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SPORTS FEEVER – December 19, 2019

Last week was an interesting week with UMC dropping football and Crookston Pirate Football coach Scott Butt resigning.  It is never a dull moment in our small little community of Crookston.

I received a lot of compliments on the Feever Column from a wide variety of people, so I appreciate that.  It took a lot of writing, deleting, re-writing, deleting, re-writing to get it where I wanted it.  This weeks column will be more of the same.  We are about six weeks from the girls hockey playoffs!!
Before I get into the column, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  2019 treated KROX and our staff well.  I hope 2020 can be better for all of you!  I appreciate all of you more than you know.  Thank you for reading and make sure you make 2020 the best year ever.

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I am compiling the annual A to Z end of the year column.   Feel free to email any of your ideas with names of people, teams, coaches, teachers, or things sports-related that start with a letter (A through Z) and I might use your suggestion.
Example from last year –
F – Frank Fee – He is the original master, a member of three Hall of Fames (Crookston High School, University of Minnesota Crookston and the Minnesota Broadcasters Association) and one of the best hockey play by play guys around. He is still helping KROX out and we appreciate it.

We will run the A to Z list on both December 26 and January 2.

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Crookston Pirate Football coach Scott Butt announced his resignation last week.

Before I talk about Scott, I wanted to talk about the amount of complaining about coaches I have heard this school year.   We have a societal problem and it just isn’t Crookston.  We have people complaining about the coach while their kid wasn’t in the weight room once in the summer, they weren’t going to camps, they weren’t working on their skills, getting more athletic, etc.
Not every team can be good, not every kid can be a starter, it is how you embrace your role and how hard you work that shows how successful your kid will be in the future.

Crookston Pirate Football Coach Scott Butt resigned last week.

I talked to Scott for over an hour earlier this week and he said he wasn’t ready to talk publicly yet.  He is going to wait and see what happens.  I have talked to several of the players and they are going to have a large crowd at the next school board meeting.
Remember, the school board doesn’t have to accept the resignation.  Stay tuned and we will have more on this in January.  There is a chance he will be back and there is a chance he won’t.  Right now I am judging it might be 50/50.

Three years ago, the Pirates won 7 games!  The last two years haven’t been as productive as far as wins go, but they won one more game than I thought they would this year, so it was a better year than expected with a very difficult schedule.  So the boys overperformed this year with the talent they have.

My son Blake, was fortunate to have Scott as a coach.  He treated Blake like one of his sons and maybe even a little better.  Blake really liked him as a coach and has spent a lot of time at the Butt household watching football and hanging out.  That is all the matters to me.  Did my kid enjoy his experience?  Blake did, so I don’t care about anything else including wins and losses.  Sports are entertainment, not life or death.  You get the same lessons win or lose.  He was in the weight room all the time, and he worked hard and that is all he can control.
Here are things I know about Scott –
1. He is a great guy.
2. He loves every one of those kids that play for him.  He treats them all like his own.
3. He would do anything for his players and Pirate athletics
4. He bought equipment for the team with his own money.  He purchased jersey’s, pants, helmets and many other things for the program because the Pirate football budget is a joke.

Here are some things I thought of while driving to Newfolden on Monday.

-The football team has a spending budget of somewhere around $3,700.  That stat alone tells me the school district is NOT serious about football.  They need new equipment like a five-man sled, and many other pieces of equipment that almost every other school has.
-The football program needs another coach or two.
-The Crookston High School weight room SUCKS.  It hasn’t been put together well, has terrible equipment, doesn’t have room if you have 20 kids in the room, etc.  They don’t have a variety of equipment.  I tried to work out after open gym on Sunday and gave up because it is so bad.
-The Crookston School District better be looking at options for a football field on their grounds!  UMC hasn’t taken care of the track (because they don’t have a need for it), now they don’t have a football team and if the Crookston School District thinks UMC is going to take care of it or trust the same UMC crew that has ripped up the track by using heavy equipment on it, you are crazy!

Crookston’s Superintendent Jeremy Olson has said he wants to strive for excellence and I love to hear it.  With that being said, the Crookston School District has a long way to go before we achieve excellence in our athletic department.  Here is my uneducated opinion on what they need to do to take steps toward achieving excellence.

  1. Have the Construction Trades class build a weight room (instead of building a house next year) off the back of the building.  You could raise the money to help fund it.  You could turn the current weight room into a plyo/cardio type of workout room, or something like that.  Put high-level treadmills like Perham in the space.
  2. Hire a strength and conditioning coordinator full-time (could also be an assistant coach for a sport or sports and teach a couple of classes, like strength training, exercise science, etc.).

That is two of the many things that need to be done, but the top two.

If you want to strive for excellence, the district has to pony up and be 100 percent invested.  Looking at how many sports are offered and the current participation rate is also needed.  There was talk in the summer about looking at the athletic offerings.  We haven’t heard anything more about this subject since the original talk.
If you know/think you need to cut sports because of low participation rates and don’t for one reason or another, don’t tell me you want excellence, because you are settling for mediocrity.
OR
Find a way to get kids out for the sports you offer and find out why kids aren’t coming out and fix the problem. One or the other needs to be done, hopefully, the latter.

So that is my take on what can/should/could/might/might not be done.

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Congratulations to Warroad’s Terry Sadler.  He has been selected to serve on the Minnesota Twins Community Fund Board of Directors for the next 4 years.

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Section 8A Girls Hockey standings (according to QRF – www.minnesota-scores.net)  (Section seeds are done by coaches, not QRF)

The section is all Warroad.  The only question we have….who is going to be 2-4.  Right now the QRF seems to have it right.  EGF, TRF, and Crookston in that order.

Team, record (QRF)
1. Warroad 9-3-1 (56.5)
2. East Grand Forks 6-4-0 (32.7)
3. Thief River Falls 4-6-0 (32.6)
4. Crookston 5-7-0 (28.2)
5. Detroit Lakes 2-9-0 (13.6)

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Section 8A Boys Hockey standings (according to QRF – www.minnesota-scores.net)  (Section seeds are done by coaches, not QRF)

East Grand Forks came into the season as the favorite, but most are saying Warroad might have the edge.  The cool thing about Warroad isn’t the team that has benefitted from several transfers.  We are in George Costanza’s bizzaro world.  It is crazy, people are actually rooting for Warroad this year!!!
It is fun to see Kittson County Central rolling early on and Red Lake Falls has a pretty solid line, but the lack of depth could hamper them against the big dogs.

Team, record (QRF)
1. Warroad 7-0-0 (57.1)
2. East Grand Forks 6-0-2 (44.6)
3. Thief River Falls 4-4-1 (43.5)
4. Kittson County Central 6-1-0 (37.9)
5. Lake of the Woods 3-4-0 (26.8)
6. Red Lake Falls 5-3-0 (22.0)
7. Detroit Lakes 4-6-0 (20.7)
8. Bagley/Fosston 2-3-0 (19.4)
9. Park Rapids 1-5-0 (10.3)
10. Crookston 0-7-0 (8.4)

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Section 8AA Girls Basketball standings (according to QRF – www.minnesota-scores.net)

The South sub-section has the top team with Fergus Falls.  They are playing a AAA schedule and that will give them the benefit in March.  Crookston and Roseau’s schedules have been weak so far (if you don’t believe me, look at the QRF), but that will change Thursday night when they play each other. Crookston will also play Hawley and either Coon Rapids or Fergus Falls over the holiday break. Pelican Rapids has had a good start and beat Hawley by one point on Tuesday.  I think it is safe to say five teams are at the top right now.

North – Team, record (QRF)
1. Hawley 4-1 (65.3)
2. Roseau 6-0 (61.0)
3. Crookston 7-0 (60.3)
4. East Grand Forks 3-3 (40.0)
5. Park Rapids 2-6 (23.8)
6. Thief River Falls 1-7 (17.0)
7. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 1-6 (15.9)
8. Warroad 0-8 (9.7)
9. Bagley 0-6 (9.3)

South – Team, record (QRF)
1. Fergus Falls 6-1 (120.5 – #1 in state)
2. Pelican Rapids 7-0 (70.1)
3. Perham 4-2 (47.7)
4. Breckenridge 3-4 (46.8)
5. Frazee 5-2 (45.0)
6. Wadena-Deer Creek 5-2 (41.1)
7. Barnesville 3-3 (39.4)
8. Staples-Motley 2-5 (33.8)
9. Menahga 4-4 (33.5)

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Section 8A Girls Basketball standings (according to QRF – www.minnesota-scores.net)

Section 8A is WIDE OPEN!  I would say there are still eight or nine teams that could fight for a section championship in March!  January and February will be interesting with a lot of big games coming up.  It is nice to see Warren-Alvarado-Oslo continuing their improvement.  They had some tough years and now they are currently on top of the West sub-section.  Red Lake County Central is also another team that had gone through lean times and is currently within a win overtaking over the top spot in the West.

West – Team, record (QRF)
1. Warren-A-O  4-0 (57.4)
2. BGMR 7-0 (54.7)
3. Red Lake Co. Central 6-1 (53.2)
4. Sacred Heart 5-2 (42.8)
5. Stephen-Argyle 5-3 (28.4)
6. Red Lake Falls (27.5)
7. Kittson County Central 4-4 (25.3)
8. Northern Freeze 2-5 (23.6)
9. Fertile-Beltrami 1-6 (10.8)
10. Climax-Fisher 0-7 (6.4)

East – Team, record (QRF)
1. Cass Lake-Bena 5-1 (40.8)
2. Clearbrook-Gonvick 5-2 (37.6)
3. Blackduck 6-3 (36.2)
4. Fosston 4-2 (26.2)
5. Lake of the Woods 3-4 (24.6)
6. Goodridge/Grygla 3-4 (18.7)
7. Win-E-Mac 2-6 (14.0)
8. Red Lake 1-5 (12.3)
9. Kelliher/Northome 1-4 (5.8)

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Section 8AA Boys Basketball standings (according to QRF – www.minnesota-scores.net)

Section 8AA Boys is really a two-team race with Perham and Fergus Falls.  Perham is fantastic again and they play the game the right way.  Fergus Falls plays a tough schedule and is right there.   The next two teams are East Grand Forks and Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton.

North – Team, record (QRF)
1. EGF 4-0 (60.4)
2. TRF 4-1 (45.4)
3. DGF 3-1 (35.6)
4. Bagley 3-2 (28.9)
5. Warroad 3-2 (27.9)
6. Crookston 2-4 (19.5)
7. Hawley 1-3 (13.6)
8. Park Rapids 1-6 (10.5)
9. Roseau 0-5 (4.6)

South – Team, record (QRF)
1. Perham 4-0 (83.6 – #2 in state)
2. Fergus Falls 4-1 (77.4 – #4 in state)
3. Frazee 4-1 (48.6)
4. Wadena-Deer Creek 3-2 (45.1)
5. Menahga 2-2 (43.4)
6. Barnesville 4-1 (43.3)
7. Pelican Rapids 3-2 (38.5)
8. Staples-Motley 2-2 (38.0)
9. Breckenridge 1-4 (9.6)

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Section 8A Boys Basketball standings (according to QRF – www.minnesota-scores.net)

No surprise, Ada-Borup is the top team so far.  And Neil Steffes has his Fertile-Beltrami Falcons playing some great defense and off to a 6-0 start and the sixth-best QRF in the state so far!  After watching them on Saturday, the Falcons are the real deal and as they solidify their offense (get more consistency) they will be right there all season.  Clearbrook-Gonvick is the top team in the east.  They are 5-0 and have the 8th best QRF in the state right now.

West – Team, record (QRF)
1. Ada-Borup 4-0 (63.5 – #1 in state)
2. Fertile-Beltrami 6-0 (54.3 – #6 in state)
3. BGMR 3-2 (49.3)
4. Kittson Co. Central 3-2 (41.0)
5. Stephen-Argyle 4-3 (32.0)
6. Red Lake County 3-2 (28.5)
7. Warren-A-O 2-2 (24.9)
8. Climax-Fisher 0-6 (5.3)
9. Sacred Heart 0-4 (4.9)

East – Team, record (QRF)
1. Clearbrook-Gonvick  5-0 (53.1 – #8 in state)
2. Red Lake 4-0 (45.0)
3. Cass Lake-Bena 3-2 (33.8)
4. Blackduck 4-1 (30.6)
5. Goodridge-Grygla 2-3 (25.6)
6. Fosston 1-4 (17.5)
7. Win-E-Mac 0-6 (5.1)
8. Northome/Kelliher 0-5 (4.9)
9. Lake of the Woods 0-4 (0.9)

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The University of Minnesota Crookston volleyball program announced the addition of Mara Weisensel (MH, 6-0, New Ulm, Minn./Minnesota Valley Lutheran H.S.) to a National Letter of Intent. Weisensel joins Kenzee Langlie (S, 5-6, Fargo, N.D./Fargo Davies H.S.) and Charlee Krieg (MH/OH, 5-9, Cavalier, N.D./Cavalier H.S.) as signees in the 2020 recruiting class for Head Coach Sarah Rauen and the Golden Eagles.
“We are very excited to add Mara to our team for next year, and can’t wait to see her in a Golden Eagle uniform,” said Head Coach Sarah Rauen. Mara is a dynamic player who will add plenty of athleticism to our middle position, and is a great addition to our team on the court and in the classroom.”

Mara Weisensel (MH, 6-0, New Ulm, Minn./Minnesota Valley Lutheran H.S.)
Weisensel was the New Ulm Journal Player of the Year in 2019. She was the Tomahawk Conference Player of the Year during her senior season. Weisensel helped Minnesota Valley Lutheran H.S. to a 24-2 mark as a senior. She was an All-Tomahawk Conference First Team pick during the 2019 season. Weisensel was also named All-Tomahawk Conference First Team in 2018. She was an All-Tomahawk Conference Honorable Mention selection as a sophomore in 2017.
Weisensel was born Aug. 28, 2002. She is the daughter of Loren and Dawn Weisensel. Weisensel plans to major in business management. Her mother Dawn Weisensel played volleyball and basketball at Martin Luther College. Her sister Rylee Weisensel played volleyball and ran track at Martin Luther College.

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JOKES

An elderly couple is vacationing in the West. Sam always wanted a pair of authentic cowboy boots. Seeing some on sale one day, he buys them, wears them home, walking proudly. He walks into their room and says to his wife, “Notice anything different, Bessie?”
Bessie looks him over. “Nope.”
Sam says excitedly, “Come on, Bessie, take a good look. Notice anything different about me?”
Bessie looks again. “Nope.”
Frustrated, Sam storms off into the bathroom, undresses, and walks back into the room completely naked except for the boots. Again he asks, a little louder this time, “Notice anything different?”
Bessie looks up and down and says, “Sam, what’s different? It was hanging down yesterday, it’s hanging down today and it will be hanging down tomorrow!”
Furious, Sam yells, “And do you know why its hanging down, Bessie? It’s hanging down because it’s looking at my new boots!”
Bessie replies, “Should’a bought a hat, Sam!”

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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. Paul didn’t play Friday in a 4-3 loss, and didn’t score while getting four shots on goal in a 3-1 loss to Wilkes Barre Scranton Friday and Saturday.  Cleveland will travel to Milwaukee on Friday and Rockford on Saturday.

Thea Oman, a freshman, is swimming at St. Ben’s.  St. Ben’s is off until January 17 when they travel to Gustavus.

Brady Heppner, is a Senior, playing hockey at St. Johns University in Collegeville. Brady didn’t score in a 7-5 loss to Concordia (Wisconsin) while having three shots on goal and a -4 rating and one penalty.  St. John’s is off until January 4 when they travel to Boston, Massachusetts to play Hobart.

Nick Garmen, is a freshman playing basketball and tennis at the University of Minnesota Morris. Nick didn’t play in a 91-76 loss to Crown College and didn’t play in a 89-78 victory over North Central on Saturday.  Morris will be off until January 4 when they travel to Presentation.

Aleece Durbin, is a Sophomore on the University of North Dakota Women’s Track and Field team.

Brita Fagerlund, is a Junior on the University of Jamestown Jimmy Women’s Track team.

Ben Trostad is a sophomore member of the University of Minnesota Crookston golf team.  The Golden Eagles will be off until the spring.

Isaac Westlake, is a Senior on the Winona State Warrior Men’s Golf team.  Winona State will be off until the spring.

Elise Tangquist, is a Junior golfer for the University of Northwestern in St. Paul.  Northwestern will be off until the spring.

Mason LaPlante, a freshman, is playing soccer at the University of Jamestown.

Rachel Hefta, a freshman, is playing volleyball at Hastings College in Nebraska.

Cade Salentine is a redshirt Freshman playing football at the University of North Dakota

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 an Assistant Wrestling Coach
Nate Merten is an Assistant Wrestling Coach

Non-Crookston High School coaching –

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

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