Too bad MACA could not get Becca Holland

The best in Minnesota Class A girls basketball: West Central Area, the Knights! (High School League image)

 

So much basketball joy to be felt. Now if the U of M women had only qualified for the NCAAs. We have instead Iowa to root for. The Iowa women play against Murray State in the opening round of NCAAs. That's today (Saturday). Basketball remains very current. 

Here in western Minnesota, so much excitement and success. I was late in becoming aware of the strides of the West Central Area girls. I was even later in becoming aware that the Knights' coach was Becca Holland. I had been quite swept up in the success of the Minnewaska Area and Alexandria girls. I rolled up my sleeves and blogged rather extensively. 

And on the boys' side, Alex has been thrilling us. Alex plays for the state AAA championship today (Saturday). It's the epitome of rarefied air, or as we typically call it, "March Madness." 

Becca Holland grew up in my church of First Lutheran in Morris. She has a sister named Beth and both were active with the MACA girls basketball team. Along the way Becca picked up her coaching credentials and now she has her own personal trophy case. Just getting started? 

When I became fully aware of West Central Area's success with coach Holland, I confess that my first reaction was: Could we have gotten her here to coach the MACA Tigers? Her old team? I'm not sure the coach of this past season is coming back. One source told me just this morning that he is not, according to "word going around" or whatever. If you're going to coach high school sports, you must be aware of the reality of "word going around." 

None of us enjoys pointing fingers at a high school coach. But it does happen. I know almost nothing about our first-year coach of this past winter. But I do know this: a couple of our losses were by scores so one-sided they had to be considered embarrassing, and could lead to players getting discouraged and maybe quitting. In fact a good source did tell me some players were quitting. More "word going around." 

You're a local public figure when you're a coach. 

The MACA program saved some face at the very end by beating Montevideo in the tournament. There's always something to be said for a post-season win. But did this eradicate all concerns? Well I really don't think it did. 

As a blogger I've had the great privilege over the last couple weeks to write about winners: the Alexandria boys and girls, the 'Waska girls and today with some attention I can give to the West Central Area girls. 

People can be so disingenuous. By that I mean, they'll say we should never pass judgment according to a team losing or struggling. We need to appreciate all the student-athletes. Well yes. But then people turn around and shower all sorts of jubilant attention to teams that are winning. So is winning important? Well most certainly yes. 

I will frame this in a slightly different way, as I articulated to my restaurant server this morning: "Winning is never guaranteed, but winning is always the objective." 

If you aren't winning, you should be doing things that increase the possibility of winning in the future. And oftentimes this does involve coaching changes. We needn't talk about "firing" coaches except maybe at the pro or NCAA Div. 1 levels. Otherwise let's just talk about "non-renewals." No big deal. Nothing to see here. 

If you don't want to risk that happening to you, don't go into coaching. 

The Morris school faculty of the 1980s was the most disingenuous I have ever seen. They had the old effete attitude of academia: "Sports is so base and crass with its 'winning' credo." But on the other hand these people went to the mat to protect certain favored individuals with coaching appointments. Hey, if sports is so unimportant, why care so much about who the coaches are? 

Oh but I saw the whole nine yards.

 

The West Central Area Knights

So can we still maybe get Becca Holland to coach here for MACA? I have no idea if that is attainable. Sure would look like a permanent fix for the program, to the extent you can ever count on a permanent fix. 

I can remember when our school thought it had a permanent fix in the middle 1980s. Appeared at the time like a slam-dunk hire. Well, the best laid plans. . . I think our administration made that hire based only on some superficial qualities. Well, like having been a UMM graduate and having been a fine player. Fine, yes, but not good enough to get a scholarship offer at a higher level. 

I would endorse the idea of going after Ms. Holland 100 percent. Nothing superficial to be distracted by there. I think she would be the complete package. Our MACA program may be proceeding rudderless for a while. I'm sure Minnewaska is re-loading big-time for next year. There's never a guarantee of winning but you should always pull out all stops to try to win. Would you really argue with me on that? 

The West Central Area Knights with coach Holland had a final won-lost of 27-6. In conference they were 8-4. In section they surged past four opponents: Brandon-Evansville, Hancock, Breckenridge and Underwood. The Breck game went into overtime and ended with a 74-71 score. 

The four wins catapulted them to state! First they defeated Cromwell-Wright 61-54. Then they dispatched Goodhue 58-50. Finally the game for the championship. This was on March 15 at Williams Arena, Minneapolis. And so the score was 58-41 as the Knights not only won, they won convincingly over MACCRAY! 

Let's see, how did the Class A Knights do against our AA MACA Tigers in the regular season? Well, on December 20 the Knights won 51-33 at WCA. On Feb. 4 the Knights won 60-42 at Morris. 

I think the MACA athletic program must weigh some adjustments with GBB. It was not doing great under Dale Henrich. And this past season was no breakaway, that's for sure. And the worst aspect would be the quitting by some players. This would set us back years. 

Let's go Hawkeyes today in the NCAAs! Go Lucy Olsen! And let's go Cardinal boys of Alexandria!

  

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