SPORTS FEEVER – Written by Chris Fee (chrisjfee@yahoo.com)
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at KROX! I hope you enjoy time with family and/or friends.
I am thankful for the following things.
- My wife Tiffany. She is the rock of our family. She is a great mom, great wife, an awesome hair stylist, and most importantly she has been very patient and understanding as a single wife during the winter sports season.
- You. If you are reading this column we have a lot in common. We love high school sports in NW Minnesota and I appreciate you reading each week and listening to KROX.
- Our sponsors. Without our sponsors, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do every day!
- Family. As we get older, I have realized our family tends to get closer. Maybe because we start to realize family is one of the most important things in life. Sports is minor compared to family, faith, and education.
- Last but not least, the KROX Crew. KROX has been lucky for decades to have some of the best employees possible. This year has been more of the same. We are lucky to have a great crew that works hard and is always willing to do whatever is needed. Without the employees at KROX we have NOTHING. So we are forever thankful and grateful for them!
Enjoy this week’s column and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
— — —
The winter sports teams are all underway and I asked the coaches for the rosters so far this season. The ones we have are below and we will post the rest next week (as I sent it out a little late on Wednesday).
The Crookston Pirate Boys Basketball team has 25 out for the team this year 9-12. They are listed below –
SENIORS (6) – Omar Petithomme, Ryan Abeld, Gavin Winger, George Widman V, Tanner Giese, Elliot Bartrum
JUNIORS (4) – Brannon Tangquist, Isaac Thomford, Caden Boike, Eli Schultz
SOPHOMORES (8) – Hunter Nicholas, Tyler Michaelson, Rylan Lubarski, Matthew Contreras, Jack Everett, Michael Deng, Brayden Peterson, Michael Miller
FRESHMAN (7) – Reggie Winjum, Carter Fee, Joshua Hesby, Gunner Groven, Makoti Weber, Peter Wiersma, Nolan Cassavant
— — —
Crookston Pirate High School’s Ethan Boll and East Grand Forks’ Caleb Zejdlik have been named to the Minnesota High School Coaches Association and Minnesota Viking 2022 All-Star Football game. The game is for seniors and will be held on December 10 at 6:00 p.m. at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Ethan Boll, a 6’2 210 pound senior, is listed as a running back and will wear the number 38 in the game. Ethan had 211 carries in 11 games while recording 1,481 yards. He averaged 7.02 yards per carry and also scored 25 touchdowns on the season. He will be going to play football next year for the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
Caleb Zejdlik, of East Grand Forks, was named to the team as a center. The 6’0 240 pounder will wear number 65. He announced this week that he will be playing college football next year at Valley City State.
Other area players on the team are –
Jonny Robideau of Barnesville (OL)
Victor Sosa of Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (DL)
Cullen Kratochvil of Pequot Lakes (LB)
Anthony Sykora of West Central Area (OLB)
Ethan Carrier of Detroit Lakes (DB)
— — —
Good news for former Crookston Pirate Football and Girls Basketball Coach, and UND Football National Champion Eric Schmidt!! On Tuesday, the University of Washington Huskies Athletic Department announced a contract extension to head football coach Kalen DeBoer through the 2028 season. In his first year, DeBoer has led the Huskies to a 9-2 record heading into the regular season finale Saturday at Washington State. Chances are they will beat Washington State and go 10-2 on the year and they should be in a pretty good bowl game.
Schmidt is an assistant coach on the staff and the entire staff had to be celebrating Tuesday evening!
— — —
University of North Dakota Women’s Basketball player and Roseau native, Kacie Borowicz was named the Summit League Women’s Basketball Peak Performer of the Week. Kacie averaged 27.5 points per game, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game!
— — —
Minnesota Hockey, in partnership with Park Dental, announced today the topic for the 2022 Minnesota Hockey Essay Contest. Once again, Park Dental will be the presenting partner of the Minnesota Hockey Essay Contest, which is an annual tradition that encourages players to express their thoughts on what makes youth hockey in Minnesota a fun, unique and positive environment.
All registered Minnesota Hockey participants are encouraged to enter the contest by completing the following: “My Favorite Memory/Experience In Hockey Was…”
The top three essays, as selected by the Essay Committee, will be featured during the Bally Sports North broadcast of Hockey Day Minnesota on January 28. All three finalists will also be featured in Let’s Play Hockey magazine. The contest winner will be selected among the three finalists and will receive a “Dream Day” experience on a Minnesota Wild gameday during the 2023-24 season. The “Dream Day” includes attending a Minnesota Wild morning skate, an hour of ice time at Xcel Energy Center and a group suite at a Wild game later that night.
The winner of the 2021-22 Minnesota Hockey Essay Contest was Kellen Prescott, a Squirt player in the Austin Youth Hockey Association. Kellen’s winning submission from last year can be found here.
Submissions will be accepted from November 15 through December 9. Original essays should be limited to 250 words or less, and should include the child’s name, hockey association, team/classification, address, phone number and email address.
Submissions can be sent to:
Minnesota Hockey
Attn: Minnesota Hockey Essay Contest
317 Washington Street
Saint Paul, MN 55102
— — —
The Crookston Pirate Winter Sports schedule has been updated again. To see the latest schedules, click below.
— — —
JOKES
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Salvatore Ferragamo loafers, Gucci sunglasses, and Hermes tie leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”
Bud looks at the man, who obviously is a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, “Sure, why not?”
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his MacBook Air computer, connects it to his RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to a SpaceX satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his iPhone 14 Pro that the image has been processed and the data stored.
Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized portable color LaserJet printer, turns to the cowboy and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”
“That’s right, so I guess you can go ahead and take one of my calves,” says Bud.
He watches the well-heeled young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the backseat of his car.
Then Bud says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back the calf?”
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”
“You’re a United States Congressman,” says Bud.
“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “But how did you guess that?”
“No guessing required,” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars’ worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about how working people make a living – or about cows, for that matter.
This is a herd of sheep, now give me back my dog.
He stops at a toy store and goes in and asks the sales person, “How much for one of those Barbie’s in the display window?”
The salesperson answers, “Which one do you mean?”
“We have, work out Barbie for $19.95, shopping Barbie for $19.95, beach Barbie for $19.95, disco Barbie for $19.95, astronaut Barbie for $19.95, skater Barbie for $19.95, and divorced Barbie for $265.95”.
The amazed father asks: “Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and the others only $19.95?”
The slightly miffed salesgirl rolls her eyes, sighs, and answers:
“Sir, Divorced Barbie comes with: Ken’s truck, Ken’s house, Ken’s fishing boat, Ken’s furniture, Ken’s dog, Ken’s computer, one of Ken’s friends, and a key chain made from Ken’s testicles.”
— —
— —
— — —
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
Jacey Larson is a freshman playing hockey at Dakota College at Bottineau.
Olivia Huck is a freshman playing soccer at Minnesota State Moorhead.
Brooks Butt is a freshman playing football at the University of Jamestown.
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.
Emma Borowicz is a sophomore running track at Minnesota State Mankato.
Kaleb Thingelstad is a sophomore playing golf at North Central University in the Twin Cities.
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.
Rachel Hefta is a Senior playing volleyball at Hastings College in Nebraska.
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 –
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.
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 with the Army and is deployed to Iraq for nine months.
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.
