger athletics. Eventually I heard comments like "oh, we can't compete with Montevideo!" 

The vagaries of high school sports! 

I remember when Granite Falls was such a football power. Eventually they got absorbed into the new entity called Yellow Medicine East. YME had a hard time being competitive in football for a long time. 

 

Righting ship

Our Tiger fans may have been worried some coming out of the Labor Day weekend game vs. 'Waska. Those worries would seem gone now. Even without Riley Asmus it looks like we'll be fine. Maybe some of the other towns will start to say "oh, we can't compete with Morris." Maybe the addition of Chokio-Alberta helped us turn the corner. 

I was present for a historic Morris football win over Granite Falls. Were they the "Kilowatts?" It was an unforgettable game that had us using a trick play at the end, was masterfully drawn up. Our coach was Jerry Witt. The trick play unfolded with a pass to a wideout who was behind the line of scrimmage. The wideout then launched the ball downfield. I remember Kent Moser was involved. I photographed the Rambows - Lyle and Londa - in an embrace in the post-game celebration. 

My involvement with the Morris newspaper was severed in 2006. The last MACA football game I covered was at Henning. I never dreamt that night it would be the end. 

What grade should the West Central Tribune get for its coverage this morning? The standards are awfully low. So often we see "stats not available" for the MACA teams. Well, this morning I see they did slightly better. But you can see that Monte is a higher priority for them. Their three-sentence article concludes with an announcement of Monte's next game. It will be against Glencoe-Silver Lake at Glencoe. There's no mention of the Tigers' next game. 

Go sit under a cow, you West Central Trib staff members. 

 

Safety starts us off 

The Tigers gained a 9-0 lead in the first quarter. Initially we got two points on a safety. Uh-oh, here we go with "n/a" for "not available!" This is for the Tigers' first touchdown where we do not see the name of the  player who scored. They have "n/a 2 run." So it was a two-yard run by whoever, but strangely the West Central Trib has the name of the kicker for the conversion. It's Landen Gibson. So congrats Landen. 

Perhaps we should extend a bigger congratulations to Gibson on his next kick. He kicked the ball through the uprights from 31 yards out. Three points. 

The Tigers kept pouring it on with an eight-yard TD run. The WC Trib has the name of the Tiger carrying the football: Kye Suess. We got the two-point conversion, names don't appear for that. What a scattershot system the Willmar paper has. But they got their act together for reporting our next score: Ozzy Jerome passed 15 yards to Jack Kehoe, and Gibson kicked successfully. 

Oh no we start seeing "n/a" again. So the Tigers score on a "n/a 35-yard fumble return." Gibson kicked. Continuing, the Tigers struck with a "n/a 86-yard interception return." Gibson kicked. And then we wrapped up the scoring with a "n/a 23-yard run." Gibson's toe was true again. Gibson for his part worked into the paper's coverage well. The paper must have been relying on the Montevideo coach. 

The Tigers achieved 13 first downs en route to victory. We had 147 rushing yards on 28 carries. Drake Asmus had 46 yards on just two carries. Suess had ten yards on two. Jerome's passing produced 8 for 16 numbers for 277 yards. Kehoe had two receptions for 22 yards. Hunter Westerman intercepted a pass and Jace Kleindl recovered a fumble. We sacked the quarterback twice.

What are the odds that the Stevens County Times will have game coverage on its website before the end of the weekend? What are the odds we'll see more than the "score" on the kmrs-kkok site? Certain other people need to go sit under a cow. 

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

"Smoke gets in your eyes" for football opener

Passing on football to stay healthy

Will the new high school sports season help us forget about the smoke we continue to see hovering in the air in the morning? Today (Thursday) was another such morning. We have been through a "false fall" of late. But today promises to be most summer-like. Can't really get enough of that. We all know that when the cold sets in, it seems interminable. 

I shall cover the maximum distance with my walk this afternoon east of town. Some people think it strange that I walk along the bypass. I hear an occasional horn honk and this has to puzzle me: is that motorist saying a friendly hello with the honk or shaking his first at me? "You don't belong here." Really? 

You should know that between 1982 and 1992, I would run out along these places. And to make it even more strange or anomalous, I sometimes ran at night. Sometimes around midnight even. I thought it was a good way to find peace. Maybe that was the case then. Our world is different today. More dangerous. People do not accept oddball behavior as much either. 

Today I would be accosted by the cops even if the cops knew who I was. Arrested for something. Acting ridiculous? 

Well I do cherish the memories of when my body was resilient enough to go out running. I did the Twin Cities Marathon three times in the 1980s. First time around was the best: time of three hours, one minute, 11 seconds. Once I started running that day I didn't stop. A guy at the finish line said I "looked a little dry." I remedied that in short order. The year was 1984. 

My next two experiences there were in 1987 and 1988. By then my body had worn down some. I stopped the pastime in '92 because of chronic pain in my right foot. I don't feel it now, but I would after a couple weeks of jogging again. I sometimes try to break into a jogging gait when I'm out walking. I can develop no enthusiasm for it. 

Walking is good for me for health reasons. Not sure if all the smoke in the air from Canadian wildfires is such a harmless thing. 

On the subject of staying healthy, a top athlete with the MACA Tigrs has sure made a decision in this direction. This is Mr. Riley Asmus. Yes and some people feel disturbed by this. I guess I can see both sides. This community made a push once to get our old Coombe Field replaced with a most top-notch artificial turf field. Upon making this significant move, we might have assumed it was a privilege for our young athletes to be able to play football at such a place. Certainly the fans had to like it. 

 

Then and now

Don't you have to smile as you recall the adjustment from the old field to the new? I mean, just from the basic standpoint of atmosphere and fan deportment? I think it was rather like night and day. The old Coombe Field, named for a teacher that I personally had, was like a "town square." That's how Lory Lemke described it to me - the term stuck in my head. You might recall that most people there seemed more interested in socializing and hanging around, and their attention was not firmly focused on football like it is now. 

For this transition to happen, the powers-that-be with Minnesota prep football had to adjust the game so that there was more scoring and more passing. We see many more high-scoring games now. Whereas in the Coombe Field days, there were games that were just play after play with a handoff and then a run into the line of maybe two yards. Maybe none. 

I remember when 'Waska was here for a game and I swore 'Waska wasn't going to score unless a ball came loose in the end zone and they just had to fall on it! And even then, would have expected the ball to just "squib" out of the end zone! 

In those earlier times, relief was supplied by nine-man football where scores were higher and certain superstar players could really break loose and entertain us. We appreciated this at Chokio-Alberta where coach Neal Hofland ran his vaunted "toss sweep" play so much. I remind him of that to this day when I see him at DeToy's Restaurant. Jon Hallman was one of his superstar backs. 

C-A had an ordinary field but then in post-season they'd play at the Metrodome in Minneapolis! And today the C-A kids blend in with Morris. The C-A people finally had to realize the practicality of that. Like all small communities they resisted for a long time. Once reality sets in, you had better have a positive attitude about it. 

So high school sports is underway for 2025-26. And it's nice to see that the volleyball Tigers won their opener on the road vs. Melrose. A thrilling match with a 3-2 outcome. Now the question is, when can we read some details about the match like stat leaders? Looks like we'll have to wait all the way to next Tuesday when we'll have to PURCHASE the Morris paper. 

I find this unacceptable. I know two players on the team: Cihak and Harstad. It would be nice to see more timely reporting. I checked the radio station website this morning and it looks like the tennis coach is emailing match details which are then copied onto the radio station site. That's super. The tennis coach is a neighbor of mine, as is Addie Cihak of the volleyball team. I know Morgan Harstad from DeToy's Restaurant. 

As for Riley Asmus, he has played enough football to know quite well what the injury risks are. We cannot blame him for protecting his baseball scholarship. But I'm sure some fans feel unsettled about this. I hope they leave the kid alone. Our football home opener is Sept. 5 against Montevideo. Will the smoke in the air subside?

You might know that "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is an old popular song. "The Platters!"

 

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

DJT critics may find it's too late to protect selves

(the new yorker image)

DJT is out in the open practicing retribution. Maybe we the public are experiencing the "boiling frog" thing. The worst fears that many of us harbored about Trump long ago, are being borne out in reality. The media tells us this. Well it's just another day, yawn. 

You mean there's consequences with Federalist Society types filling the Supreme Court? Women losing their right to choose? That's just one example. 

"Judge Cannon" isn't even on the Supreme Court but she has been as impactful as anyone. I mean, where would we be today if she had not tossed the "docs" case on specious grounds? And then the dug-in Trump people started looking for blood after that. Can't you see this is the real danger? Retribution? 

And why must that drive be satiated? Well, rhetorical question: autocratic aims. And our society now is the boiling frog. We no longer have Dan Rather to turn the fire hose on the most extreme right-wingers. 

Rather could be "rather" a pain sometimes. But I'd prefer living in an America with someone like him having a check on power. 

I should refrain from making comments like this if I know what's good for me. But I began making such comments a long time ago, really since DJT "came down the escalator." I have been wise to his system of gathering power for himself. He has a true gift with rhetoric. But then that's a common trait for autocrats like the most notorious one of the 20th Century. 

Michelle Fischbach

I established a track record long ago. So if retribution is in the works for someone like me, I would have no cover. I'm vulnerable. You would think that our own congressperson out here, Michelle Fischbach, would want her own constituents protected from such a thing. She should put our welfare first. That was the ideal in the "old" America of pre-Donald Trump. 

The old ideal would have been to let the citizens of Texas vote in a conventional way without the hasty gerrymandering that we now see. People who believe in basic ethics should be crying out about this. Texas officeholders were initially hesitant about the re-districting move. DJT changed the equation when he muscled in.

The motive was naked. 

Our basic sense of fair play and decency should be tugging at us. It would have been, in the America I grew up in. 

Today we see the increasingly crass and abrasive president of the U.S. - at age 79 on shaky ground with his health and cognitive state - do extreme things with retribution and partisan arm-twisting. In the case of the Federal Reserve, it may not even be partisan politics. 

 

Don't bludgeon the Fed 

Of course I learned as a young person that the president is supposed to be hands-off with the Fed. I probably did not learn this in the classroom, rather it was from esteemed commentators on the news. One of my traits has been to digest the news since I was a little kid. Maybe I assume too much about other people's knowledge. Don't most people understand that incumbent office-holders need to leave the Fed alone? 

The fundamental principle is this: The Fed is called upon to make decisions sometimes that are bad in the short term but good in the long term. And what happens if we allow our long-term best interests to be ignored, to be vetoed actually? Do we really want to find out? Do you care, really? Well I know of a lot of people who I think wouldn't care at all. 

Look how DJT is trying to bludgeon Lisa Cook of the Fed. 

 

The news is out there 

We learn now that DJT has personal self-interest involved with what the Fed does. Good grief he's almost 80 years old. Why be obsessed with such objectives? A normal person would want to do well by the American people. Doesn't his legacy for the American people matter at all? Well no, it doesn't. 

So what is the essence of his motivation? Is it the devil? At the same time this charlatan has worked for years to get insecure Christians eating right out of his hand? 

Today is Sunday and I'm not even going to church. I know people who'd say "we don't care." Or they might say "we don't give a f--k" because this is how they have become. 

No, Michelle Fischbach would not care if she were to learn that I personally have come to suffer from DJT's retribution. She puts aside her normal impulses to show absolute fealty to Trump. If you are on her email communications list you certainly know that. Does anyone try to talk back to her?

  

Higher prices? 

A whole string of interest rate cuts will exacerbate inflation. So will the deportation of cheap labor thanks to the "goon squads" of ICE and the handiwork of the exhibitionist Kristi Noem, the former South Dakota governor. Boy, "Minnesota nice" never rubbed off on her. She totes a machine gun and looks like she has had plastic surgery. She was a naturally attractive woman when she first entered politics. 

John Bolton: target of retribution

Many people are simply attracted to power. This includes otherwise good people, shall we say people who were not born to do these terrible things. Look at a picture of Martin Bormann of Germany - looks like he could be your local State Farm agent. Had this man grown up in America, he might have been quite straight-laced. But what's the old saying? "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." 

So many of us have been parties to this. Maybe I won't be around to see how it all turns out. 

John Bolton is a fresh target for retribution. We read the news articles about such things, then it looks like we just shrug and move on. This must be how it happened in Germany.

I sigh. "Mongo just pawn in game of life." 

 

Addendum: Here's a comment that I posted to Yahoo! News over the weekend:

 

Pretty soon all critics of Trump will learn to be quiet if they just want to live a normal life.

 

"Another Way" responded:

There goes the First Amendment, the most precious in a democracy. Yes, autocracy rules through fear, certainly not good policy. 

 

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

No doubt now that UMN-Morris faces headwinds

Here's an email I sent to our State Senator Torrey Westrom on March 4. I did not receive a response.

 

Hello Torrey, it finally dawned on me I should contact you. I'm concerned about the welfare and future of the U of M campus in Morris. The campus has become almost defined by this thing called "DEI." Obviously this prompts concern because our Federal government from the top wants to absolutely wipe out DEI in schools. A Federal judge had to knock down one effort. So what does this bode for the Morris campus? And will the central U of M administration become fearful of what the Morris campus could do to the system as a whole, if we stick so strongly to DEI? 

My own opinion of DEI is that it's not terrible but maybe it has gotten overdone here. But my own opinion is secondary. You might want to respect my opinion because I speak for the family fund within the University of Minnesota Foundation. The Williams name is important in UMM history. I guess we're called "UMN-Morris" now. It gets confusing. 

The Morris campus appears to be under considerable stress. I recently contacted the Twin Cities campus to inquire about the possibility of having my family fund transferred so that it supports music at the Twin Cities campus instead of music at Morris. Morris people got wind of that and so I backed off. Maybe you should know that UMM music has been restructured so that the ensembles are a combo of students and COMMUNITY. And I question the appropriateness of that. UMM assets should not be used to support what amounts to a community band. We no longer have "symphonic winds" which was the student group. It has been canceled. You can verify all this. 

Anyway, if you have consumed this whole email I do thank you. I have met you on several occasions in the past and you have always been friendly. I worked for the Morris newspaper for many years. Last time I saw you it was at Good Shepherd Church in Morris. 

I think your Republican Party as a whole needs to "soften" a little. Just my opinion. Take care.

 

- Brian R. Williams, Morris MN

 

Maybe one thing is for certain after the Sunday Star Tribune came out: We won't ever see a strike by UMN-Morris employees again. How many years since the last one? At age 70 I'm having a harder time estimating such things. I might not even be close. But I remember the irritating sight of those clusters of people with their typical placards for such things. I'm not sure if any of them said "unfair." 

The Sunday Star Tribune sure sets the table in a certain way for tonight's (Monday) "welcome picnic" to usher in the new UMM school year. 

School days! My generation was told in such strong terms that it was important to go to college. I'm sure it was more important in pre-digital times when information was scarce. Scarce? Today it's a flood. And as with all sweeping changes affecting society, we take for granted the new norm. So easy to forget the "retro" ways. 

Easy to forget when we'd leave "coins" on a table as the tip for a restaurant server. We called them "waitresses" then. Might just leave a quarter! 

Information and knowledge? Boy we sure leaned on our libraries. Their importance was self-evident. Today we've come to take for granted that we're one or two "clicks" away from learning about anything, anything at all. 

The Star Tribune tells us that enrollment is stressed at our "jewel in the crown" the University of Minnesota-Morris. It's "UMN-Morris" now. Well, we still have sports teams. I miss the days when our teams played the state universities. Seemed neat when our little Morris could defeat the more well-known places like St. Cloud. 

Our chancellor likes how we're in a different conference now. She has her reasons. So this is not a rebuttal. But I'll just say I miss the days when I'd see buses with the names of state universities on the side. "Bemidji State" et al. And if we were playing the "Beavers" of Bemidji State in basketball, I'd go inside and see Dave Holman along the concourse. The late Holman was a Bemidji State alum. He was on our public school faculty. He was kind of an acquired taste to have as a friend. All would agree he was an interesting person. 

There was a problem in those days: for a certain element of the UMM student population, it wasn't enough for our Cougars to win. The students could be disrespectful toward the visiting players and fans. It brimmed with arrogance. As I have written before, I think our one-time chancellor Jack Imholte actually liked that attitude. Part of his way of "selling" UMM was to frankly suggest that our students were "smarter." Believe me I know this. 

It's fine to be proud of your institution of higher learning. UMM could justifiably be proud, I think. Oh here I go being contrarian. Today in 2025 I strongly doubt that UMM exudes that kind of sense of superiority. I think we're happy to blend in with all institutions, all of which should feel proud of what they're doing for kids. Obviously the missions differ. Shall we refrain from making value judgments about those missions? 

The private schools can present a problem. If religion enters in, that can be a big problem for me. The Cougars today have a non-conference opponent in basketball in "Oak Hills Christian" from way the heck up north in Minnesota. Sometimes I'm bothered by the sheer amount of travel undertaken by school sports teams. 

Do some cursory research on "Oak Hills Christian." It is the most anti-gay college in the U.S. And while I am discouraged by UMM's history of embracing gay rights with effusive zealousness, I'm not sure we really ought to be scheduling Oak Hills Christian. What irony in this matchup of teams: UMM and Oak Hills Christian!

Some of the teams in our UMAC Conference have always struck me as rather cult-like. At the very least mysterious. There was nothing mysterious about the state universities. 

When we played Winona State, we knew a certain local wrestling coach would take interest. That's Spencer Yohe, who I guess has been gone from here for a rather long time now. The WSU alum was a miracle-worker at tiny Hancock in the sport of wrestling. Eventually he joined the UMM staff. 

I described Holman as having an offbeat nature. That mantle was carried perfectly by Mr. Yohe also. Don't knock him, he beat cancer. As a newspaper writer I rather enjoyed the colorful or eccentric folks. 

Perry Ford

 

The UMM coach with whom I worked most closely was Perry Ford. Sad to say, Perry has left this life. He worked hard to keep the Cougar men's program viable when the bricks started falling off. The bricks fell off at a faster pace when poor Jim Severson came here. 

 

Two pizza slices! 

I haven't been to a UMM basketball game since I left the Morris paper. I used to have my "evening meal" of two pizza slices there. I'm sure there has been price inflation since, probably considerable. 

Donnie Eich

Let's remember the late Donnie Eich as a loyal supporter of the UMM women's basketball program. He'd sit up at the top of the bleachers and take notes on his program. He could be very frank in his views. So he said to me one day that "all a degree from UMM proves is that you can read some books and then answer some questions about them." 

 

The Fourth Estate 

So, the UMM welcome picnic is tonight (Monday) at East Side Park. UMM sets sail on this new year with turbulence. That's guaranteed by the Sunday Star Tribune article. In the state/metro section I'm told. (Willie's was sold out this morning.) 

Our chancellor sent out a rebuttal to the article. But I'd be shocked if the Strib's writers were anything but exhaustive and thorough. Maybe the chancellor is not considering the "retention" issue enough. Are enough students staying to get their full four-year degrees? I know it's been an issue in the past. 

Free education for the Native Americans! Everyone knows about this. The UMM administration (or its lawyers) must have cooked up some way to keep this going even with the U.S. Supreme Court having banned affirmative action. Oh, those lawyers. And what about DEI? Well I certainly brought up the subject in my email to State Senator Westrom. 

Is Stephen Miller aware of UMM? 

Well let's just hope for the best in this coming school year. As for the Star Tribune, they followed the press instinct of looking for a problem somewhere. As Chuck Todd has said, "the media does not go out to the airport to cover all the successful takeoffs and landings." The media sure converged on Morris at the time of the 2005 goalpost incident at UMM.

 

Pining for band 

Is the hope all gone for ever seeing a real UMM band at the graduation again? A band with essentially all students? It was the norm for so long. How wonderful if we could hear the "UMM Hymn" again, from UMM's earliest heady days. I was there, circa 1960-61. And I was present at UMM's first graduation in 1964.

UMM's first year coincided with "Camelot," the JFK administration. Unfortunately the Cold War was rearing its ugly head.

 

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

Have we no decency anymore?

What was the point? I mean, for the son of the president to post his "meme" the other day? In normal times we would expect a Trump family member to disown what Donald Trump Jr. did. 

And DJT was up on the roof of the White House for what reason? To be cute? Or, because he knew the media would do cartwheels giving attention to this? Don't you know this is a prime instinct of his? You haven't recognized that yet? 

The son of the president went on this platform called Instagram to commit his mischief. If only it had been harmless mischief. It still would not have warranted serious media attention. But we're in the age of being saturated with media. It comes at us from all directions. We can sift through this and find our favorite "podcast" in the middle of the night if we want. 

When I was a kid, KCMT TV of Alexandria would reach the end of its "broadcast day." And we'd see stock footage of Air Force planes on a carrier while the National Anthem played. Yes, always vigilant about supporting a new war. Very strange that it took a disgusting president like DJT to at least open our eyes to how the U.S. needn't commit itself to a foreign military engagement every few years. 

"Everything Trump" has dragged the nation into the gutter. And we hardly seem conscious of it. My attempts at opening people's eyes are met by incredulousness and then insults. "You're a Trump hater." I hardly care about the Trumps on a personal level because I will never have a personal relationship with any of them. The problem with DJT now is that he has the power to affect our lives. He got three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016. He ascended to the presidency anyway. 

Oh, the time I spent watching MSNBC news shows about it all. I'd hate to realize the number of hours. Everything was laid out for us to appreciate. But the president had high-powered lawyers at the ready at every juncture. Ready to appeal (endlessly) and obfuscate to stretch things out and eventually prevail, or at least survive. 

So we're in another morning of all this, Monday in August 2025, right after our county fair. I obviously check the news because it's my nature to be aware and educated. I don't need to go to church to be told how to think and how it's essential for Trump to rule. 

I didn't attend church at all yesterday. It's discouraging because even though I attend an ELCA church which tries to be reasonable amid all that's going on, I have to live with the reality that my church of First Lutheran in Morris has fallen into very hard times, precisely because we're in the "liberal" or "progressive" ELCA. 

And I know at least one family in my church that had "Trump" signs on their yard. So the phenomenon is everywhere. This while Trump is quite out in the open wanting to establish an autocracy. He crosses lines that were carefully drawn in the past. Most significantly, the line that calls for the Federal Reserve to be left alone. Violate that dictum and the country could fall apart. And it may well be on the verge of falling apart. 

Fire an agency head who is responsible for collecting accurate data like for jobs and inflation. Make sure agency heads only deliver numbers that the president feels will make him look good. All this is happening right out in the open. 

I try sharing cautionary notes. But even my measured and well-thought-out statements are met with crude and insulting responses. How can I even respect the Christian faith anymore? Can you tell me why I should? 

MAGA supports what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. As a person of conscience I cannot countenance that even for a moment. Many of the Palestinians are Christian, in case anyone cares. 

We may soon be seeing "indictments" for Barack Obama, James Comey and others. MAGA will passively observe, register no objection. These people fill our Stevens County churches. FLC is an outlier and FLC appears to be going extinct along with Federated Church. Yes the two churches can "pair" for a time as they are doing now. It's a prelude to dissolution. Nothing can stop DJT. 

My own personal welfare may start to be affected. Well I'm 70 years old and have had a good life. Michelle Fischbach will not respond to me. Torrey Westrom will not respond to me. I emailed Westrom with my concern about what the total anti-DEI push from the Federal government might mean for UMN-Morris. I told him I was actually a stakeholder in UMM. Then I wondered: Is Westrom even capable of reading emails? It's well-known that his vision is limited. 

Maybe you missed the news about what the son of DJT did the other day. I won't score any points for pointing this out but I'll do it anyway. The son of the president posted a "meme" of his father throwing a green dildo from the White House roof. The photoshopped image merged the roof appearance with the scene of a basketball court with women players on it. So that's where he was tossing the sex toy. 

Can someone explain to me the point of this? There was a time when such behavior would have brought howls of disapproval from all over. But in 2025? Our U.S. environment is so fundamentally different. And "Christians" are the worst offenders. 

Maybe I can privately show homage to the faith in the way that my late mother would approve. But the organized Christian faith appears to be on the verge of destroying America.

 

Addendum: Was the son of the president trying to make a statement about women's basketball as opposed to men's? Was he trying to diss the women, to poke fun at them? To suggest maybe that women should not be playing basketball at a high level? Would we have ever achieved full equality of boys and girls sports if Republicans had been in charge all along? Of course not.

Will Republicans with their considerable power at present try to diminish girls and women's sports? We have a congressperson here in western Minnesota who would not disagree with a single thing that the Trumps put forth. Not a whimper. Is that really who we are? Well I guess "yes."

 

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

Looks like WNBA will be dragged down after all

Uncertain future in WNBA?

We had to be suspicious when Caitlin Clark missed the first game of the pre-season due to injury. Who misses the first game of the pre-season? You've had an extended time to rest. 

Caitlin's body was signaling something. First it was the "quad" thing, happened twice. Her team tried telling us it was two separate and unrelated injuries. When she came back to play, I really think we were all holding our breath - all Caitlin's fans. We were apprehensive for a reason, as it turned out, because now her "groin" came into play. 

Many fans think this is a mysterious injury situation. Some conspiracy theorists began to be heard: the league realized that Caitlin was getting "beat up" so bad by opponents, she had to be withdrawn, I guess for the sake of the league's image. 

The league's image? My, the WNBA has been small-time for so long. It's sad because there have been so many outstanding players. Look at Maya Moore. Great as Moore was, her name was not a household word among people outside of the real WNBA followers. Caitlin comes along and turns into a phenomenon. Not just a playing phenomenon but a cultural one. 

We have to attribute part of this to her image and personality. She took to the "light" of stardom very well. Lindsay Whalen never had this kind of image. Janel McCarville did not excite fans based on her image. Well, athletes are entertainers. The more they can endear themselves to the fans and the population as a whole, the better. 

Caitlin simply had the gift. Oh, there I go referring to the woman in the past tense. Is it all over with Caitlin now, with her body increasingly looking so brittle? This was the WNBA's big chance to break out of obscurity. 

As I sit here today in mid-August, I'm wondering if the league is in a rapid plunge back to where it used to be. We hear talk of resentment against Caitlin within the league. Overly-aggressive defensive play against the "girl from West Des Moines." Gets described as thuggery sometimes. We are forced to ponder why this is. And I think our immediate reaction is, or ought to be, "it's not so simple." 

Jealousy just based on how talented CC is? There's one theory, but it probably springs from naivete. There is a suspicion with some justification that resentment comes from the fact that CC springs from a quite specific template. And it is not the template that characterizes the league, not at all. I think the professional commentators hate to get in this line of thinking very much if at all. Some of them do put their toe in the water, though. 

  

Just play the game 

There is so much at stake because if the league and its fans could just accept Caitlin as a talented player worthy of the usual, expected defensive attention on the court, she'd be in better shape now. She'd be out on the court which would be a boon for all the stakeholders. Shouldn't monetary gains for the league be No. 1? That is what common sense would demand. What could trump that? 

Well, CC's "template" is as a white openly heterosexual Midwest girl from a white bread background. Anglo name and all. Maybe we could equate this to Norman Rockwell? Rockwell's whole world has dissolved. We live in a rainbow culture now and this includes categories of people and/or sexual preferences. 

Let's be honest: there has been a widely-held perception of the WNBA as being a lesbians' club or hangout. Sex is at the periphery of our minds, and just look at how the recent prank or stunt of throwing a dildo out on the court has become a "thing." We all know who CC's male fiance is. 

And I haven't even gotten into the subject of race yet. Race still hangs over so much of America. Hasn't CC done all she can to be a sister to the non-white players on her own team and other teams? I'm not aware of any evidence suggesting otherwise. But I guess that's not the point. Players of color could well think that the fame of CC is due in no small extent to her whiteness. And is this theory valid? To be honest I think it is, unfortunately. I am commenting on the real world here. Is it fair? No it is not. 

 

Can't escape race 

Race is a specter that has hung over America since the 19th Century. You might argue that it's human nature to "like your own kind," like for white bread Upper Midwesterners to be attracted to this "girl from West Des Moines" with the name so easy to pronounce. 

I go out of my way to root for all of Caitlin's teammates. I cannot deny that I have my own little affinity for someone like Caitlin. But if the lesbian players are picking on Caitlin, assaulting her, they are no better than people like me who admit to a little subconscious preference. Make that affinity, not preference. Human beings simply cannot throw off their shackles of bias. We are the sinful creations of God. 

I frankly think Caitlin may be done in the WNBA. For a while I thought the WNBA could actually displace baseball as our preferred sport of summer. My opinion about that has dimmed considerably. A league with a lesbian image is not going to cut it. The league's legacy weakness is going to drag it down again.

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