Now it's Alexandria boys in state AAA tourney

Forrest Witt, Alex boys coach

Still exhausted from the state girls basketball tournament? What a show that was. The Alexandria girls excelled to a third place finish. Finishing third means you win your last game. And so indeed, Alex with coach Wendy Kohler took care of business in the AAA game for third. The Cardinals defeated Credtin-Derham Hall which is a name that normally promotes awe in Minnesota prep sports. 

The well-known private schools are not always dominating. Sometimes yes but not always. 

And so the Alex basketball crowd is now recovering from all that excitement and adrenalin rush. Well get rested because there is more on the way! They don't call it "March madness" for nothing! The boys take their turn now. And with the Alex boys there is quite the Morris connection. The well-known Witt family, formerly of Morris, is in a leading role. This includes head coach Forrest. 

My, I read the name  Forrest Witt and I still picture a little kid! I visited the Witt household next to East Side Park many times to interview Forrest's dad Jerry who of course was our football coach. So I watched the children grow up. My image of Forrest as a little kid needs to be erased. Cut some slack for me as a 70-year-old. 

And would you believe father Jerry is anything but retired? The High School League site has Jerry listed as an assistant coach with the Cardinals. And take a look at the Alex boys roster: there are two players with the name Witt. Basketball comes so naturally for these guys. So we see Mason Witt and Talan Witt among the Cardinal players. They are not brothers, they are cousins. 

 

Winning habit

The Alex boys hoops team has built a 26-3 record as we head into the 2025 state tournament. 

The girls basketball athletes can now join the fans. They've earned a chance to slow down. A top Alex GBB player was Chloe Scholl whose mom Heather played her high school basketball for Morris Area. And Chloe's grandmother Bev was well-known in the Morris community partly from service with the school board. The board had some challenges at the time, details of which need not be examined here. But I remember. 

I was with the Morris newspaper during the playing days of Heather and Chris Lucken. "Lucken" was Bev's last name while today it's Kieffer. Dad Rick Lucken lost his life tragically in a one-vehicle car accident. I'll never forget getting word of that. 

I remember Rick suggesting a little stunt that would involve ripping the alleged hairpiece off Mike Dreier the great New London-Spicer girls basketball coach. If you knew Rick you'd smile about that. It was all suggested in a vein of levity. It was not done of course. 

I was able to do so much writing then, partly because the Morris paper came out twice a week whereas now it's once. Also, our page size was bigger then. Also, people were much more reliant on the print media. As a journalist I was a product of the Watergate era. We never wanted anything to be dull. And so I got caught up in a lot of sports excitement. 

The Witts were always close by. Jerry was a product of UMM. My late father had a teaching career there. 

This year's Alex Cardinals ran the table in section: 15-0. In conference they were 17-1. Man, I wonder who could have beaten them. They were 10-1 on the road, 2-2 on a neutral court and a sterling 14-0 at home. 

 

Time marches on

Alex has new facilities since the days when I wrote sports for the newspaper. The previous facility was a little shall we say worn. I made trips there. I specifically remember photographing the Chokio-Alberta boys there when Paul Daly was their coach. Ah, the days of C-A being autonomous in sports! 

The Alex season started with a 74-53 win over Brainerd (my mom's hometown). That set the tone for so much more success. First there was a loss to Cretin-Derham Hall 77-71. And oh my, the Cardinals lost their next game to Sauk Rapids Rice. But the wins started accumulating. They have accumulated into the post-season for sure. 

 

Owning the section

In Section 8AAA play, the Cards downed Little Falls 115-41, Detroit Lakes 96-53 and Fergus Falls 94-72. So the Cards own the crown for section. You know what that means: state is next! 

I'm writing this at the last minute, really, before state begins. It's Tuesday. And so "Minnesota Scores" tells me that Alex will play Byron at 4 p.m. today at Williams Arena. The time is here! 

This year's Section 8-3A title is the third straight for Alex. It's their fourth title in five seasons. 

Alex played Fergus Falls at Lakeshirts Fieldhouse on March 13. Alex prevailed by 22. Alex is ranked No. 2 in Minnesota AAA. They have a win skein of 22 going. 

Gavin Roderick and Mason Witt formed quite a tandem. The guard pair scored 14 of the Cards' first 16 points. And, 32 of the team's 51 first half points. It was Witt sporting the team-best total of 35 at game's end. He made seven 3-pointers. Roderick finished the night with 27 points. 

Mason is Forrest's son. Mason Witt and Roderick were joined in the Alex scoring by Chase Thompson 22, Talan Witt 6, Samson Hagstrom 2 and Thomas Hinrichs 2.

Allie Haabala was one of the senior girls with Alexandria's high-achieving girls basketball team, third in state! I think the odds are good that the boys will at least match that.

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