I don’t want to get political in this column, but what in the heck is going on in this country?
Unfortunately, I don’t think an election helps the problem either way!! Anyway, there are many reasons why we live in NW Minnesota and some common sense and respect for other people are still a thing!!
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In northwest Minnesota, this week was great. I took in my first high school sporting event since the section 8A Boys Basketball tournament in March. Crookston Pirate Girls Tennis took on the Roseau Rams and it was so much fun to be back in “action.” As a proud parent of our third tennis player, and a die-hard Crookston Pirate and northwest Minnesota High School sports fan it was so enjoyable to watch the tennis match on Tuesday.
High School sports the most popular thing in every town in northwest Minnesota. Crookston, Thief River Falls, East Grand Forks, Stephen, Argyle, Warren, Red Lake Falls, Fertile, Fisher, Ada, Warroad, Roseau, Park Rapids, Pequot Lakes, Hallock, Fosston, Mahnomen, Waubun, Perham, Hawley, Detroit Lakes, and EVERYWHERE in between. High School sports are what bring schools and cities together when their team makes a run in the tournaments. Especially football, volleyball, basketball, and hockey.
So, to make a short story longer, it was great to see high school sports back again. Let’s all hope and pray we can get all four sports seasons in this year.
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KROX is getting ready to broadcast our first high school sporting event since March. We will have Crookston Pirate Girls Soccer hosting Walker-Hackensack-Akeley/Cass Lake-Bena on Thursday afternoon. It will be nice to be “back on the air” with a live sporting event.
To say I am excited would be an understatement. I took in the girls soccer practice on Wednesday and saw some girls that really improved over the off-season and it should be a much improved season with a tough schedule this year.
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The Crookston Pirate Girls Tennis team has 39 girls out this fall. The team’s numbers are up a lot because of a big seventh-grade crew and a few volleyball players have joined the team. The roster by grade is below –
Seniors (5)- Emma Boll, Emma Borowicz, Ella Weber, Catherine Tiedemann, Linnea French
Juniors (3) – Hannah Lindemoen, Emma Osborn, Hayden Winjum
Sophomores (8) – Zara Baig, Abby Borowicz, Halle Bruggeman, Stella Duden, Macy Fee, Lily Groven, Ella Kiel, Jenna Seaver
Freshman (8) – Coral Brekken, Katelyn Christensen, Calleigh Fanfulik, Emma Gunderson, Morgan Nelson, Isabelle Smith, Brekken Tull, Halle Winjum
Eighth graders (6) – Paige Abrahamson, Kaylie Clauson, Addison Fee, Joey Nesseth, Mariah Overgaard, Georgia Sanders
Seventh graders (9) – Madelyn Anderson, Ashlyn Bailey, Chloe Boll, Emelia Hoerner, Jenessa Ibarra, Emma LaPlante, Ava Martin, Taylor Schulz, Lucy Smith
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The Crookston Pirate Boys Soccer team has had an uptick in numbers with a handful of football players going out for the team this fall. They have added a couple more players from the roster below, including Jacob Miller.
Seniors (6) – Gabe Montieth, Gavin Anderson, Kaleb Thingelstad, Noah Kiel, Noah Dragseth, Nolan Dans
Juniors (5) – Evan Christensen, George French, Jack Garmen, Sam Stewart, Blaine Andringa
Sophomores (6) – Kaleb Armstrong, Drake Lord, Thor Harrbot, Alex Longoria, Nathan Kelly, Dalton Delude
Freshman (8) – Ashton Shockman, Brannon Tangquist, David Threatt, Caden Boike, Mason Owens, Jordan Brunelle, Carter Coauette, Blake Melsa
Eighth graders (6) – Lincoln Waldal, Brandon Colborn, Jack Everett, Matt Contreras, Michael Bochow, Parker Kelly
Seventh graders (8) – Tim Brule, Conner Maruska, Makoti Weber, Zachariah Plante, Tristan Sundquist, Ryker Arnold, Evan Shockman, Jay Reese
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I am still waiting for Pirate Girls Tennis and Pirate Girls Swimming rosters. I hope to have them next week.
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I have received a lot of texts and emails over the past few days wondering why Minnesota Morris was able to get a nice football stadium and UMC never did.
First, Morris built the stadium well over 10 years ago. They got new turf this summer
Second, according to the US News and world report – Morris has an enrollment of 1,500 students and an endowment is $15.6 million dollars. UMC has a reported enrollment (according to The UMC website) of approximately 1800 last year. This year it is down to around 1,650 with about 650 on-campus. The official numbers aren’t in yet. UMC has an endowment around 17 million according to US News and world report.
Morris was the perennial door mat along with UMC when they were in the NSIC. Morris dropped to Division 3 and has had a lot more success than UMC and I am sure that helps. They also have worked with the high school and had the novel idea to split the nicknames and colors of both the high school and college to maximize community support. UMC hasn’t had a lot of community support because they have never really cooperated with the school or community in the past when it comes to projects like this. They tried to raise money for turf but never came close to hitting a quarter of what they needed. Part of the problem was the community support was minimal because they weren’t working with the school district and businesses weren’t excited since the Pirates play on the field too.
So there isn’t one reason. Well, it doesn’t matter now because UMC doesn’t have football anymore and I am thinking Crookston School District will need to go to the voters to get a field of their own in the next year or two at the high school.
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JOKES
An old man was sitting on a bus. A young man sat down beside him. He had spiked hair in all different colors: green, red, orange, blue, and yellow. The old man just stared.
Every time the young man looked, the old man was staring. The young man finally said sarcastically, “What’s the matter old timer, never done anything wild in your life?”
Without batting an eye, the old man replied, “Got drunk once and had sex with a parrot. I was just wondering if you were my son.
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Dolly Parton and Queen Elizabeth went to the Pearly Gates on the same day.
They both met with an Angel to find out if they would be admitted to Heaven.
The angel said “Unfortunately, there’s only one space in Heaven today so I must decide which one of you will be admitted.”
The Angel asked Dolly if there was some particular reason why she should go to Heaven. Dolly took off her top and said, “Look at these, they’re the most perfect breasts God ever created and I’m sure it will please God to be able to see them every day, for eternity.”
The Angel thanked Dolly, and asked Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the same question.
The Queen walked over to a toilet, pulled the lever and flushes it without saying a word.
The Angel immediately said, “OK, your Majesty, you may go into Heaven.”
Dolly was outraged and asked, “What was that all about? I showed you two of God’s own perfect creations and you turned me down. She simply flushed a commode and she got admitted to Heaven! Would you explain that to me?
“Sorry, Dolly,” said the Angel, “but even in Heaven, a royal flush beats a pair – no matter how big they are.”
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Chuck Norris once sued Burger King after they refused to put razor wire in his Whopper Jr, insisting that that actually is “his” way.
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What is it called when a chameleon can’t change its colors anymore?
A reptile dysfunction.
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How are former Crookston Pirates athletes doing in college or elsewhere?
****LET ME KNOW OF OTHERS TO ADD TO THE LIST email me at chrisjfee@yahoo.com
Paul Bittner is playing for the Cleveland Monsters, the AHL affiliate of the Columbus Bluejacket.
Brady Heppner, is playing hockey for the Roanoke Raildogs in the SPHL.
Aleece Durbin, is a Junior on the University of North Dakota Women’s Track and Field team.
Brita Fagerlund, is a Senior on the University of Jamestown Jimmy Women’s Track team.
Ben Trostad, is a Junior member of the University of Minnesota Crookston golf team.
Elise Tangquist, is a Senior golfer for the University of Northwestern in St. Paul.
Mason LaPlante, a sophomore, is playing soccer at the University of Jamestown.
Rachel Hefta, a sophmore, is playing volleyball at Hastings College in Nebraska.
Cade Salentine is a redshirt Freshman playing football at the University of North Dakota.
Nick Garmen, is a sophomore playing basketball and tennis at the University of Minnesota Morris.
Caden Osborn, is a freshman playing basketball at the University of Minnesota Morris.
Thea Oman, a sophomore, is swimming at St. Ben’s.
Crookston School District Coaches –
Jeremy Lubinski is a Pirate 8th Grade Football coach.
Amy Boll is the head Pirate Girls Track head coach and assistant volleyball coach
Sarah Reese is the Pirate Head Girls Soccer coach
Cody Brekken is the Head Pirate Girls and Boys Tennis coach and Crookston Community Pool Supervisor
Marley Melbye is the Head Girls Swimming coach
Mitch Bakken is the head Pirate Baseball coach.
Brock Hanson is the Pirate Baseball volunteer assistant coach.
Jeff Perreault is the Pirate Girls Golf head coach
Wes Hanson is the Pirate Wrestling Head Coach and assistant boys golf coach
Kevin Weber is a Pirate Boys Basketball volunteer assistant coach
Connor Morgan is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Sam Melbye is the Pirate Boys J.V. Hockey coach
Chris Dufault is a youth wrestling Coach
Blake Fee is an assistant wrestling coach
Colton Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach
Non-Crookston High School coaching –
Cody Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach at Proctor/Hermantown
Kaylee Desrosier is a softball coach for Fargo Davies Middle School.
Justin Johnson is an assistant softball coach at the University of Minnesota Crookston.
Josh Edlund is an assistant football coach and phy ed teacher at Flandreau, South Dakota.
Allison Lindsey Axness is Assistant Varsity Volleyball Coach in Champlin Park
Jeff Olson is Head Wrestling coach and Head Baseball coach at Delano.
Jake Olson is an Assistant Football Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Delano.
Carmen (Kreibich) Johnson, is Head Volleyball coach at Little Falls High School.
Katy Westrom, is Head Girls Tennis Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Monticello High School.
Matt Harris, is a Director of Athletics at the British International School of Houston.
Marty Bratrud is the Superintendent and High School Principal at Westhope High School.
Gordie Haug is an assistant football coach at the University of Wyoming
Mike Hastings is the Minnesota State Mankato Men’s head Hockey coach
Mike Biermaier is the Athletic Director at Thief River Falls High School
Stephanie (Lindsay) Perreault works with the North Dakota State stats crew for Bison football and volleyball and basketball in the winter. Stephanie’s husband, Ryan, is the assistant director for the Bison media relations
Jason Bushie is the hockey athletic trainer at Colorado College
Chris Myrold is a Tennis Pro on Nevis Island in the West Indies
Kyle Buchmeier is a Tennis Pro at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis
Jarrett Butenhoff is serving our country with the U.S. Navy
Joshua Butenhoff is serving our country on a Submarine with the Pacific Fleet with the US Navy.
Peter Cournia is a 2002 Crookston High School Graduate and also a grad of West Point and is currently is serving in the U.S. Army.
Erik Ellingson is serving our country with the U.S. Air Force at Minot.
Philip Kujawa class of 2004 from Crookston High School. He is an Army recruiter in Rochester.
Scott Riopelle is head of Crookston Parks and Recreation
Rob Sobolik is the General Manager of the Fargodome
That’s it for this week. Thanks for the comments and if you have anything to add or share, please e-mail chrisjfee@yahoo.com or call. Thanks for reading and listening to KROX RADIO and kroxam.com
