Another down note for MACA girls at Minnewaska

"Lakers rout Tigers," trumpets the headline on the kmrs-kkok site this morning (Saturday). Indeed the story was much different from the night before when the MACA boys enjoyed good success vs. Minnewaska. The site for the Friday girls game was Minnewaska Area. There, the host Lakers assumed command and won 71-42. 

It was another down game in a season that has had too few ups for the Tigers. The team that came within one point of AAA Willmar had a dud game on Friday, alas. Our W/L record now is 5-16. The Lakers have won four straight but they do have a losing record on the season, 9-12. 

But consider the Minnewaska boys, truly languishing at 1-20! Makes me wonder a little about the basic stability of the Minnewaska school district. How's it doing with enrollment/finances? Is it losing students to the spanking-new Alexandria school? Or in the other direction to Hancock? 

I heard the Hancock theory several years ago from a parent who works in Morris. The parent explained that the Minnewaska school had a "bad rep," "rep" being short for "reputation." But that was several years ago. The trip from Glenwood to Alex isn't that much more of a hassle than going to 'Waska out in the country. 

'Waska and Lac qui Parle were built in the same time period, as political "sops" to certain very parochial interests. We don't hear of interests like that so much any more. Maybe people at the state level tweaked things to squash such concerns. You know, the petty concerns coming from people who could be like the squeaky wheel getting the grease. I was around a lot of that back in the day, could testify on it. I had to be nice to a lot of those people even though I wanted to tell a lot of them to take a flying leap. 

It has been said of the 'Waska school that its origin was from "the tail wagging the dog." In other words, Starbuck for some reason ended up wielding way too much clout. Strange how that happened. Hey, are we past the days when Starbuck and Glenwood had such petty little conflicts? Is everyone more mature now? 

The biggest pains among the assertive folks were sports parents. You could take that to the bank. You'd see a small nucleus in each community behaving like this, and what galled me so often was that when the children of these people graduated, mostly they'd disappear. 

But 'Waska could feel mighty good about how its girls basketball team played Friday. Yes it was a "rout" of the Tigers. We came up short of playing clean basketball. Brett Miller's summary tells us the Lakers forced 31 turnovers. Ouch. Tremendous scoring balance for the host: no fewer than ten Lakers contributing points. The Lakers cruised into halftime with a 43-24 lead. Then in the second, 'Waska's advantage was by 28-18. 

Megan Thorfinnson (twitter)

Megan Thorfinnson was the victor's big gun with 14 points. Three other Lakers scored in double figures: Sydney Dahl 11, Leslie Murken 10 and Brooke Kolstoe 10. The list continues with Lauryn Ankeny 8, Jayda Kolstoe 7, Avery Fier 3, Addyson Kath 3, Jenna Drewes 3 and Alia Randt 2. 

'Waska did fine in the 3-point shooting department. The home fans cheered as Thorfinnson made three from long distance. Murken made two from 3-point land. Then we see Jayda Kolstoe, Fier, Drewes and Kath each making one. 

Dahl with her six rebounds led there. Thorfinnson with her four assists was tops. Ankeny led in steals with five, and Dahl blocked two shots. 

Brett Miller reports that Maddie Fehr had a double-double for MACA with eleven points, ten rebounds. Kaylee Harstad led our scoring effort with 14, plus she snared nine rebounds. 

The Tigers are 3-7 in West Central Conference play, while 'Waska is 4-6.

 

Too many forfeits

The wrestling Tigers ended January with an overpowering win over BOLD. The score was 66-9, wow, on the home mats. 

Tyce Anderson (facebook image)

So we saw Beau Haugen at 106 pounds take care of BOLD's Ava Kiecker in a fall, 4:34. There was a double-forfeit at 113 pounds. Oh no, one of those "forfeit" nights? I hate those. So "forfeit" was the outcome at both 120 and 126 but at least MACA had the victories, Grayson Gibson at 120, Tyce Anderson at 126. 

Fans got to see action at 132 where BOLD's Brady Kiecker got the advantage in an 8-2 decision over Alex Sperr. Oh no, a forfeit again at 138 where our Andrew Marty had his arm raised. I have a thing about forfeits. The Tiger 145-pounder, Davin Rose, pinned Gavin Hammerschmidt in 1:18. Oh, forfeits at both 152 and 160! Caden Rose of the Tigers had his arm raised at 152 pounds. BOLD's Max Benson was the 160 forfeit winner. 

Our Dain Schroeder won by fall over Tate Sheehan in :22. Oh for crying out loud: forfeits the rest of the way. Is it OK if I say "there oughta be a law?" Refund on part of the admission price maybe? I wouldn't bet on it. 

Tigers were the forfeit winners at 182 through 285 pounds. Here's a rundown: Connor Olson at 182, Hunter Gibson at 195, Brock Marty at 220 and Jaron Johnson at 285. 

I remember long-time Tiger coach George Graff talking about "Fred Forfeit." It can be a major drawback to the sport. 

 

Last of the Owls

I remember that toward the end when Hancock had its own wrestling program, Principal Roger Clarke got a little discouraged by forfeits among his own wrestlers. The team had a dual with Wheaton coming up and the coach was suggesting to just forfeit the whole thing. Clarke responded sensitively, saying that Wheaton had scheduled the match for that night and they deserved the competition. 

The Hancock coach was Joel Beyer. I remember covering Joel when he was a prodigy in Punt, Pass and Kick. Oh, I remember Joel's father Merlin so well. Quite the community promoter, and he wasn't afraid to take some risks in the role. Very admirable. He wouldn't kow-tow to the Morris schoolteachers or their union. Those were bumpy times, late 1980s especially. 

Merlin could not have been nicked too badly by all that, because he later won a write-in campaign for mayor! Shows where people's hearts were. But a lot of people were scared of the teachers who then wielded considerable power as a group. I was on Merlin's side because, how could any sane and reasonable person not be? Maybe it's best to forget all that now. 

The late Don Fellows confided in me once that it was really a noisy minority of teachers who were the problem. Fellows was a saint. He was part of a clique of teachers - and I don't mean that in a derogatory way - who have left us for the next life. Russ Anderson was card-carrying. He most recently left this life. We remember also Al Hendrickson and Dave Holman. Remember the phy ed teacher Jim Grant? I had him. It was easy to kick back, relax and laugh with those guys. 

Jill Landwehr and Lois Krump died recently. A generation of education-oriented people will have to be held in our memories.

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