SPORTS FEEVER by Chris Fee of KROX Radio – chrisjfee@yahoo.co— — —
Last week was bitter-sweet as the last kid of mine played high school sports after the Crookston Pirate Boys Basketball team lost to the Perham Yellowjackets. While it was sad, and after having four kids go through playing basketball, tennis, baseball, and football, and all of them were multi-sport athletes, it stunk to have the last one finish his career. The Pirates lost, but I was proud of Carter and how he finished his career. He left everything out there and hustled and played hard and finished his Pirate career with 23 points, 5 rebounds, four steals and four assists. He can feel good about playing his butt off in his last game. He has had a tough past year with a lot of things going on, but he has grown up as a young man, matured more than I ever thought he would and I am so proud of him. He sent a picture of his honor roll certificate and was so proud as he has been working hard on getting good grades and has taken school seriously the last two years. So great job Carter, you have a lot to be proud of.
Also, it marks the end of an era as Reggie Winjum wrapped up his high school basketball career, and it will be the last time in many years that a Winjum will play basketball for the Pirates. The good news is that Reggie will be at UM-Crookston next year, and we will still be able to watch many of his games. We were lucky to have the WInjums on the Pirate teams over the years. They are great kids and have great parents and are a terrific family.
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The Section 8A Boys Basketball championship is set with the defending champion, Red Lake County Rebels, looking impressive on Wednesday evening as they cruised to a big win over the Northern Freeze, and the Stephen-Argyle Storm outlasted the Fertile-Beltrami Falcons in a battle. Red Lake County is now 27-3 on the year, while Stephen-Argyle is 24-6.
Red Lake County and Stephen-Argyle met twice during the regular season, with Red Lake County winning the first meeting 72-34 back on January 27. Stephen-Argyle won the second meeting 71-47 on February 20. Red Lake County lost to the Storm, and the next night, they were beaten by double digits by Fertile-Beltrami.
So what should we expect on Friday night in the Championship? Excellent question.
Right now, Red Lake County is playing some great team defense and has allowed only nine points in the second half of the quarterfinal win and only 15 points to the Northern Freeze in the semi-final win. They wear teams down mentally and physically. On the offensive end, they can have any of their five starters light you up for 20-plus points. Obviously, the Stephen-Argyle Storm are playing solid basketball, and they have athleticism, tough, strong kids that make it tough for other teams.
It is going to be a great game and KROX Radio and KROX TV will have the game with a pre-game starting at 6:00 p.m.
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The Section 8AA Championship is set, and the red-hot Perham Yellowjackets are rolling. They will take on the Staples-Motley Cardinals for a trip to state on Friday at Concordia College in Moorhead. Perham is playing their best basketball of the season in the second half and even better in the playoffs. They beat Crookston 96-68 in the first round, hammered Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 72-45 in the quarterfinals, and beat #1 seed East Grand Forks 69-50 in the semi-finals. They have an outstanding combination of speed, athleticism, shooting, great defense and they are playing their best ball right now. Staples-Motley is coming off a double overtime win over Osakis and beat up on Thief River Falls 73-50 in the quarterfinals.
I am going to pick the Perham Yellowjackets to win by 15 in the championship, and like their girls’ team, they will be going to state!
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Congratulations to the Warroad Warriors and the Moorhead Spuds on their exciting State Championships. Warroad beat Hibbing/Chisholm in overtime. Moorhead trailed 4-1 and came back to beat Minnetonka 5-4 in double overtime!! The second straight sweep for Section 8! EGF and Moorhead won the state title last year!
Warroad Head Coach Jay Hardwick was on the 1996 state title-winning team and then coached the Warriors to a title 30 years later! Pretty cool for a class act! Congrats to Coach Hardwick and the Warriors on the state title. I found it surprising it was the first since 2005!
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The Moorhead Spud Football team has three players in the 2027 class commit to the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Football program. Taye Reich (5’10 190 lb. running back), David Mack (5-11 175 lb. wide receiver), Jett Feeney (6-1 190 lb quarterback)
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The State Wrestling Tournament had several area officials working the tournament in St. Paul.
Supervisor – Scott Snobl (Barnesville)
Officials-
Brian Bakke (EGF)
Corey Herlickson (Moorhead)
Scott Larson (Blackduck)
Brent Weller (Perham)
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The State Girls Basketball tournament has several area officials who will be working games this week. They are below-
Supervisors-
Brady Sylliaasen (Dilworth)
Jim Weinzierl (Park Rapids)
Officials –
Shannon Boen (TRF)
Matt Endreson (Moorhead)
Chris Heise (West Fargo)
Tracy Hinsz (Barnesville)
Ivan Hirst (Fergus Falls)
Kevin Kuznia (Stephen)
Meghan Palubicki (Fosston)
Kay Pederson (West Fargo)
David M Variano Jr. (Hatton, ND)
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The State Boys Hockey tournament had several area officials working the games. They are listed below-
Supervisor – Ron Storey (Warroad)
Officials –
Reid Huttunen (EGF)
Jack Kippen (Frazee)
Tanner Landman (Roseau)
Mike Lukkason (EGF)
Bazil Zuehlke (Bemidji)
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There will be a change to High School Volleyball rules in the fall –
High school volleyball teams will now be permitted to designate up to two libero players during each set, creating additional participation opportunities without needing to use a substitution.
In all, seven rules changes were recommended by the NFHS Volleyball Rules Committee at its annual meeting January 11-13. All rules changes were reviewed and approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.
Rule 6-4-2 was adjusted to allow for multiple liberos to be used by a team; however, only one libero can be in the game at a time. Prior to each set, a team may designate zero, one or two liberos on the lineup sheet.
Additionally, Rules 10-4-3a and 10-4-3d now clarify how a libero can be replaced due to injury or disqualification and two liberos have been designated. In 10-4-3a, if a libero is injured, a team may replace the injured player with the player they replace on the court or the second libero. It may also re-designate a new libero.
In 10-4-3d, if a libero is disqualified and two liberos have been designated, the disqualified player may be replaced by the player they replace on the court or the second libero. However, the team must continue to play with one libero.
The libero’s uniform was addressed in edits to Rule 4, with added Rule 4-2-1i(3) to note that the libero’s uniform bottom may be any color while adhering to all other uniform rules.
The rules committee addressed the actions on non-playing teammates in Rule 12. Rule 12-2-8b was added to more appropriately assess when a non-playing teammate enters the court while the ball is in play as illegal alignment and penalized with a loss of point/rally. A coach or team attendant entering the court while the ball is in play is still considered unsporting conduct, and a non-playing teammate may receive a conduct violation if they engage in disconcerting acts or disrespectful actions.
Rule 12-2-8m was added to prohibit the use of props in bench celebrations by non-playing teammates to promote good sportsmanship while preventing disruptions.
Other rules changes include:
· Rule 5-5-3b(21) – The second referee will now indicate a second warning at two minutes, 30 seconds between sets instead of 2 minutes, 45 seconds to improve pace of play.
· Rule 6-5-1 – Players on the serving team are forbidden to raise their hands above their heads during service until the ball has passed beyond the net.
· Rule 9-2-1 NOTE 1 – No player shall wear any audio (microphone) or video (camera) device during the match, aligning volleyball rules with other NFHS rules codes.
A complete listing of the volleyball rules changes will be available on the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org. Click on “Sports” at the top of the home page and select “Volleyball” and then “Rules.” The print version of the 2026-27 Volleyball Rules Book will be available for purchase in late April at www.NFHS.com, and the digital version will be available in April via NFHS Digital at www.NFHS.org.
According to the most recent NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, volleyball is the second-most popular sport for girls (trailing track and field) with 492,799 participants in 17,027 schools nationwide. In addition, there are 95,972 boys participating in the sport at 4,303 schools.
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Five former standout high school athletes, including baseball star Joe Carter and football standout Patrick Willis, along with volleyball stars Alisha Glass Childress and Jordan Larson and ice hockey standout Krissy Wendell-Pohl, highlight the 2026 class of the NFHS National High School Hall of Fame.
Joining the five former athletes are three high school coaches with a combined 23 state titles, two contest officials with a combined 110 years of service, one former state association administrator and one former fine arts educator. The 12 honorees will be inducted June 29 during the 43rd induction ceremony of the National High School Hall of Fame, which will be held at the 107th NFHS Summer Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Joe Carter, who hit the iconic walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays, was a phenomenal four-sport athlete at Millwood High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In addition to his baseball prowess, he helped the Millwood basketball team to three consecutive state championships. Patrick Willis was a football and basketball standout athlete at Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central High School in Bruceton, Tennessee, before his stellar career with the San Francisco 49ers.
Alisha Glass Childress and Jordan Larson are two of the top players in the history of high school volleyball. Childress still holds three national records from her days at Leland (Michigan) High School, and she went on to win three NCAA championships at Penn State University. Larson was one of the most celebrated players in Nebraska history at Logan View High School in Hooper, before her days at the University of Nebraska and an Olympic standout at the past four Summer Games.
Krissy Wendell-Pohl, the girls ice hockey phenom from Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is the other athlete in the 2026 class. Wendell-Pohl is the most prolific scorer in the history of high school girls ice hockey and continued her success at the University of Minnesota with two NCAA championships.
The three highly successful high school coaches in the 2026 class include Jan Barker, who led Amarillo (Texas) High School to 10 Texas University Interscholastic League Class 5A state volleyball championships in 31 years; David Gentry, the winningest football coach in North Carolina history who led Murphy High School to nine North Carolina High School Athletic Association Class 1A state football titles; and Flo Valdez, the multi-sport coach at Roswell (New Mexico) High School who finished her career as the outstanding volleyball coach at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas.
The officials in this year’s class are Burney Jenkins, a three-sport official from Georgetown, Kentucky, with 50 years of service; and Mary Lou Thimas, who for 60 years in Massachusetts has been the guiding light as an official in the girls sports of field hockey and lacrosse.
The final members of this year’s class are Steve Savarese, who led the Alabama High School Athletic Association from 2007 to 2021 after an outstanding 33-year high school coaching career; and Craig Ihnen, former director of the Iowa High School Speech Association for 28 years after 13 years as a classroom speech teacher.
Krissy Wendell-Pohl
Minnesota
After one of the best two-year stretches in any sport by any high school athlete, Krissy Wendell-Pohl established herself as Minnesota’s most celebrated player in girls ice hockey for her exploits at Park Center High School in Brooklyn Park from 1998 to 2000.
As a junior, Wendell-Pohl scored a single-season national record 109 goals and registered 30 assists. One season later, she set a still-standing national mark of 110 goals. She finished her two-year career with a national record 314 points. In that amazing two-year stretch of dominance, Park Center had a 54-1 record, which included the Minnesota State High School League state championship as a senior in 2000.
Some 25 years later, Wendell-Pohl’s name still appears more than a dozen times in the NFHS’ online National High School Sports Record Book.
Wendell-Pohl played boys hockey through her sophomore season but was intrigued when the MSHSL added girls hockey to its sanctioned sports, so she made the switch. The timing could not have been better for the awareness of girls hockey in Minnesota and eventually around the country. Thanks to Wendell-Pohl’s performances, a surge of participation in the sport occurred across the state.
Not surprisingly, a number of awards followed for Wendell-Pohl after her two-year stretch on the girls team, including being named Ms. Hockey in Minnesota in 2000. During the 2018-19 season, the MSHSL celebrated the 25th year of girls ice hockey and Wendell-Pohl was declared the top player of all time.
Despite her excellence in ice hockey, Wendell-Pohl was far from a one-sport athlete. At Park Center High School, she played tennis in the fall and was an all-state catcher in softball. She is the first girl to start at catcher in the Little League World Series.
Wendell-Pohl’s success continued at the University of Minnesota. She helped her team to back-to-back NCAA Girls Ice Hockey Championships in 2003 and 2004, and she was tournament MVP in 2004. In 2005, Wendell-Pohl received the Patty Kazmaier Award (Heisman Trophy for women’s ice hockey) and the Bob Johnson USA Hockey Award. In three seasons at the University of Minnesota, Wendell-Pohl had 106 goals and 247 points in 147 games.
In addition, Wendell-Pohl helped the U.S. women’s hockey team win a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2006 Games.
Wendell-Pohl has previously been inducted into the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame (2017), the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame (2019) and the Hockey Hall of Fame (2024).
Wendell-Pohl currently serves as an assistant coach at Hill-Murray High School in suburban St. Paul. Her husband, John Pohl, former University of Minnesota and NHL standout, is the school’s activities director and head girls hockey coach. Together, they led Hill-Murray to the MSHSL’s Class AA Girls Ice Hockey championship in 2025. Wendell-Pohl is also employed by the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins as a regional scout.
“Krissy not only wowed longtime hockey fans, she became an idol and role model for so many young girls across our state,” said Erich Martens, MSHSL executive director. “Her accomplishments motivated girls to give hockey a try and for years, girls grew up wanting to be the next Krissy Wendell-Pohl. While she was a fierce competitor, she also played with joy and embraced each opportunity and experience. As she went on to further pursuits, her leadership was always recognized, often serving as the captain, and her energy and love of the game remained fully evident throughout her career.”
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JOKES
In a certain suburban neighborhood, there were two brothers, 8 and 10 years old, who were exceedingly mischievous. Whatever went wrong in the neighborhood, it turned out they had had a hand in it. Their parents were at their wit’s end trying to control them.
Hearing about a priest nearby who worked with delinquent boys, the parents thought that they should ask the priest to talk with the boys. The priest agreed to talk with the boys and asked to see the younger boy first. So the mother sent him to the priest.
The priest sat the boy down across a huge, impressive desk he sat behind. For about five minutes they just sat and stared at each other. Finally, the priest pointed his forefinger at the boy and asked, “Where is God?”
The boy looked under the desk, in the corners of the room, all around, but said nothing.
Again, louder, the priest pointed at the boy and asked “Where is God?”
Again the boy looked all around but said nothing.
A third time, in a louder, firmer voice, the priest leaned far across the desk and put his forefinger almost to boy’s nose, and asked, “Where is God? The boy panicked and ran all the way home.
Finding his older brother, he dragged him upstairs to their room and into the closet, where they usually plotted their mischief.
He finally said, “We are in BIIIIG trouble.”
The older boy asked, “What do you mean, BIIIIG trouble?”
His brother replied, “God is missing and they think we did it.”
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A man with a piece of paper in his hand comes into an office where another man is sitting next to a shredding machine.
“Do you know how to operate this thing?” he asks. “I have an important paper here and I want to make sure this is done right.”
“Sure,” the other man answers. “Just put the paper in here and press this button.”
The first man does so, saying, “Great. And where do the copies come out?”
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Following an especially angry argument, Mr. and Mrs. Smith went to bed not speaking to each other. Needing to arise early the following morning, Mr. Smith left a note on his wife’s bedside table that said “Wake me at six.”
An exasperated Mr. Smith awoke at ten the following morning and rolled stiffly out of bed to see a note on his bedside table: “It’s six, you bum! Get out of bed!”
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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
Teagen Lubinski is a freshman playing football at St. Scholastica
Addie Fee is a freshman playing tennis and hockey at Wisconsin-Superior.
Kambelle Freije is a freshman playing hockey at Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Riley Helgeson is a freshman playing football at Northern State.
Emily Bowman is a freshman playing Softball at North Dakota State College of Science.
Halle Winjum is a sophomore playing basketball at Minnesota Crookston.
Blake Melsa is a sophomore playing soccer and baseball at Alexandria Tech
Jackson Reese is a sophomore playing soccer at Alexandria Tech
Matt Contreras is a freshman playing baseball at Concordia College.
Naomi Johnson is a freshman playing soccer at Alexandria Tech
Paul Bittner is an assistant coach on the University of Wisconsin-Superior Men’s Hockey team.
Reese Swanson is a sophomore playing hockey at St. Olaf.
Carter Coauette is a sophomore playing football at Minot State.
Isaac Thomforde is a sophomore playing Tennis at Northwestern College in St. Paul.
Halle Bruggeman is a Junior on the University of Wisconsin-Stout Women’s Rugby team.
Ethan Boll is a Sophomore on the University of North Dakota Football team.
Breanna Kressin is a Junior on the Hockey Cheer Team for THE University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey team.
Jacey Larson is a Junior playing hockey at Dakota College at Bottineau.
Aleah Bienek is a Senior playing hockey at Trine University in Indiana.
Ty Hamre is Senior playing football at Bemidji State University.
Seth Heppner – Head Coach of Men’s and Women’s Golf at Jessup University
Brady Heppner – Head Coach of Women’s Golf at UMC and Assistant Hockey Coach
Crookston School District Coaches
Blake Bergeron is the head Pirate Wrestling Coach.
Jason Cassavant is a Jr. High Baseball Coach and Head American Legion Baseball coach
Amy Boll is the head Pirate Girls Track head coach
Sarah Reese is the Pirate Head Girls Soccer coach
Marley Melbye is an assistant girls golf coach
Connor Morgan is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Ben Trostad is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Ethan Magsam is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Chris Dufault is a youth wrestling Coach
Non-Crookston High School coaching/Admin/etc
Elise Tangquist is the Head Girls Golf Coach at Horace High School in Fargo, ND.
Carmen (Kreibich) Johnson is the head Little Falls Volleyball coach.
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.
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 North Dakota.
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
Jaren Bailey is serving our country and is currently in the Marines’ Boot Camp.
Ben Andringa is serving our country in the Army and is now a Ranger.
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..
