Welcome to another edition of the Sports Feever column.
I have Gopher Basketball tickets for every men’s and women’s home game the rest of the season. If you would like to go to a game email me at chrisjfee@yahoo.com and let me know the game and date. All games are electronic now and I have four tickets for every game.
Merry Christmas from us at KROX.
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A reminder that the 2021 Crookston Hockey Alumni games/scrimmages will be held Thursday, December 23 at the Crookston Sports Center. A highlight this year will be after the games at the Crookston Eagles Club as Johnny Holmes will be performing until 1:00 a.m.
Alumni from Crookston Central High School, Crookston High School, Cathedral, and the Mount will be back/are invited back to participate in this year’s games. The schedule and info are listed below –
GAME 1……..4:00-5:15………… ODD vs EVEN
GAME 2……….5:30-6:45………PIRATE GIRLS vs GIRLS ALUMNI
GAME 3……..7:00-8:15……….PIRATE BOYS vs PIRATE ALUMNI
Cost – $10.00 (Make checks out to Pirate Hockey)
Social at the Crookston Eagles Club from 9PM to 1AM
Mail registration forms to
Steve Biermaier
PO Box 496
Crookston, MN 56716
or email steve.biermaierchiro@midconetwork.com
For the registration form click here.
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Section 8AA Girls Basketball is proving to be wide open once again this year. Perham has had a great start to the season and beat Fergus Falls. Hawley is the only team without a loss so far this season and six other teams have one loss.
The top team in the section, in my eyes, is Perham right now after they beat Fergus Falls. Fergus Falls is still the next best team followed by a tie for third with Crookston, Barnesville, Hawley, and Menahga.
There are a lot of big games coming up with Hawley and Crookston playing on Saturday. and many other big games in the next month.
I think no matter what happens, Fergus Falls will be the top seed with their schedule full of 3A teams that will give them bonus points.
This year’s tournament is seeded 1-16 and that will make some great quarterfinal, semi-final and championship games this year. I am excited for the 1-16 tourney format.
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Section 8A Girls Basketball has been interesting, but not surprising with the teams at the top early on.
In the East sub-section Cass Lake-Bena (the defending champ) is off to a 5-0 start and they are averaging a whopping 90 points per game.
Fertile-Beltrami is 5-1 so far this season with Fosston at 4-1, and Clearbrook-Gonvick is 3-1 so far. Those are some of the top teams so far.
In the west sub-section, Stephen-Argyle leads the way and has played arguably the toughest team any team in the section will play with a loss to Grafton in the season opener. Since that game, the Storm have won four games in a row. BGMR and Warren-Alvarado-Oslo are both 2-1.
According to the QRF – Cass Lake-Bena is the #5 ranked team, BGMR is #6, and Stephen-Argyle is ranked #7. Pretty impressive for the three teams to all be ranked in the top three. I would put good money on one of those three teams winning the section title this year.
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Section 8A Girls Hockey has Warroad at the top. Surprise, surprise. They are 8-2-1 and play by far the toughest schedule of anybody in 8A and possibly the state. Crookston is easily the #2 team in the section and we will find out for sure on Tuesday when they play EGF.
Warroad beat Crookston 9-1 so there is a huge gap between the top team and the next. The third seed will be a fight between EGF and TRF. The fifth seed will have Detroit Lakes and I-Falls battling for the spot.
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We will take a look at the Boys Section 8AA and 8A basketball, 8A Boys Hockey and wrestling.
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The NCAA has approved an expansion of the Division 1 Women’s Hockey tournament. 11 teams will make the tournament and the top five teams will receive first-round byes. The fifth-seeded team will play at the campus site of one of the top four seeds. Three first-round games will be played at the campus sites of three of the top four seeds in the tournament.
The winners of the first-round games will have a day off before playing in the quarterfinals. The tournament will stay on its current schedule since no weekends will be added with this format. The 2022 Women’s Frozen Four is slated for March 18-20 at Penn State.
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JOKES –
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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
Ben Trostad is a senior playing Men’s Golf at UMC.
Kaleb Thingelstad is a freshman playing golf at Kansas Wesleyan University. KWU is done for the fall season.
Joslynn Leach is a freshman playing golf at Concordia College in Moorhead. The Cobbers wrapped up the Fall season.
Brady Butt is a sophomore playing football at the University of Jamestown.
Rachel Hefta, is a junior playing volleyball at Hastings College in Nebraska.
Ty Hamre is playing football at Bemidji State University.
Paul Bittner is playing professional hockey in Sweden. He is the only American playing for Mora IK of the Allsvenskan league.
Gretchen Theis is a sophomore at NDSU on the Equestrian team.
Kate MacGregor is a senior swimming at Minnesota State Moorhead.
Aleece Durbin, is a Junior on the University of North Dakota Women’s Track and Field team.
Nick Garmen is a junior playing tennis at the University of Minnesota Morris.
Crookston School District Coaches –
Emily Meyer is the Pirate head girls hockey coach and softball assistant coach.
Lacia Hanson is the Junior High softball coach.
Jeremy Lubinski is a Pirate 8th Grade Football coach.
Amy Boll is the head Pirate Girls Track head coach
Sarah Reese is the Pirate Head Girls Soccer coach
Cody Brekken is the Crookston Community Pool Supervisor
Marley Melbye is the Head Girls Swimming coach
Brock Hanson is a Pirate Baseball volunteer assistant coach.
Ben Halos is a Pirate Baseball assistant coach.
Alex LaFrance is a 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
Colton Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach
Non-Crookston High School coaching –
Collin Reynolds is the head baseball coach for the University of Colorado Buffalo Club Baseball team.
Trent Stahlecker is a School Security Specialist & he works for the Brevard Public Schools, Florida
Cody Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach at Proctor/Hermantown
Kaylee Desrosier is a softball coach for Fargo Davies Middle School.
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.
Katy Westrom, is Head Girls Tennis Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Monticello High School.
Matt Harris, is an Assistant Principal/Athletic Director at Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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
Ben Andringa is serving our country with the Army in New York.
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.
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.
