SPORTS FEEVER by Chris Fee of KROX Radio – chrisjfee@yahoo.com
We have Father’s Day coming up, and I would like to say a big THANK YOU to my dad, Frank Fee, for everything he has done for me. He has shown me what hard work is, what dedication is, how not to handle stressful situations (haha), and so much more. I still have people telling me to say hi to my dad after an interview or after chatting.
The day after Father’s Day, Juneteenth, is a special day in my household. Tiffany and I will celebrate our 19th (golden) anniversary on June 19. It has been 19 years of peaks and valleys, especially with four kids and two people working too much.
I am fortunate to have such an amazing wife that is the best mom, friend, and wife.
I count my blessings every day, hope she doesn’t wise up, and realize she could do WAAAAAYYYYY better and leave me. I am a lucky guy and can’t wait for another 19-plus years.
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A big congratulations to the Fosston Greyhound baseball team and coaching staff on advancing to the Class A State Baseball Championship game on Friday! Fosston started the state tournament with an 11-1 six-inning victory over Legacy Christian Academy (who had one player going to the U of Sioux Falls, and one player going to UMC!)
Fosston’s lineup has eight seniors in it, and they have been mashing the ball and that has led them to a state championship.
It is great to see the team make it to the big game because Ryan Hanlon and his staff are nothing but great guys that pour their heart, time, and efforts into the program, and they won their first-round game at state for the first time and now they are a win away from winning it all!
Speaking of great programs and coaches, the Perham Yellowjackets are representing Section 8AA in fin fashion with two wins and a trip to the state championship on Friday. Coach Mulcahy has another outstanding team, and now they are in the championship game.
Good luck to both teams, and they are definitely two teams that all of NW Minnesota can cheer for!
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The 20th Annual Pirate Pride Golf Scramble will be held Friday, July 14 at Minakwa Golf Course. Registration will be at 9:00 a.m. and a shotgun start at 10:00 a.m. Lunch will be served.
The cost is $100 per team ($400 per team of four) and includes 18 holes of golf, t-shirt, lunch, mulligans/grenades, skins game, and tee game on hole 8. There will be a few additional games on the course during play.
If you want a cart, you will have to call Minakwa to reserve a cart at 218-281-1773.
Golfers must be 18 years of age or graduated from high school. All proceeds help support Crookston Pirate Athletics.
To register, contact Steve Kofoed at 320-290-9904 or email stevenkofoed@isd593.org.
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We were saddened to hear the news that longtime Perham Yellowjacket football and recently Wadena-Deer Creek coach Howie Kangas passed away this week.
He was one of the all-time greats in our area. Besides being a coach, Howie officiated many basketball and baseball games.
When he was coaching football, you never knew if his team was going to punt or go for it on fourth and long. He kept opposing coaches guessing and you had to be prepared for everything when you played a Howie-coached team.
He was a character and a great guy and will be missed.
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The All-Section 8AA Softball team has been announced, and they are below –
Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (State Champions) Skylar Spessard, Ellie Boyd, Autumn Leach, Makayla Bjelland
Hawley– Eagan Hasting, Addi Sanvik, Alex Guderjahn
Breckenridge/Whapeton–Mia Dodge, Irella Bautista, Adi Dodge
Park Rapids-Allie Rowland, Mickey Clark
Barnesville–Lexi Bontejes, Kailey Olson
Thief River Falls-Natalie Novak, Sophia Kraemer
Roseau–Rebecca Wensloff
Wadena-Deer Creek–Jenna Dykhoff
Crookston–Emily Bowman
Perham–Brianna Hofmann
Frazee–Faith Hamn
East Grand Forks-Karlee Walsh
Fergus Falls–Rylynn Krein
Warroad–Abbey Reule
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Northwest Minnesota has some pretty good high school softball!!! That is an understatement as the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Rebels won the Class AA state championship and Badger/Greenbush-Middle River finished Class A state runner-up.
Congratulations to both teams on a fantastic season and representing NW Minnesota!
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There are two active high school softball coaches that have over 400 career wins.
Kent Christian (BGMR) wrapped up his 28th season and is now 480-195 in his career. I would say there is a pretty good chance he could hit 500 next year!
Steve Radniecki (NCE/UH) wrapped up his 27th season and is now 418-163.
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Red Lake Falls’ Gabby Casavan and Jayden Breiland, along with Kinsley Hanson from Badger/Greenbush-Middle River, played in the class A All-Star game in Mankato on Sunday, June 11. To be selected for the team, each girl was nominated by her head coach and voted to the team by all of the class A coaches in Minnesota. The three were placed on the same team, and they won both games.
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Congratulations to Gary Kotts and Ben Miska on being named the Co-Section 8A Girls Track and Field Coaches of the Year. A much-deserved honor for the two great coaches and even better people!
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I was a little surprised to see that Hawley High School and NDSU grad Ben Ellefson announced his retirement a few weeks ago.
In Ben’s social media announcement, he said injuries are part of the game, and although they are a big reason for me moving on, I am fortunate to be in a spot where I can still walk away from the game as a player, ready to tackle whatever is next in my life.
Congratulations to Ben on a solid NFL career, and best of luck in his future endeavors.
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Congratulations to Red Lake Falls’ Alex Gullingrud on receiving the USA Hockey Disabled Hockey Player of the Year award at the USA Hockey Awards this past weekend.
If you don’t remember Alex’s story, here is a recap. Alex, the son of Mike and Nikki Gullindrude lost his leg due to cancer. The loss of the limb hasn’t stopped him from living life and competing in athletics. He joined a sled hockey team and the rest is history!
The story below is from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Bill Grommesh is always on the lookout for new sled hockey players. But the fact Grommesh was able to see Alex Gullingsrud as he played wheelchair baseball last summer was as much chance as it was miraculous.
“It was just very clear that he had the drive and the commitment and the strength to make a very bad situation into a good situation,” said Grommesh, executive director of Hope, a nonprofit in Fargo, North Dakota-Moorhead, Minnesota, focused on adaptive sport. “From the first time seeing him in sled hockey, you just knew that he needed that and that he was going to be successful with it and that he was going to be very impactful.”
His impact on sled hockey and those around him continues to be great as Alex, who turned 10 in February, won USA Hockey’s Disabled Athlete of the Year Award. Alex will be honored at the President’s Award Dinner in Denver on June 9.
To understand why Alex was playing wheelchair baseball in Grand Forks, North Dakota, an hour west of his home in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, is more complicated, especially for someone who a year before thought everything in his life was fairly normal.
During the summer of 2021, an 8-year-old Alex was playing baseball — he also played football and basketball — and on a team up a couple age levels. But for some of the summer, Alex complained about his right leg hurting.
At first, Alex’s parents, Nikki and Mike, took him a handful of times to a local chiropractor, who knew whatever was causing this pain was serious but out of his scope. The next set of doctors they saw — two hours away at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo — were quick to diagnose what was causing the pain: Alex had a cancerous tumor bigger than a softball in his right hip bone.
Those results were shared with the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Doctors at Sanford said it would be a couple days for Mayo specialists to be in contact. But it was only the next morning when they called the Gullingsruds. Alex’s story had been brought to the table for Mayo doctors to discuss and they knew it needed immediate attention. Later that day after a six-hour trip, they were at the Mayo Clinic where the Gullingsruds got the news they had dreaded.
“It was osteosarcoma in his hip and it had metastasized to his lung,” Nikki Gullingsrud said. “The oncologist there — we’ve been blessed with the best of everything we’ve had — and she just said his prognosis was not hopeless but they would do what they could.”
Chemotherapy treatments hoped to shrink the size of the tumors so they would be easier to remove. It didn’t work. In fact, the tumors had grown, so doctors said it was best to proceed with surgery and needed to do it soon. Not just any surgery, a hemipelvectomy in which Alex’s right leg was amputated. It took 12 hours at the Mayo Clinic. About five days later, he began the difficult task of relearning how to walk.
“He kind of never really questioned anything other than, ‘Why did God choose me to have this tumor?’ Nothing,” Gullingsrud said. “Never the pity party me, it was just, ‘OK, I have to get up and walk.’”
Alex continued to have chemotherapy and celebrated turning 9 in February 2022. But then came more horrific news. Scans revealed more tumors in his right lung. Another surgery was needed.
“They removed the original one and then they picked out with their hands all the ones that they could in that lung,” Gullingsrud said. “They came out and said, ‘You know, he’s lit up like a Christmas tree’ in his lung with the contrast that they put in his lungs and it’s just going to be a matter of time and it’ll just overtake him.”
There was another lung surgery. As Alex returned to school the following week, his parents had a conversation with the oncologist. There was no improvement. The oncologist said Alex only had “a few months” left to live.
It took a toll on everyone.
“We were walking through [life], we felt like we were in a fog,” Gullingsrud said. “It just felt like we were living in a nightmare. We couldn’t wake up.”
Then came more unexpected news. Only this time, it was the best possible kind. And it came right after that 45-minute conversation with the oncologist.
The Gullingsruds got a call from the lung surgeon that had operated on Alex who told them everything they pulled out from his lungs besides the main tumor was an infection.
“They said his story is the closest thing they’ve ever seen to a miracle in medicine,” Gullingsrud said.
After watching the second oldest of her four children go through the unimaginable, Gullingsrud said that was the first moment of relief she had felt in months.
Chemotherapy continued into June. Then it stopped. On July 1, 2022, Alex rang the bell at the Sanford Roger Maris Cancer Center in Fargo, signifying that he was cancer-free.
Being the active kid that he is, he needed an athletic outlet for his energy. After all, his parents are basketball coaches and all his siblings — Ben, 14, Gracie, 7, and Corin, 3 — are all active. Ben wears No. 12 in Alex’s honor whatever sport he plays; he was 12 when Alex had the 12-hour amputation surgery.
Other than living in Minnesota, America’s hockey hotbed, hockey was not a sport the family was involved with, much less sled hockey. They were a basketball family. But Alex was introduced to sled hockey and immediately fell in love, despite a few obstacles.
“I like that it’s something that I can do,” Alex said. “In baseball, it’s a little hard to hop the bases. In basketball, it’s sort of hard to run down the court. [Sled hockey] it’s like easy to do.”
He hasn’t been involved with the sport for a year yet, but he already lived out a dream. The NHL’s Minnesota Wild invited him to carry the team flag to center ice and pump up the crowd during the pregame festivities.
“He loved that,” Gullingsrud said. “He thought it was awesome. And then when we actually got down there for the real thing, it was like his eyes were about bugging out of his head.”
Now, because of the fight, the emotional strength and ever-present energy — even in crisis, he was helping younger kids with their reading and writing — Alex is being honored by USA Hockey.
“I don’t think we even all understand the honor and the hugeness of this USA Hockey Disabled Athlete of the Year Award,” Gullingsrud said. “But we looked over and his 7-year-old sister was just sobbing, and I was like, ‘Oh, are you tired?’ And she goes, ‘No, I’m just so proud of Alex.’”
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The Crookston High School weight room will be open these days and times through the summer months.
Monday – Friday
9th-12th grade
6:30am – 8:00am (Group 1)
8:00am – 9:30am (Group 2)
Monday – Thursday
10:00 am – 11:00 am – 6th-8th grade (this group should come a maximum of 3 days, if you attend on Tuesday, do not attend on Wednesday and vice versa)
Summer is a great time to work on becoming a stronger and more confident athlete/person! “DON’T BE AFRAID TO WORK HARD ENOUGH TO FIND OUT HOW GOOD YOU CAN REALLY BE.”
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JOKES
In honor of Fathers Day, I have posted some dad jokes.
Thought I saw my first ever real-life superhero today. He was running down our street wearing a cape…It turns out he hadn’t paid for his haircut!
How many crime writers does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but it has to have a really good twist at the end!
What do you call a cow with a twitch? Beef jerky!
My wife called me and said, I’ve found a dead bee in the sink. What do I do? I said, “Get a spoon and flush it down the toilet. A few minutes later she said, I’ve done that, but what about the bee?
What do you call a factory that makes okay products? A satisfactory.
I recently joined a support group for people who talk a lot. We call ourselves On and On Anon.
I yelled Cow! at a woman on a bike…She gave me the finger. Then she ran into a cow.
How does the moon cut his hair? Eclipse it.
What did the zero say to the eight? That belt looks good on you.
What’s the best thing about Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.
What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing, it just let out a little wine.
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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
Breanna Kressin is a Freshman on the Hockey Cheer Team for THE University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey team.
Emma Osborn is a freshman playing basketball at Northland Technical and Community College in Thief River Falls.
Jacey Larson is a freshman playing hockey at Dakota College at Bottineau.
Olivia Huck is a freshman playing soccer at Minnesota State Moorhead.
Aleah Bienek is a freshman playing hockey at Trine University in Indiana.
Elise Tangquist is the Assistant Girl’s Volleyball and Assistant Girl’s Golf Coach this year at Heritage Christian Academy in Maple Grove.
Kaleb Thingelstad is a sophomore playing golf at Dakota 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.
Paul Bittner is playing professional hockey in Norway.
Kate MacGregor is 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.
Elizabeth Erdman is a coach for the Moorhead Red Dragon swim team.
Crookston School District Coaches –
Ben Parkin is the head Pirate Baseball Coach.
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/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 is the Head Girl’s 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 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.
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