Crookston High School Girls Basketball player Emma Osborn has broken the school record for three-pointers in a season with 84 after four more threes on Tuesday night. Emma broke the record of 72, set by Sydney Epema (2007-2008 season), in a 68-48 victory over Pelican Rapids game on February 15. Every three Emma hits the rest of her career will be a new record and we are hoping she gets that record over 100!!!
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We are down to the final few days of the regular season for Girls Basketball and down to the final week-plus for boys basketball. We will take a look at the Section 8A and 8AA Girls Basketball standings going into the final games of the regular season.
Section 8AA girls QRF standings – Tie-breaker is currently 5.7 points with a projected margin of 6.1.
Rank – Team – QRF – Record
1. Fergus Falls (168.2) – 17-5 They will be #1 for sure
2. Crookston (118.6) – 21-3 If they beat BGMR and Breckenridge they might be able to get the #2 seed, if Perham loses one of their last games. Perham has the tie-breaker after beating Crookston during the regular season.
3. Perham (117.2) – 18-5 If they beat Brainerd they will for sure be #2 and Crookston will be three.
4. Menahga (110.0) 21-2 They seem to be a lock for the fourth seed
5. Hawley (103.2) 17-4 They look to be a lock for the fifth seed
6. Roseau (87.1) 19-6 It is looking like they will be the sixth seed if they win out.
7. Barnesville (81.6) 8-11 Barnesville looks to be the seventh seed.
8. Pelican Rapids (74.7) 12-10 They didn’t play Park Rapids and beat Waden-Deer Creek so it looks like they could be the eighth seed.
9. Park Rapids (69.7) 11-12 They will likely be the 10th seed as Wadena-Deer Creek beat Park Rapids in December for the tie-breaker.
10. Wadena-Deer Creek (68.4) 13-10 Will likely be the ninth seed with a win over WDC.
11. Thief River Falls (64.4) 10-11 It is looking like they will be the 11th seed. All they have to do is win two games and I think they get it. They split with EGF, have the same conference record, but a better overall record.
12. East Grand Forks (57.0) 8-13
13. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (45.8) 4-17 (It will be a toss-up for the 13th, 14th, and 15th seed with Red Lake and Frazee)
14. Red Lake (45.4) 4-12 (see above in DGF)
15. Frazee (44.2) 6-16
16. Warroad (31.4) 4-20 (They will be going to Fergus Falls in the first round the longest possible road trip in the section)
The Section 8AA Girls Basketball tournament which is seeded 1-16 this year will look like this –
First-round – March 3 at high seed
Quarterfinals – March 5 at high seed
Semi-finals – March 9 at Detroit Lakes High School
Championship – March 11 at 7:00 PM at Detroit Lakes or a site to be determined
Section 8A Girls QRF standings – Tie-breaker is currently 3.9 points with a projected margin of 4.3.
WEST SUB-SECTION
Rank – Team – QRF – Record
1. Stephen-Argyle (97.8) 17-3 (The Storm will be the #1 seed if they beat Fertile-Beltrami and Sacred Heart, no doubt)
2. BGMR (95.3) 18-5 (Looks like they will be the two seed)
3. Goodridge/Grygla (74.8) 14-7 (looks like a lock for the 3 seed)
4. Warren-Alvarado-Oslo (64.7) 13-8 (a lock for the 4th seed)
5. Kittson County Central (53.1) 10-12 (will be the fifth seed)
6. Northern Freeze (45.3) 8-15 (Should be the sixth seed)
7. Red Lake Falls (42.5) 7-16 (Will be the seventh seed)
8. Lake of the Woods (36.2) 2-17 (Could be the eighth seed, but if Climax-Fisher gets within the tie-breaker margin they would be the 8th seed)
9. Climax-Fisher (32.6) 6-17 (see above)
10. Sacred Heart (26.7) 2-21 (Probably a 10th seed, but a win over Stephen-Argyle on Friday would move them up to possibly 8th.
EAST SUB-SECTION –
Rank – Team – QRF – Record
1. Cass Lake-Bena (106.4) 22-2 (#1 is locked up)
2. Fosston (78.4) 17-4 (I am thinking Fosston will get the #2 seed if they win their last two games, but if they lose one and Fertile-Beltrami wins both or even one of their last two games, the Falcons would get the two seed)
3. Fertile-Beltrami (77.6) 19-5 (See above – a win over Stephen-Argyle on Thursday would assure them of the #2 seed)
4. Clearbrook-Gonvick (70.8) 16-5 (One of the hottest teams coming in with a 10 game winning streak. They have the tie-breaker over Mahnomen-Waubun so they will get the fourth seed)
5. Mahnomen/Waubun (68.1) 16-5 (Looks to be the fifth seed)
6. Kelliher/Northome (63.0) 15-5 (the sixth seed is a lock)
7. Red Lake County Central (63.0) 15-5 (Looks to be a lock for the 7 seed)
8. Blackduck (35.2) 6-16 (will likely be the 9 seed – Bagley has the head-to-head tie-breaker)
9. Bagley (33.9) 5-20 (See above)
10. Win-E-Mac (27.2) Will likely be the 10th seed.
The Section 8A Girls Basketball tournament starts with the play-in/First-round games (7-10 seeds playing) on March 1 at the high seed. The rest of the schedule is below –
Second round – March 3 at high seed
Quarterfinals – March 5 at Ralph Engelstad Arena in TRF
Semi-finals – March 7 at Ralph Engelstad Arena in TRF
Championship – March 11 at 7:00 PM at Ralph Engelstad Arena TRF
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The Section 8A Boys Hockey tournament is officially underway with the play-in games held on Tuesday night. Lake of the Woods upset Crookston with an impressive 6-0 victory and Park Rapids beat Bagley/Fosston.
The quarterfinals will be played Thursday evening and I only see one game being a contest and that will be the #5 seed Red Lake Falls at #4 East Grand Forks. This will be an interesting game because Red Lake Falls has some scorers and East Grand Forks has been allowing a lot of goals lately. You can hear the game on KROX Radio.
My picks are below –
Warroad over Park Rapids 9-0
Red Lake Falls over East Grand Forks 4-3
Detroit Lakes over Kittson County Central 5-1
Thief River Falls over Lake of the Woods 5-0
Semi-finals –
Warroad over Red Lake Falls 4-1 (I hope I am wrong, but Warroad is so good)
Thief River Falls over Detroit Lakes 4-2
Championship –
Warroad over Thief River Falls 3-2 possibly in OT
Thursday – February 24 (Section 8A Quarter-Finals)
7:00 PM – Park Rapids- at #1 Seed-Warroad-
7:00 PM – #5 Seed-Red Lake Falls- at #4 Seed-East Grand Forks-
7:00 PM – #6 Seed-Kittson County Central- at #3 Seed-Detroit Lakes-
7:00 PM – Lake of the Woods- at #2 Seed- Thief River Falls-
Saturday – February 26 (Section 8A Semi-Finals at East Grand Forks)
4:00 PM – 5/4 winner- vs 8/1 winner-
6:00 PM – 6/3 winner- vs 7/2 winner-
Thursday – March 3 (Section 8A Championship at East Grand Forks)
7:00 PM –
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Minnesota Youth Hockey has turned soft. I am not sure how you have only three or four teams playing A and 9 or 10 teams playing B, but it is happening. I still don’t understand how a program with only one team gets to elect to play a B schedule. Oh well, I guess some parents and youth hockey organizations would rather have their teams be competitive as 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders when nobody cares, instead of being more competitive in Varsity (when everybody sees the scores and cares how the team does.)
With that said, here are teams advancing to regions from District 16 (Northwest Minnesota) –
Bantam AA – Bemidji and Roseau
Bantam A – East Grand Forks and Warroad
Bantam B – Bemidji Blue and East Grand Forks
PeeWee AA – Bemidji and Roseau
PeeWee A – East Grand Forks
Peewee B – Hallock and Red Lake Falls
12UA – Bemidji and Roseau
12UB – Crookston
Crookston results from the district tournaments are below –
Bantam A – (ONLY 4 teams!!) –
Crookston lost to East Grand Forks 8-0
Crookston lost to Warroad 8-1 and was eliminated
Bantam B – 10 teams-
Crookston lost to Bemidji White 3-2 in a play-in game
PeeWee A – ONLY 3 Teams!!!
Crookston didn’t have a team
PeeWee B1 – 12 teams!
Crookston didn’t have a team
PeeWee B2 – 6 teams –
Crookston lost to Walker 11-1
Crookston plays Red Lake Falls on Saturday for 5th place.
Squirt A – 6 teams – (Tournament is March 5 and 6 in Bemidji)
Crookston doesn’t have a team
Squirt B – 10 teams (Tournament is March 5 and 6 in Baudette)
Crookston doesn’t have a team
Squirt B (a second tourney) – March 5 and 6 in Hallock –
Crookston plays Bagley and Bemidji Blue in pool play. Championship, 3rd place and 5th games are played on March 6.
12UA Girls Hockey – 5 teams –
Crookston doesn’t have a team
12UB Girls Hockey – 4 teams –
Crookston beat Bemidji 10-0
Crookston beat Roseau 9-0 and were the champs. The second-place game with Roseau and Thief River Falls was postponed to a later date.
10UA – 6 teams –
Crookston didn’t have a team
10UB – 3 teams – (Tournament is March 5 at TRF)
Crookston will play a round-robin with Thief River Falls and East Grand Forks.
As you can see, the number of hockey teams in northwest Minnesota continues to dwindle. Crookston only plays in the A division in Bantams. You are probably thinking to yourself, basketball and wrestling must be big in Crookston! Wrong. Numbers in basketball and wrestling aren’t great either. So what in the world is going on in Crookston?
Unfortunately, it isn’t just a Crookston problem. As you can tell by the number of teams in each district tournament, numbers are down in every sport in northwest Minnesota. Almost every Activity Director and coach I have talked to says numbers are down. Video games, COVID, parents not wanting to spend time and money on hauling their kids all over the area, etc seem to be the most popular thoughts.
Another reason why numbers are shrinking is because of lower enrollment and smaller families in northwest Minnesota. Instead of having five or six kids, people are having one, two, or three kids.
Another reason is youth sports are out of control with wanting kids to play the sport year-round, which is craziness. I remember my brother Andy and I were in basketball, hockey, and wrestling in 3rd through 6th grade (basketball was only 5th and 6th grade). I played on the PeeWee C team. yeah I was awesome at hockey!!! I loved being in all three sports. I would have done all three in high school if I could have. Kids can’t do that anymore and that is too bad because it was a lot of fun to be in all three sports, even if I could count all the holes in the ceiling at the old Crookston High School because I was getting pinned all the time in Park and Rec wrestling.
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JOKES –
A husband is at home watching a football game when his wife interrupts, “Honey, could you fix the light in the hallway? It’s been flickering for weeks now.”
He looks at her and says angrily, “Fix the light? Now? Does it look like I have a G.E. logo printed on my forehead? I don’t think so.”
“Well then, could you fix the fridge door? It won’t close right.” To which he replied, “Fix the fridge door? Does it look like I have Westinghouse written on my forehead? I don’t think so.”
“Fine,” she says, “Then could you at least fix the steps to the front door? They’re about to break.”
“I’m not a damn carpenter and I don’t want to fix the steps,” he says. “Does it look like I have Ace Hardware written on my forehead? I don’t think so. I’ve had enough of you. I’m going to the bar!”
So he goes to the bar and drinks for a couple of hours. He starts to feel guilty about how he treated his wife and decides to go home and help out. As he walks into the house, he notices the steps are already fixed. As he enters the house, he sees the hall light is working. As he goes to get a beer, he notices the fridge door is fixed. “Honey, how’d this all get fixed?”
She said, “Well, when you left, I sat outside and cried. Just then a nice young man asked me what was wrong, and I told him. He offered to do all the repairs, and all I had to do was either screw him or bake him a cake.”
He said, “So, what kind of cake did you bake him?”
She replied, “Hellooooo… Do you see Betty Crocker written on my forehead?”
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A woman was out golfing one day when she hit her ball into the woods. She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap.
The frog said to her, “If you release me from this trap, I will grant you 3 wishes.”
The woman freed the frog and the frog said, “Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes – that whatever you wish for, your husband will get 10 times more or better!”
The woman said, “That would be okay,” and for her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world.
The frog warned her, “You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis, that women will flock to.”
The woman replied, “That will be okay because I will be the most beautiful woman and he will only have eyes for me.”
So, KAZAM – she’s the most beautiful woman in the world!
For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world.
The frog said, “That will make your husband the richest man in the world, and he will be ten times richer than you.”
The woman said, “That will be okay because what is mine is his, and what is his is mine.”
So, KAZAM she’s the richest woman in the world!
The frog inquired about her third wish, and she answered, “I’d like a mild heart attack.”
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Sam has been in business for 25 years and is finally sick of the stress. He quits his job and buys 50 acres in Alaska as far from humanity as possible. He sees the postman once a week and gets groceries once a month. Otherwise, it’s total peace and quiet. After six months or so of almost total isolation, someone knocks on his door. He opens it and there’s a big, bearded man standing there.
“Name’s Lars …Your neighbor from forty miles away…Having a birthday party Friday … Thought you might like to come. About 5…
“Great,” says Sam, “after six months out here I’m ready to meet some local folks. Thank you.”
As Lars is leaving, he stops. “Gotta warn you…There’s gonna be some drinkin’.”
“Not a problem… after 25 years in business, I can drink with the best of ‘em.”
Again, as he starts to leave, Lars stops. “More’n’likely gonna be some fightin’ too.”
Sam says, “Well, I get along with people. I’ll be there. Thanks again.”
Once again Lars turns from the door. “I’ve seen some wild sex at these parties, too.”
“Now that’s really not a problem,” says Sam. “I’ve been all alone for six months! I’ll definitely be there. By the way, what should I bring?”
Lars stops in the door again and says, “Whatever you want, just gonna be the two of us”.
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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
Emma Boll, a freshman, is playing softball at Northwestern University in St. Paul.
Emma Borowicz is a freshman running track at Minnesota State Mankato.
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 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 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.
