Sometimes the intensity in March overwhelmed me. Like it was just too much. I'll be honest - well, why would I not be honest writing this post? - I often thought people invested emotions to excess when the big games arrived. I covered the March tournament for many years when we had the two-class system. Much more of an uphill climb for the smaller schools of course.
My newspaper career did not extend back to one-class. Think one-class and you think of the movie "Hoosiers" with Gene Hackman, right? Did he really get the girl at the end? I digress.
I did watch local Tiger hoops when one-class was in effect. Interesting how our culture tolerated the one-class. So inherently unfair. A "consolation" system was set up for the smaller schools, albeit not real satisfying. So it went like this: teams could play for top honors in a particular early bracket. We called it "sub-district." I remember following local sports when Morris was in "District 21." Went on for a very long time, then change was afoot with sub-section and section.
Too much travel
A very disappointing change was to have the Tiger teams play a lot of tournament games to the south of here. With some advancement they can make it to Southwest State U, Marshall. But a lot of this action used to be at our U-Morris. And wow, how tremendously convenient for our fans in Morris! Right in town. The games leading up to Southwest State today are still to the south of here. Like in Granite Falls, right? No short jaunt, really.
Some of the worst offenders with excess emotions were on the Morris Sun-Tribune staff. Their emotions weren't even invested in the Morris teams! What a shocker: they were aligned with any of the smaller high schools in the area. I hated that but I was just a foot soldier in the operation. I sometimes got blamed for things that were out of my control.
An old norm remains
Today in 2023, an old constant has continued. You can count on it: a high degree of competitiveness from the Hancock girls basketball team. My oh my, I thought this would have faded some by now. Is Morris still the bigger school? The bigger town? You know, sometimes I wonder if we're seeing fundamental change, because I know the Hancock school has gotten so popular, it is having to turn away students.
Is the Hancock community as a whole feeling its oats in the same way? Has it gained ground on Morris? In the long-term future, might Hancock become the pulsating focal point for Stevens County? Nothing is written in stone with these things.
Anyway, Hancock basketball is having another of those years, where it can turn back Morris. I covered the Owls back in 1988 when they made state in the two-class system. I still have my purple sweatshirt with "Hancock's at state in '88" on it. Fits a little tight now, ahem.
1988 was hardly an isolated year for Hancock success. The girls did it over and over again: put together scintillating campaigns. Meanwhile the Morris people would get awfully prickly and ugly if you tried making observations about this. I finally threw off the shackles and wrote some opinionated thoughts. I don't know why so many Morris people felt they had to feel threatened by this. It was like I was violating community mores or something.
I got through it all but I certainly got dinged up. I didn't meet the end of the road professionally until 2006, and at that time it was not the old high school contentiousness that did me in, it was the goalpost incident at UMM. A UMM student was killed. I'm sure UMM's current attitude about that is, the less said the better. I occasionally recall it because it was a huge news story from our community's past. It drew international attention. It has faded enough that Tennessee fans went and took down their goalposts last fall. I did not read of anyone getting hurt.
UMM was lucky in the sense that more than one student could have easily been killed or hurt. What ridiculousness. Today I sense that UMM athletes and fans are more mature and steady in their comportment.
So my newspaper career wrapped up after 27 years, you might say ignominiously.
In the "fishbowl"
Well, I certainly survived longer than one of Hancock's highly successful coaches from its past. That fellow had the initials D.C., was coach for the '88 state run and beyond. His teams could pack the P.E. Center. Sometimes I'd look down and feel concerned about all the pressure being put on the young student-athletes. They were just kids. It was easy for me to write about them - I would not have wanted to be in their shoes. I sometimes wonder if in their own mind, they thought "this is nuts being out here in this damn fishbowl. We're just playing a game."
Repeat: we're just playing a game. All I was, was an observer.
I can still write about high school sports today, online, And I do relish it. And I can write that just like for time immemorial, the Hancock girls can dominate the Morris Tigers. Should bring a tear to my eye actually. So I can report that on Saturday at UMM, the Owls took care of the Tigers, 63-38.
Let's see, which is the bigger town? People used to want to slug me for asking that. Their point being what, exactly? That Hancock seems always to have superior "talent" to Morris? Isn't that opinion hard to support? Morris is supposed to have a lot of smart people. By reputation, anyway. Actually we can be a cesspool of petty politics with friends sticking up for friends and grappling for primacy in the community. I've seen this forever.
When the school board finally had to jettison a girls coach back around 1988, a school board member friend of mine got exasperated and said "the program doesn't exist for her benefit." Some clarity out of the fog.
But we weren't out of the woods, even after that coach was told to take a hike. We had a coach named Steve Harter for three years. Do I have to get into that? Sources told me he wasn't even qualified to be a head basketball coach. The lack of success was one thing, but he wasn't even a pleasant person to deal with. If memory serves me right, his third year was when the C-A kids came over.
Regarding the C-A kids coming over, I had another school board friend who said to me "would it really matter?" Her point being, girls hoops was mired in futility of the type that would persist even with new talent. I remember well because I believed her.
In my opinion, Morris girls basketball has struggled too much over its long history. Certainly this could have been prevented. Supposedly we have smart people on the board and in administration, but they get expedient. Then they talk holier-than-thou.
Hancock 63, MACA 38
The Owls were mightily in command versus our Tigers Saturday at UMM. They built up momentum in the second half. Kaitlyn Rohloff was an HHS leader with her 25 points. Holy cow, Hancock was up by just six at halftime, then punched down on the accelerator. They led by as many as 28 in the second half.
MACA showed the trait of a struggling team with turnover woes. I suppose we should credit the Owls.
Misti Zempel scored 14 points and had six rebounds for the victor. Isabel Rose put in 12 points. This was win No. 13 for those Owls against two losses.
For the Tigers, Maddy Grove blocked four shots and scored 14 points. Kaylee Harstad grabbed nine rebounds and scored seven points. The Tigers are now 4-12.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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