SPORTS FEEVER by Chris Fee of KROX Radio – chrisjfee@yahoo.com
Welcome to the Feever column. Enjoy!
Here are my “Deep Thoughts” after the first week (of December) of winter sports.
Crookston Pirate Hockey is rolling right now. The Pirate Girls Hockey team just beat Warroad for the first time since 2007! That is right, the first win since 2007. It was a solid defensive performance from Crookston and an even better performance by goalie Kambelle Freije. She made 28 saves for the shutout win and give credit to the entire team for giving up the fewest shots to Warroad, probably since 2007! The girls played a solid game in a loss to Champlain Park/Coon Rapids on Saturday. Even though it was a loss, it was a great game for the Pirates. But the positives that came away from the game and knowing they were close to Warroad was a huge mental boost.
Crookston scored a goal early in the third period against Warroad and added an open net goal late for the 2-0 win. It was a huge win for the girls, and they deserve to celebrate it. The girls have taken some lumps against Warroad over the years, but their continued hard work and determination is what makes this win so sweet. The girls and coaching staff should be proud and continue.
With that said, it is a regular season game, and I know the girls will keep working hard and continue to improve as they have through the first handful of games. The improvement from game one to Tuesday has been impressive, and I look forward to seeing what these young ladies do over the next couple of months.
The Pirate Boys Hockey team has started the season with two big Section 8A victories! They beat Kittson County Central 5-1 and outlasted Red Lake Falls 7-5. Crookston is much improved and has shown that anybody on the ice can score, with five different players scoring in the first game and seven different players scoring in the second game. That is impressive and shows that they are a solid team with many weapons. The game against Red Lake Falls was fun to watch as it was fast-paced hockey. I always say you win with seniors, especially in boys sports, and Crookston has a solid group that has continued to get taller, bigger, and faster and a tight-knit group.
In all honesty, Crookston should be 4-0 going into the big game on December 15 at Detroit Lakes. We will get to see where the Pirates are with the fourth-best team in the section (behind the big three of East Grand Forks, Warroad, and Thief River Falls).
The boys play at home Thursday against International Falls (Coach Hardy’s alma mater), and on Friday, they host St. Paul Johnson in the battle for the Lions Cup!
I would like to mention some players, but I have to go with all the seniors because they are the leaders and have been getting it down as a collective group!
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The Pirate Boys Basketball team already has three games in and has given up an average of 85 points per game against Warren-Alvarado-Oslo, Pelican Rapids, and East Grand Forks. I am not a defensive specialist, but giving up that many points per game will not bode well in the wins and losses column. The one thing about defense is it comes down to effort, determination, being in shape (because defense is hard work), and anticipating (basketball knowledge). Crookston has turned the ball over a lot (over 20 turnovers in the last two games), and that has led to easy points for the other team. The boys will have to figure out how to stop penetration into the lane and take care of the ball to cut the points given up per game.
Hunter Nicholas has been a force inside and has scored just shy of 30 points in two of the three games and has grabbed well over 40 rebounds in the games. He is averaging a double-double, but they need to find somebody else that will help on the offensive end. The big guy can’t do it all!
The Pirate Girls basketball team has battled well without Halle Winjum. They picked up their first win of the season against Red Lake Falls on Tuesday and had a two-point loss to Grafton. They had a close game with Thief River Falls until they pulled away in the second half, but saw good things in all three games to build on. Naomi Johnson has been solid the last two games, Chloe Boll has been solid, and I really like Katelyn Christensen and the way she plays. She has shown solid improvement, and it is great to see her having a solid start to the season!
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The Pirate Wrestling team is 2-5 in duals on the year and has had a handful of open weights in all seven of those matches. They graduated a great group of kids last year but have two outstanding wrestlers, Carter Coauette and Gavyn Hlucny. Both are ranked in the state, and they are 5-0 so far this season. As the season goes along, the Pirates will add some more pieces to the lineup, and that will make them more competitive in the duals.
They will have their first individual tournament of the season when they host the Rod Olson Invitational tournament at the Crookston High School gymnasium on Saturday.
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Congratulations to Fertile-Beltrami Boys Basketball Coach Neil Steffes on getting the 500th win of his career this week. I am sure the veteran coach will say it’s because of the great players he has coached, but at the same time, he is a helluva coach and he is the reason his teams have been so good over the years.
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The first wrestling matches of the season took place over the weekend, and a lot of milestones were reached. I have ones from Section 8A and 8AA listed below-
Zach Thompson (Foston/Bagley) 100th career victory
Chance Abraham (Pequot Lakes/Pine River-Backus) 100th career victory
Griffin Lundeen (TRF) 219th win and 129th pin, both school records.
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The latest Minnesota High School sports rankings are available by clicking the link below.
Minnesota High School Rankings – KROX (kroxam.com)
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The 2023 Crookston Hockey Alumni games/scrimmages will be held Saturday, December 23 at the Crookston Sports Center. Johnny Holmes will be back again at the Eagles, and all players in the alumni games get in free.
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 – 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. – 2013 to 2023 alumni……..Odd vs Even
GAME 2 – 4:00 to 5:15 p.m. – 2012 and older alumni………… Odd vs Even
GAME 3 – 5:30-6:45………PIRATE GIRLS vs GIRLS ALUMNI
GAME 4 – 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 9 PM to 1 AM. Johnny Holmes performing and all alumni game players get in free.
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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The Crookston Pirate Winter Sports Schedules are available on our website. Click on the link below –
CROOKSTON PIRATE WINTER SPORTS SCHEDULES – KROX (kroxam.com)
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JOKES
Children were called upon a classroom to make sentences with words chosen by the teacher. The teacher smiled when Jack, a slow learner, raised his hand to participate during the challenge of making a sentence with the words “Defeat,” “Defense,” “Deduct,” and “Detail.”
Jack stood thinking for a while, all eyes focused on him while his classmates awaited his reply. Smiling, he then proudly shouted out, “Defeat of deduct went over defense before detail.”
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A tired U.S. Army veteran is looking for a seat on a busy British train. He can’t find a seat so he walks up to a British lady and asks “ma’am, may I use your seat?”.
The British lady responded with “Can’t you see my puppy is sitting here? How rude are you, Americans are.” .
The veteran walks off and tries to find another seat after a couple of minutes of searching, he walks back up to the lady and says, “Please, ma’am, may I have your seat. I am very tired.” .
The woman says, “How inconsiderate of you to ask me again.” the man then calmly walks up and throws the dog out of the train window, and sits down. The woman starts screaming and demanding that the man be punished, her husband walks up and says, “You Americans are doing everything wrong. You drive on the wrong side of the road, you use the wrong utensils to eat, and now you’ve thrown the wrong bit** out of the window.”
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Three guys die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, “We only have one rule here in heaven: Don’t step on the ducks!”
So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first guy accidentally steps on one.
Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest woman he has ever seen. St. Peter chains them together and says, “Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to the ugly woman!”
The next day, the second guy steps accidentally on a duck, and along comes St. Peter, who doesn’t miss a thing, and with him is another extemely ugly woman. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first guy.
The third guy has observed all this and not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly woman, is very, VERY careful where he steps. He manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to him with the most gorgeous woman he has ever laid eyes on: a very tall, tan, curvaceous, sexy blonde. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.
The guy remarks, “I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?”
She says, “I don’t know about you, but I stepped on a duck!”
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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
Halle Bruggeman is a freshman on the University of Wisconsin-Stout Women’s Tennis team.
Grace Fischer is a freshman on the Concordia College (Moorhead) Women’s Golf team.
Ethan Boll is a Freshman on the University of North Dakota Football team.
Breanna Kressin is a Sophomore on the Hockey Cheer Team for THE University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey team.
Emma Osborn is a Sophomore playing basketball at Northland Technical and Community College in Thief River Falls.
Jacey Larson is a Sophomore playing hockey at Dakota College at Bottineau.
Aleah Bienek is a Sophomore playing hockey at Trine University in Indiana.
Elise Tangquist is the Head Girls Golf Coach at Horace High School in Fargo, ND..
Kaleb Thingelstad is a junior playing golf at Kansas Wesleyan.
Joslynn Leach is a sophomore playing golf at Concordia College in Moorhead. The Cobbers wrapped up the Fall season.
Brady Butt is a Junior playing football at the University of Jamestown.
Ty Hamre is playing football at Bemidji State University.
Aleece Durbin is a Junior on the University of North Dakota Womens Track and Field team.
Elizabeth Erdman is a coach for the Moorhead Red Dragon swim team.
Crookston School District Coaches
Todd Miner is a Pirate Football assistant coach.
Ben Parkin is the head Pirate Baseball Coach.
Emily Meyer is the Pirate head girls hockey coach and softball assistant 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
Marley Melbye is the Head Girls Swimming coach and assistant girls golf 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/Admin/etc
Tim Desrosier is an Assistant Coach for Warren-Alvarado-Oslo Pony Boys Basketball
Pat Wolfe is the head wrestling coach for Fosston/Bagley.
Austin Sommerfeld is an Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Communication at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.
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.
Josh Edlund is the head football coach and phy ed teacher at Flandreau, South Dakota.
Allison Lindsey Axness is Assistant Varsity Volleyball Coach at Champlin Park
Jeff Olson is the 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) Horgen is the 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 Wisconsin Badgers Men’s head Hockey coach.
Mike Biermaier is the Athletic Director at Grand Forks Schools.
Stephanie (Lindsay) Perreault works with the North Dakota State stats crew for Bison football, volleyball, and basketball in the winter. Stephanie’s husband, Ryan, is the assistant director for Bison media relations.
Jason Bushie is the hockey athletic trainer at Colorado College.
Chris Myrold is the Director and Fitness at Mission Ranch and Fitness in Camel, California.
Kyle Buchmeier is a Tennis Pro at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis
Ben Andringa is serving our country in the Army and is now a Ranger.
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 a grad of West Point and currently 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.
